A Day at the Races
by Mike RossAttending the 1999 World Superbike races at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey California on July 10 afforded me the opportunity to see some of the most advanced four stroke motorcycles engines and chassis in the world today.
World Superbike racing has become the breeding ground for new technologies that hopefully will trickle down to the bikes that you and I will buy. Unlike the technology that comes from GP bikes which, at least up until now, has yielded little in the way of improvements on the production bikes, I saw several innovations at Laguna Seca that will undoubtedly make their way onto bikes that you and I can buy at the local dealership.
The pits were buzzing about the small metal canisters bolted to the spars on the Castrol Hondas. These canisters had small black hoses coming out of one end that went to the top of each fork cap. On the other end of each canister was a threaded shaft with a jam nut that seemed to offer the user some degree of adjustability. While I could not get anyone associated with the Castrol team to divulge the actual purpose of the canisters, I think that it's a fair bet they were there to increase the trapped air space above the fork oil.
For years off road riders have used that trapped air space to tune the forks response to large bumps. Normally this space amounts to roughly 6 inches of air space when the forks are completely compressed. By raising the fork oil level the rider can make his forks resist bottoming without affecting the spring rate in the rest of the travel. On the other hand, lowering this level will make the forks softer as the forks near full compression. Apparently, the Castrol RC45s have taken this idea to the extreme. The canisters, which are about the size of frozen orange juice cans, offer the tuner much more range in this tuning area. It is reasonable to assume that with the increased trapped air space the forks can be much more compliant during compression. This affect would logically extend into the mid-stroke region of the fork's travel.
Showa forks on the aluminum spar CR Honda dirt bikes have suffered from mid-stroke harshness since their introduction. These canisters may offer some relief to this vexing problem. Also they could offer the sportbike enthusiast a degree of fork compliance unknown until now.
A careful look at the RC45s also revealed another interesting area of work by HRC engineers. It was obvious that a section had been added to the oil pan increasing its volume. While the reason for this went undisclosed it does make one wonder. Rumors have floated around the pits that Honda has done away with the oil pump on the RC45s and have taken the horsepower normally used to drive the pump and used it to drive the rear wheel. This added section hints that research is going on in this area. One possible reason may be to simply move the oil level further from the crankshaft. This is done to keep the oil from wrapping itself around the crank at high speed which adds to frictional losses.
I have always been surprised that Team Honda continues to use a wet clutch on the RC45. Nearly every other bike in the paddock uses a dry clutch. Those that didn't come with a dry clutch in production form have been modified to accept one and the reasons are obvious as the benefits of a dry clutch have been known for years. First off, it's much easier to work on. Most bikes receive a new clutch pack nearly every time they hit the track. I watched a Honda team technician remove the clutch cover and methodically remove each plate then oil and install a new set of clutch plates several times during the weekend. Dry clutches also keep debris generated by slipping the clutch at the start or off slow corners out of the engine oil. Could it be that the RC45s use the spinning clutch pack to somehow pump oil through the engine?
Another innovation seen at Laguna Seca was the radially mounted brake caliper. It has been standard operating procedure to grip the brake caliper at one. In the days of two piston brakes this seemed a reasonable way of attaching the brake caliper to the fork leg but lately bikes with great, long six piston brake calipers have started to twist and deflect from brake forces. The radially mounted calipers have an attachment point on either end. This mounting method looks much stronger and more rigid. Word has it that brake pad wear is more even from front to back and braking "feel" is much improved. This technology should pay the same dividends in the consumer market where improvements in brake "feel" and pad life are always appreciated and can be felt by even the club racer on production equipment.
Data acquisition systems have been on race bikes for several years now but I watched carefully at the Ducati pits where technicians downloaded data to a laptop computer and then uploaded this data to computers in the pits. Technicians then displayed this data as several channels on a computer monitor. In the corner of the monitor was what appeared to be a track map. You could select any portion of the track map and then read engine rpm, suspension travel and any number of different parameters relevant to that point on the track. I have never seen that level of data manipulation in a motorcycle paddock.
Later, Troy Corser and his team sat down for a meeting in the paddock and with clipboard in hand reviewed this data in preparation for changes to the bike for the next session. I also saw Ben Bostrom staring at a computer monitor just before he went out for the second race of the day. It seems obvious that data acquisition technology is rapidly but silently evolving into an indispensable part of modern racing. Hopefully relatively inexpensive versions of these systems will trickle down to club racing as the technology matures.
ENDS
