The Role Of Technology In Modern Superbikes – The start of the 2022 MotoGP season has been hard to fathom. In the first three races, nine different riders filled the nine podium places.
In Texas, we had our first repeat winner Enea Bastianini, and Alex Rins repeated his podium from Argentina, while Jack Miller was the tenth rider to stand on the podium in four races.
The Role Of Technology In Modern Superbikes
On the other hand, the 2022 season continues where 2021 left off. In 2021, MotoGP has had eight different winners in 18 races, and 15 different riders on the podium.
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The 2020 season has previously had nine winners and 15 different riders on the podium from just 14 races, a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Much of that difference can be attributed to the absence of Marc Marquez as a reason for the competition.
The eight-time world champion has failed all of 2020 and was on the rise towards the end of 2021. Without Marquez staying at the front, there was more room for the others on stage.
That only explains part of the huge difference in ridership, however. An even bigger role is played by the sheer depth of the competition machine on the internet.
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Aleix Espargaro’s victory in Argentina meant that all six MotoGP riders have now won the grand prize, and every rider on the 2022 grid has won at least one race in the category. of the highest order.
Of the 24 bikes online, there are only 4 that are not 2022-spec, factory-supported machines. Even the level of teams and mechanics has never risen to the first class of motorcycle racing.
In a difficult environment, even the smallest differences make a difference. Getting the setup right, working as close as possible to the middle of the Michelin tire performance window, can be the difference between victory and disappointment.
Comparing the 2018 and 2021 seasons, the top 10 was an average of 3 seconds closer than the previous three years. In 2018, 21.9 seconds covered the top 10; in 2021, which had already been cut to 18.7 seconds.
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What happened in the last three years? Two major changes have worked to print tires in a completely different way. First, the incremental improvements to the aerodynamics package put the front wheel in a very different direction.
And second, the addition of ride-height equipment, lowering the rear (and now the front) of the bike out of the corner, has increased the stress on the rear tires.
At the Circuit of The Americas, on Sunday evening after the race, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Miguel Oliveira gave his thoughts on how the series has changed, and why. that made the results unpredictable.
“This season is like that, some weekends maybe good, other weekends you struggle,” the Portuguese rider told us. “I think it will be a common thing in this cycling season in MotoGP. I think the window of work and efficiency is short and narrow.”
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Although Oliveira claimed to be no expert in the field of racing engineering, he had some insight into the causes.
“From my point of view, I think that aerodynamics has something to do, because the faster we accelerate, the more broken we are. So in a way the pressure you have on the tires makes it easier more about the heat and pressures of work, and this is important to be competitive and fast.”
Aerodynamics is not the only area of rapid development. Ducati has detailed an updated version of its rear suspension device, allowing it to be used during the race at the end of 2019.
By mid-2021, every manufacturer on the grid was using them, and Ducati, Aprilia, KTM, and Honda all have automatic systems, lowering the rear of the bike when coming out of a corner.
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This was another reason to change the tire load, Oliveira pointed out. “I think in 2020 we started to see the guys at Ducati start using ride height devices, and somehow this has a big impact on the acceleration and jump of the bike,” he said. said the KTM factory rider.
“So the volume is very high, which you encourage to accelerate and jump. And aerodynamics, all the load you have, we go faster, so we use the tires more, so the more we use the tires, it makes the window, the working space is too narrow, I feel.”
An unintended effect of the ride height device was to make the bike stand up more under braking. When the rear end is straight, and the ride height switch is released as soon as braking starts, the rear end of the bike has to move, which causes more weight underneath he is braking.
Oliveira believes that this is one of the main reasons why Ducati came up with a high-riding front device, lowering the front of the bike out of the corner. By maintaining the bike’s position, it went down a bit on the brakes.
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“I think that’s why, Ducati with a high-riding front engine, they try to avoid the flow,” Oliveira told us.
“Because the bike was going from low to high, and once you break the speed of the bike, your weight and your distribution will stay the same, but you’ll just slow down. So I think that we what we do now is get off the back of the bike and come back.”
Ride height devices have also changed the way aerodynamics work. Lowering the rear of the bike has changed the angle of attack of the wings, which changes their effect, and changes the way the aerodynamics work.
“Of course, that also affects the aerodynamics, because the wings have different degrees when we descend and when we are braking,” Oliveira reflected, before admitting defeat in the face of complexity. “Of course it’s complicated. I don’t know anything about it, so! ”
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The aerodynamics and ride height add two new dimensions to the power of the MotoGP bike. With two new models to consider, setup just got a little more complicated. And that complexity makes it easy to wander outside of Michelin’s performance window.
Especially when the ride-height device is used in some corners and not others, changing the tire loads in some braking areas, but not in others. The ride height devices have created something of a moving target in terms of setup, despite the fact that it offers a clear advantage in terms of acceleration.
All of these changes had also left Michelin’s development program chasing a moving target, as tire loads and pressures have changed dramatically over the past few years.
The French tire manufacturer has been working on a new rigid construction tire that offers more support, but the combination of testing during the pandemic and the power of the MotoGP bikes has caused its introduction to be pushed back until 2024.
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“It’s actually delayed, because we’re working to improve the temperature and pressure control,” Michelin Two-Wheeled Motorsport boss Piero Taramasso told me at the Sepang test. “Now when you have a slippery stream, the tendency of the front tire is to overheat. So we’re working on that, trying to get that point under control. ”
The aerodynamics and ride height had made Michelin’s job more difficult, Taramasso admitted. “We realized two seasons ago, that the bikes are changing, they are putting more weight in the front, with winglets, and the riders are hitting a lot harder. So the load is changing, so we must change progress to accommodate that.”
To make things even tougher on the front tyre, Brembo has introduced a 355mm front brake disc for use on some of the tougher braking circuits. This puts more load on the front tire, making the setup even more difficult.
MotoGP may be the pinnacle of two-wheeled motorsport, but that comes with problems. As the field tightens, and technology tightens the performance window of Michelin tires, the setup becomes even more important to success.
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The rewards for setting up well are greater, and because of the importance of qualifying, the time available to complete race set-up is decreasing.
That, perhaps, explains why the field is up and down now. When teams and riders are chasing a moving target, there will be some weekends where a particular rider or team hits it, and other weekends where they don’t. If you’ve had a passing interest in MotoGP in the past few years you’ll have noticed that there is something of an aerodynamic revolution going on for motorcycles.
And some of this work continues to go to road bikes, almost all modern bikes that produce wings, and now attention is directed to other areas where profits are to be made. New documents from Yamaha show that they are focusing on the forks and how to improve the airflow around them.
Yamaha has already tested their new aero fork covers, running them at the Jerez test last November, but the patent explains how it works and shows why the fork covers are I can be fertile ground for future development.
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