Due to the www.lamoto2.es project I have received some interesting mails with bikes and suspension systems. I´ll try to publish them. Here is the first one:
EDWARD SAID:
I have a mixed background between cars and motorcycles having worked in motor racing (european formula car racing and 500 cc GP motorcycle racing) for some 10 years…
In my spare time I am building a new motorcycle concept of which the rear suspension is finished, which is currently employed in a Suzuki 1200 Bandit for testing, but it will be part of a totally new motorcycle concept. The new bike with fully adjustable single sided front and rear suspension will be powered by a Norton rotary engine coupled to a CVT transmission.
The reason why I started my project was that I firmly believe that there is room to improve on the current telescopic front fork design as it has some major design flaws which can not be changed, but just slightly improved. Bearing this in mind and my admiration for the alternative suspension designs dating back to the Ner a Car bike up to the latest effort by James Parker I decided I needed to design my own bike. The thing I wanted to change the most was the fact that I want a split-up between the four actions/forces: steering, braking, shock absorber and spring. In this way I could give a different ratio to the spring and to the shock absorber and seperate the steering, shock and spring from the braking forces as it does with the telescopic front fork.
At the same time with the multi link suspension units one could also implement anti-diving and anti-squat in a more controllable way then possible with the telescopic fork and the classic swingarm. However what was/is missing in all these alternative front-end designs is that this should also go hand in hand with a new front tyre design, capable of handling the different loading and grip levels. All these bikes were relying on tyres designed for telescopic front forks thereby undermining the potential of the alternative design.
At the moment I am still working on the front end which hopefully should see the living day lights this year (I have the front axle, wheel is being modified to install a rim mounted brake rotor, shock absorber, steering controls). Why do I say this year, because I have been working on this bike for quite a number of years now, but with limited funding (I am paying for all the work/parts myself) and do all the design work in the late hours of the day, after I finish my day time job and my familiar duties. Unfortunatelly there is very little room in Holland for these kind of projects.
I have enclosed a series of pictures on the rear suspension, which I have been test riding (many hundreds of kilometers) during the summer of 2010 on various roads to be able to find out if the road holding and durability is at least equivalent to the standard swing arm. Although the set-up is a bit of a compromise as I wanted to obtain the original lay-out as well in order to test back to back with the Suzuki swing arm, and not change the entire frame, the outcome of the testing was very good in terms of feedback and stability.
At the same time with the multi link suspension units one could also implement anti-diving and anti-squat in a more controllable way then possible with the telescopic fork and the classic swingarm. However what was/is missing in all these alternative front-end designs is that this should also go hand in hand with a new front tyre design, capable of handling the different loading and grip levels. All these bikes were relying on tyres designed for telescopic front forks thereby undermining the potential of the alternative design.
At the moment I am still working on the front end which hopefully should see the living day lights this year (I have the front axle, wheel is being modified to install a rim mounted brake rotor, shock absorber, steering controls). Why do I say this year, because I have been working on this bike for quite a number of years now, but with limited funding (I am paying for all the work/parts myself) and do all the design work in the late hours of the day, after I finish my day time job and my familiar duties. Unfortunatelly there is very little room in Holland for these kind of projects.
I have enclosed a series of pictures on the rear suspension, which I have been test riding (many hundreds of kilometers) during the summer of 2010 on various roads to be able to find out if the road holding and durability is at least equivalent to the standard swing arm. Although the set-up is a bit of a compromise as I wanted to obtain the original lay-out as well in order to test back to back with the Suzuki swing arm, and not change the entire frame, the outcome of the testing was very good in terms of feedback and stability.
Obviously Edward it’s a master of motorcycles and I hope he will find a bit of time to spend in the Moto2.
I think it’s a very interesting bike. What do you think about it?
He also sent me a very interesting paper and some pictures of a bike I’ll publish in other post.
Thanks a lot Edward!
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