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I never installed a videogame in my computer (except a very simple chess game), and I never owned a video console, so I don’t have any experience in this field.
Till now the only practical application of videogames into motorbike racing that I knew is the fact that some riders use to play with a video game console to have a first impression of those tracks they never have ridden before.
Some days ago I discovered a second, and surprising, possibility of some nowadays videogames.
I was searching for information about MOTEC engine management and data adquisition systems that can be used in cars or motorbikes, when I saw that there were more than 400.000 references in Google, most of them refered to videogames. After some clicks more I realized that there are some car “videogames” (probably it is better to call them simulators), that are able to generate files with “telemetry” data of the car behaviour in the game.
The simulator generates data files in the same way that a real telemetry system, with channels like suspensions, tyre temperatures, speeds, throttle, rpm, etc.
The most interesting thing is that you can go to the MOTEC official webpage and download their proffesional data interpretation software, and use it to analize your virtual car behaviour exactly in the same way that a proffesional telemetrist analizes the data of his real racing car. This kind of software provides a lot of analysis possibilites, and you have even the possibility of exporting the data to very powerful analysis tools like MATLAB.
This simulator is called GTR2 and it is the most real racing car simulator that you can find nowadays in the videogames market.

This kind of simulators is based in very complex numeric simulations of phisical models. GRT2 takes into account a lot of variables like climatic conditions, tyres wear, or even the changes in the car behaviour as long as the fueltank is beeing empty. It is possible to adjust a lot of the parameters (tyres pressure, each suspension in an independent way, etc), and check through the telemetry how every change affects the car handling. From a technical training point of veiw, I think it is something really interesting, with a lot of possibilities.

By the moment I think that there is not avaliable a motorbike simulator with this quality and these telemetry features. I hope that something will appear soon.. for sure that it will be the first videogame that I will install in my computer!

Tags: simulation, videogames, telemetry, motec, gtr2

Last week I was at the Dunlop tests in Almeria and Albacete (South of Spain) circuits. Every year, at the beginning of the season, Dunlop organizes this kind of tests to allow their racing teams to know and test the new tyres that Dunlop creates every year. There were several teams of the Spanish Championship (from Formula Extreme and Supersport classes) and also some European teams plus some World Endurance Teams like Yamaha Austria or Yamaha Phase One. For me it was my first contact with the team I’m going to work with in 2008 as telemetrist, the Kawasaki PL Racing, that this year will race in theh Spanish Championship, in Formula Extreme with riders Victor Carrasco and Julian Mazuecos and in Supersport with Jonathan Alabarce.

I saw a lot of motorbikes in Almería, but there was one that catched my attention: the METISS.

I think this was the first time I have seen a FFE (funny front end) motorbike running on a track on live. I didn’t had too much free time to watch the bike on the track, but I found some time to visit their box, take some photos and chat with Emmanuel Cheron (one of the riders) and Jean Bertrand Bruneau, the bike’s designer, a dentist who has been designing and building FFE bikes for 20 years. Some examples are the Atomo (the link only works with the French version), after that the “JBB” prototype and now the METISS.

Currently the French team is racing the WEC (World Endurance Championship) with great resoults (they were 8th in the last Bol d’Or). Endurance is one of the last championships that allow prototypes (at least here in Europe).

The METISS team had two motorbikes in Almería. One unit was the model they used in 2007:

The other one, was the new bike they built for 2008:

As you can see in the photos, the bike has a front swingarm, and a big selfventilated front brake disc with a huge AP Racing brake caliper.

Donor bikes are Suzuki GSXR, they kept even the original chassis, which is properly modified in the headstock area to adapt the special front end designed by Jean Bertrand Bruneau.

To keep the original chassis has it’s pros and cons. The main advantage is that it makes easier, faster and cheaper to build a new bike. This allows the team to update their bikes every season. If they had to design and build a completely new bike, it would be very difficult for them to be able to be training at the beginning of the season with the new bike, like they were doing in Almería.

The disadvantage is that using the Suzuki original chassis means that they are not taking profit of the weight reduction that this front end allows. For example, some years ago, when they built the Atomo, they used the engine as main structural element: they built a motorbike without chassis. To do it, they had to mill new crankcases that included the housings for the front end mounting points. That meant time and money.
I found comforting to see that there are still persons like Jean Bertrand Bruneau and his team, that design and build their own motorbikes, with their own ideas. People capable of racing those motorbikes and beat a lot of conventional ones, designed by powerful multinationals.

During 2008 I will keep an eye to the METISS resoults in the WEC.

You can see these photos in a bigger size in the bottpower flickr gallery.

Tags: metiss, prototype, FFE, funny front end, endurance, almeria

Lately I am spending some spare time designing a tool that will allow me to measure chassis and swingarm stiffness. My intention is to design something relatively simple and cheap, but that will allow me to obtain precise data. The images that you can see below are just sketches, the final design will be probably quite different.
First image shows an arrangement to measure the chassis stiffness regarding torsion. The chassis is clamped in the swingarm pivot area, and a torque is applied around the steering head. The torque value is adjusted in a precise way adding steel discs (blue color in the drawing). A digital inclinometer will be placed over the lever arm to measure the torsion angle.
In order to measure the chassis stiffness with the engine assembled on it, it is possible to locate the green clamping parts in the external faces of the chassis.

Second image shows an arrangement to measure the lateral stiffness of the chassis (flexion). In this case we just pull from the steering head, hanging a weight that is converted in lateral force through a pulley. Here it would be necessary to put an object under the chassis to avoid it to fall over the table (rotating over the swingarm pivot).

Third image shows an arrangement to measure the swingarm torsional stiffness. The arrangement to measure lateral stiffness would be similar to the one used for the chassis, using the same pulley.
I also want to use this tool to measure transversal torsional stiffness of the chassis, I mean, the stiffness that it has when we apply a load similar to the one that appears when we use the front brake.

I think that it is impossible to build a tool that could give you absolut stiffness values, the objective is to build a device to achieve values that will allow me to compare different chassis.

I want to use this table also to meassure chassis (general dimmensions, geometry, etc) and also to build chassis, using it as a base for my jigs.

Regarding stiffness meassurement, appart of general meassurement, I want to use extensometry to meassure local deformations on the chassis, in this way it will be possible to know the influence of each area of the chassis in the stiffness of the whole chassis. This could be very useful to validate and improve FEA models, trying to make these models more similar to reality.
I will keep you informed of this project progress in the blog.

Tags: bottpower, other projects, chassis, swingarm, stiffness, tool, extensometry, FEA

Some days ago, reviewing the last posts of The kneeslider, I arrived to 95Racer’s blog, and I found a project with a very interesting approach, and moreover, very well carried out by 3Up-Racing, a group of people who have been involved in club racing in the UK for many years.

Lately a lot of people is talking about the new course of current 250 GP category. The only thing we know for sure is that the new category will use 4 strokes engines. 3Up-racing planned to design and build a 4 strokes motorbike, with a performance level similar to a 250 cc. 2 strokes GP motorbike. They chose “95Racer” as a name for the bike because they wanted to build a bike with a dry weight of 95 kg. and 95 HP at rear wheel.

After analizing several possibilities, they chose a Kawasaki ER-6 650 cc. paralel twin. They designed and build a steel trellis frame. The design of the swingarm is very interesting, they made an aluminum tubular structure, and after that they covered it with aluminum sheetmetal. The front suspension comes from a Yamaha R6, and the bodywork from a Honda RS-250RW Speedfiber kit.

As you can see in the photo, they also built their own carbon fiber airbox, with a single central intake that goes through the headstock.

In their blog you will find very interesting stuff, for example they removed the start engine, it allowed them to reduce the battery size and weight. They created an external starter that acts directly on the engine’s crank. With these modifications, they saved arround 10 kilos..
You can see it in the following video and, by the way, enjoy the sound…

Photos and vídeo: copyright 3Up-Racing.

Tags: 95Racer, prototype, 3up-racing, ER-6

This is the first post of the year, and even beeing a little bit late, I want to wish you a happy 2008, full of dreams and projects.
As almost everybody, at the beginning of every year I like to review what I did during the previous one and at the same time, I like to make new purposes for the new year. Personally, and regarding motorbikes, 2007 has been a very exciting year for me.

During 2007 I worked for the very first time in a racing team, in the road racing Spanish Championship, in the Formula Extreme category. I worked as a telemetrist. Thanks to this job I learnt some things about motorbikes setup, data adquisition and also about how a racing team works. The experience has been very positive and it allowed me to increase my know-how. I really wanted a lot to acquire some real experience in the racing world, so I am very happy in this aspect.

This had also a negative side, as I didn’t had almost free time, because I combined racing with my normal job as engineer in a medical X-ray systems company, and it meant that I couldn’t dedicate time to work on the Morlaco project.

During 2007 motorbikes gave me another great satisfaction, because I raced my first road race, as a rider. The best of all was that my team mate was Tony Foale, one of my “heros” and favourite motorbike designers, together with Antonio Cobas, John Britten and Claude Fior.
15 years ago I raced in several motoX races with a Yamaha YZ 250, but I didn’t have experience on a road track, so last December I did something a little mad asI went to race without any previous experience! 
The race was the last one of the season, of a Spanish aficionados championship called MAC90. It was in the Cartagena circuit. The bike was Tony’s Suzuki SV 650. Thank you Tony!. I don’t know the laptimes I did, for sure I was the slowest by far, anyway it was an amazing experience that made me realize again about how much I love motorcycling.

Also, during 2007 I decided to change the bottpower website and create this blog, which is something I find very stimulating because it allows me to share my ideas with other people with similar interests as mine.

Regarding 2008, I think it is very likely that I work again in the Spanish Championship. I also would like to train and prepare myself as a trackday rider, and try to race the whole MAC90 championship (in 2008 it will have 4 races).
I also would like to find time to finish the Morlaco, right now that is my unresolved matter.
And of course, I want to continue writing in this blog at regular intervals.
So, that’s it.. let’s go for 2008!  

Tags: 2007, 2008, racing, telemetry

Good, cheap and nice. These were our premises for the Morlaco bodywork design. To build a nice and efficient bodywork involves a lot of time and resources that we don’t have, so the most practical solution was to copy something or start from something already fabricated. We decided to use parts from other motorbikes (bodywork, fueltank cover, tail and keel) and modify it to change it’s aspect in order to achieve a motorbike with it’s own personality.

Hugo van Waaijen chose the parts. The trick was to choose parts from different motorbikes, but keeping in mind that they must work all together. It is a complex subject because we were limited to those parts that could fit on the Morlaco.

Hugo designed also the way in which each part should be modified to make everything work together and also to avoid that anybody could realize where each part came from (hey! this is from a kawa ZXR!!). He achieved the objective with very few and simple modifications, this was great because to modify the parts costed less time and money.

To create good surfaces, with a good simmetry, etc is a difficult job that requires experience. Hugo knew Michael Uhlarik, designer and proffesional modeler that has been working in great projects like the Yamaha MT03 or even the Yamaha M1. We talked with Michael and we arrived to an arrangement with him, so he was the one who modified the parts. He also made this cool sketch.

This is how the bike looked once the modelling work was finished. You can see big size images in our Flickr gallery.

One of our main aims was to use a narrow bodywork, with a small front area, in this way we took profit of our narrow chassis design.

Here you can see the fuel tank cover.

By the way, is there anybody who can guess from which bikes are the parts we used for the bodywork? 

Tags: bottpower, morlaco, bodywork, design, construction

Kim Kronslev is a danish mechanical engineer who has designed and built his own motorbike, around a KTM 640 LC4 single. The chassis and the swingarm are steel tube multitubular structures, fully triangulated. The bike was computer designed using CAD software. I think he has done a great job.

This is how the bike looks nowadays. As you can see, the CAD model and the real bike match perfectly. It is clear that Kim Kronslev is a meticulous guy.

During the design process, Kim performed around 25 FEA analysis, studing different triangulation and tube size combinations. Vibrations was one of the main concerns during the design, and finally there are not problems in this aspect, and right now the only part that vibrates is the exhaust silencer.

The bike has been running 1500 km. on tracks till now, without having any problem. At the beginning the suspensions were WP, but it seems that they didn’t perform properly, so finally he decided to change to Ohlins and from that moment on, everything was perfect.

Kim wanted to make his bike street legal, but the Danish autorities are very strict and there were some problems, so he dismissed the idea and right now he uses the bike just for track days. The bike is almost finished, Kim wants to spend his free time during this winter building a seat and a small fairing..

Tags: kim kronslev, prototype, ktm 640 LC4, single, trellis, multitubular

Oberdan Bezzi is an italian industrial designer specialized in mortorbikes design. He is a proffesional, although in this free time he also creates design proposals that he publish in his blog Motosketches. It caught my attention the constant way in which Bezzi works, because he publish at least one sketch every month.

In his blog you will find things like this Ducati Martini Racing:

Or this Moto Guzzi RR01:

One of the Bezzi designs that some time ago captured my attention (and that is not showed in his blog) is this proposal for a motogp developed by Porsche and sponsorized by Gulf. This sketch was related with some rumours saying that Porsche was going to race in motogp.

The sketch showed some curious aerodynamic solutions, it is remarkable that the rear area is much more covered than nowadays.  I find interesting the rear cover located under the swingarm, that extends the keel of the bike backwards.

In general the rear area reminds me the Derbi 125 GP 1988 ridden by Aspar, which is one of my favourite bikes throughout the time (photo via Europark).

Tags: oberdan bezzi, design, sketches, aerodynamics, porsche, gulf, derbi

In my last post I talked about Moto Tech magazine. One of the most interesting articles in that magazine is a deep analysis of the Ecosse Spirit, written by Tony Foale. Some days ago I was taking a look at Ecosse Spirit website, and I realized that they have Tony’s article avaliable for download in pdf format. I recommended you to read it, it’s good from start to finish. Moreover it is the only one objective and serious analysis I have read about this bike. I thought about write a post about it, but it worth not the effort after reading Tony’s.

I feel that the motorcyclist comunity didn’t take this project seriously, most of the articles and comments I have read in phorums and blogs have a sceptical or even a mockery tone. Personally I think it is a brilliant project, that brings new and good ideas to the conservative motorcycle world. Just to complete a little bit this post, here you have a video that has been already published in all the motorcyclist blogs around all internet.

Tags: ecosse spirit, article, video

There is not too much motorbike specialized literature regarding technology, design and competition, so when something new appears, it is always welcomed, even more if it is good quality stuff. Some months ago a new magazine was launched, it’s name is Moto Tech.

According to its editors “Moto Tech is a brand new bi-monthly journal that explores in unprecedented depth the technology in high-performance road and racing bikes. It is a magazine written for riders, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, mechanics, team managers and enthusiasts who demand a more in depth insight into the workings of the motorbike – in fact, all who seek knowledge of the art and science of motorbike technology.”

When I realized that Mototech was launched, I suscribed and some days ago I received number two, corresponding to September and October. Next I detail the main articles in this issue, so you can have a good idea about what is this magazine about:

• A very interesting interview to Masao Furusawa, technical leader of Yamaha MotoGP project.
• Yoshimoto Matsuda (leader of the Kawasaki MotoGP project) and Rob White (one of the top responsibles of Renault F1 engines) are interviewed together by Neil Spalding. The point of the interview is to find main common points and the main technical differences between MotoGP and F1.
• A deep analysis of the Ecosse Spirit ES1, written by Tony Foale.
• An article about rapid prototyping techniques used in the Ilmor MotoGP engine construction.
• An article about carbon fiber applied to motorbikes.
• An article about how to choose the correct gearing for optimun performance in a racing motorbike.
• Another article by Tony Foale, explaining his experience in Keith’s Code motorbike riding school.
• An article about alternative fuels.
• An article about CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) in BMW aerodynamics department.

I found the magazine really interesting and I recommend it to anybody interested in motorbike related technology.

Tags: moto tech, magazine, technical, motorbikes