bottpower

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