Page 109 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)
P. 109
In Pit Lane
MICHAEL SCOTT
Hydrogen bombs
HYDROGEN-POWERED TWO-strokes? The more imaginative and I suspect to all readers, motorbike racing is so much more
elements of the motorcycle press leapt on the idea, when it was interesting, enjoyable and valuable than the up-its-own-arse
proposed as a piece of blue-sky thinking for Formula 1 a week world of F1.
or so back. So… back to the two-stroke question. The F1 chat, probably
“MotoGP to return to two-strokes” was too tempting a as much publicity stunt as sincere proposal, suggested
headline to resist. If only. Dump those big diesels… and let’s get supercharged two-stroke engines – forced induction bypasses
back to real racing bikes, no? the need to lubricate the crankshaft bearings and the
But there are several pungent reasons why more than just the consequent oil burn in the exhaust; and hydrogen fuel. Lovely
one grain of salt is required here. and clean, and offering (as they were pleased to point out)
Perhaps most important is simply the vast difference between an exhaust noise, in sharp contrast to the challengingly eco-
F1 and MotoGP. friendly but rather deadly Formula E series.
F1 cars are completely specialised, serving no But the relevance to motorcycling? Hmmm…
purpose other than to race against one another, Two- The industry that supports racing is not covered
and having as close a relationship to (say) a with glory, for it was the big players – notably
mass-market SUV as does a malaria mosquito strokes are Honda and Yamaha – that conspired to drop
to a blue whale. times 500cc two-strokes in favour of big four-strokes.
F1 is a megabucks industry all of itself; This was entirely for marketing reasons:
independent from the automobile industry better suited as two-strokes had fallen out of favour
in every way, except for name. Sure, Mercedes with misguided green campaigners (the
Benz and Renault are involved. But the cars to power forerunners of those Australians who stopped
and the technology are from England, from traditional bush clearing and fire-breaks, and
the highly specialised ‘F1 belt’ centred on the bikes provided fuel for runaway bush fires).
Thames valley north-west of London, mainly in Obliged to sell big four-strokes, they decided
Oxfordshire. This is where top-level four-wheeled they ought to race them as well.
racing lives, and incidentally where Kenny Roberts went A tragedy, really. Two-stroke engines are 100 times
when he wanted to build a four-stroke to challenge the Japanese. better suited to power motorcycles for all sorts of reasons.
The technology gap between four and two wheels can be Lighter, more compact, much simpler to manufacture and
demonstrated by his lack of success, as well as the all-but maintain, they require hardly any of the polluting special
stillborn Ilmor of 2007. metals and hardening processes of a top-heavy four-stroke.
MotoGP bikes, on the other hand, are proper motorbikes. They Improved metallurgy, lubrication and electronics including
are very close siblings to sportsbikes and in turn even to their fuel injection were already well advanced in addressing the
humbler commuter-bike brethren. The controls are the same, exhaust-smoke problem, while supercharging was on the menu,
the electronics closely related, the engines likewise; so too the which entirely eliminates it.
suspension systems, chassis geometry and overall design. Continuing to race two-strokes would have accelerated
Kissing cousins. development; modern sportsbikes would have been lighter, more
In the same way, MotoGP is intrinsically intertwined with responsive and faster than the overly complex current offerings.
the industry. When Honda, Yamaha et al go racing, they make The problem with two-strokes, as famous two-stroke tuner
their own engines and chassis, and there is a clear cross-over Harald Bartol once explained to me, is that “they smell of poor
between production and racing R&D. people”. Headlines that suggest an imminent return to two-
This is just one of the reasons why, at least to this writer strokes for MotoGP, meanwhile, smell of fish.
