The steering stability demands of the MotoGP machine

One importance concept of the RC211V, which dominates the Grand-Prix fields with its amazing performance of over 240 horsepower and 330km/h top speed from the feather weight of 145kg, is “rider-friendly & easy-to-control for any rider”. In other words, the principles are such that the machine offers anything that the rider wants while eliminating anything that the rider doesn’t want. In the past, for example, the rider had to hold the machine on the road with all his might fighting relentless kickbacks from the road to prevent loss of tire grip while making a maximum use of the tremendous amount of engine power. Such a story is the history for the RC211V. Despite the enormous power, the output is efficiently transmitted to the road surface. The rider never gets tired, it’s easy to open the throttle, battling on the track doesn’t bother. The machine allows the rider to exhibit his full performance from the start through the final lap. That’s the kind of steering stability that RC211V pursued. RC211V

Researches of the rotary damper, an optimum design

After the 2003 season, the new hydraulic steering damper has been employed for the RC211V. Concealed in the new-style fairing is the rotary steering damper, instead of a conventional telescopic steering damper. The rotary damper is compact, light in weight, and as the damping system is totally enclosed in the damper housing, it resists against external impacts, less affected by “oil chipping”, without a loss of damping force from warming of the hydraulic fluid. Another advantage of this design is that the system-control parts can be easily mounted around the steering axis. Inherent in the newly-developed rotary steering damper are many features such as the security, function-ability, promise in the future, etc. 2003 RC211V 2002 RC211V Click picture to enlarge

Feedback to production motorcycles from RC211V

The RC211V, the champion machine of the MotoGP class, which is the pinnacle of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, brings infinite influences and technical feedback for production motorcycles. The concept “easy to ride for any person” is based on our intent that we want to positively apply the techniques derived from RC211V to production motorcycles because being easy-to-ride and having high performance are ideal features of products for general consumers. Thus, the HESD, which has been developed by further improving the rotary steering damper, is now applied to the production super-sport machine CBR1000RR along with other new features such as the unit pro-link rear suspension, the PGM-DSFI, etc.