Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 4 - 2019 i Cycle World

My 6-year-old son, Ian, yesterday asked if we could take a ride on our 1954 Velocette MSS 500 when we got home after school, work, and all the rest of normal life. It is, of course, impossible to say no to such a request, even if it means a slightly late bedtime, or that I don’t do the dishes until 9:30 that night. On the ride, via our Bluetooth-equipped helmets, Ian said, “What’s great about riding a motorcycle is that you can see everywhere, because you’re in the outside air.” The purity of the observation was magnificent. In this moment, the enormity of what we feel about motorcycle riding, but don’t always consciously observe, washed over me: Motorcycling has improved everything, making life happier, freer, more active, more engaging, and…

In a celebrated case, a vertical shaft hydroelectric turbine ran continuously for 40 years without shutdown. When it was finally replaced, its thrust-bearing surfaces still bore the tool marks of their manufacture. How was that possible? It was because the bearing surfaces—one rotating, the other stationary—had never touched. They had been completely separated by a thin and continuously replaced film of oil. This is the ideal to which all surface friction in internal-combustion engines aspires: When surfaces are separated by a continuous oil film, wear from metal-to-metal contact is impossible. Why isn’t oil immediately squeezed out from between crank journals and bearings, between cam lobes and tappets, between pistons and piston rings, and the cylinders in which they slide? The internal friction of oil, called viscosity, strongly resists such squeezing…

A VBox Sport GPS data logger was used to record official comparative lap times around the 15-turn, 3-mile Thunderhill circuit. Delving deeper into each bike’s quickest recorded lap has provided split times through four distinct sectors, peak speed achieved on the fastest straights, and corner speed captured in a trio of distinctive turns. Sector 1 begins at start/finish along the pit straight, which saw each wringing 5th gear to its Turn 1 brake point. Traction/wheelie control bolstered rider confidence for a thrilling full-throttle exit drive off the first bend and over the hilltop crest leading to Turn 2. A point-to-point average speed through the long carousel-type second corner puts emphasis on chassis balance and the tire’s full-tilt edge grip. Demanding side-to-side transitions in negotiating the series of linked tight corners…

DUCATI DIAVEL 1260 S BEST CRUISER It’s long and low with a menacing demeanor, is powered by a massive V-twin engine, and it’s Italian. Wait? What? That’s right, the Best Cruiser of 2019 is straight outta Bologna. Revamped for 2019, the Diavel 1260 S gets a 1,262cc Testastretta DVT engine that cranks out 139 horsepower and 85 pound-feet of torque on the Cycle World dyno, but thanks to its DVT variable valve timing, that power is just as usable cruising down Main Street as it is sucking the doors off the local doctor’s Corvette. Unlike any other Ducati, the Diavel has a relaxed yet not totally laid-back seating position, and unlike most power cruisers, the 1260 S can hustle through corners. Cornering clearance is abundant compared to what’s available in…

Like many, I was shocked back in 2014 when Harley-Davidson—perhaps the most tradition-steeped motorcycle manufacturer on the planet—unveiled a prototype electric motorcycle with intent to bring a whisper-quiet Hog to market. It was a bold step for a brand with legions of devoted disciples baptized in gas, oil, and ink. But the 2020 LiveWire is here following a nearly 10-year development program. Fundamental to moving forward with a production electric was a blind taste test, so to speak, with 33 unbranded prototypes traveling to major metro areas globally. The post-ride survey asked what riders would think if the bike were from brand X, Y, or Z, and among those options was Harley-Davidson. Reaction to H-D building this bike reportedly was overwhelmingly positive. This enthusiastic feedback spurred Harley’s commitment to proceed…

It is with trepidation that I write even one word about this. A few years ago, seeing the interest in electric vehicles, I wrote a five-part descriptive article for cycleworld.com on electric motors, their power supplies, lithium-ion batteries themselves, battery charging, and so on. I might as well have written about deflagration of monodisperse sprays for all the interest those stories generated. I concluded that our readers, while possibly wowed by the novelty of electric motorcycles, did not want to know anything about how they work. Electric motors and their power supplies are already sophisticated and affordable; the barrier to wide use of electric vehicles is their batteries, which remain expensive, heavy, and limited in driving range. Lithium-ion batteries were conceived in 1975, commercialized by Sony in 1992, and have…

Look at the bikes in today’s on- or off-road competition, and you will find telescopic forks on all of them. A “tele” is structurally simple and has continued to develop new strengths. Critics correctly note that its sliding motion generates “stiction”—initial resistance to movement—its angled legs are pro-dive, and it inefficiently transmits stress up the telescoping legs from the tire footprint to a high steering head before distributing it back down into the rest of the chassis. Each time pivoted-link front ends have shown shorter braking distances, tele builders have cut stiction with harder, smoother fork-tube coatings such as TiC (gold) and DLC (black) plus slippery slider bushings. Pro-dive? Yes, but the anti-dive fad of the 1980s ended when Yamaha showed that dive, by lowering a bike’s center-of-mass height, actually…

Arguments will be made for other categories of sportbikes, but nothing delivers the emotion-evoking exotic personality and outright performance like a modern-day superbike. Each is a brutally fast piece of industrial art optimized with everything it needs to strive for the fastest lap time and nothing it doesn’t. Superbikes are simultaneously raw yet refined. These machines are built solely to push the boundaries of pure performance, but addictive personalities beware: Superbikes can and will induce obsessive horsepower highs. So, while there are a number of sportbikes on the market that mix in more practicality and comfort at a more affordable price, the open-class superbikes here—the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory, BMW S 1000 RR, and Ducati Panigale V4 S—represent the pinnacle of motorcycle performance. With these machines, a combination of mass…

The first question to anyone’s lips is “Why?” The motor company’s meticulously cultivated image is a muscular one, tied to traditional values of nationalism and personal independence. The Harley Big Twin owner tours America, often over heroic mileages. Sportsters and cruisers are shown against a gritty urban and industrial background rich in the accomplishments of our forebears. Where in that sharply defined universe can we place a fully engineered premium electric motorcycle that is silent save for the hum of the 3.24-to-1 spiral bevel gearing between its high-torque electric motor and driveline? Because I want to know, I put this question to Glen Koval, engineering chief of the LiveWire program. He enumerated the points that have led to its development. “Electric vehicles are inevitable,” Koval says. “They’re the future, at…