One Heart - Two Wheels

R emember the experiment that you did back in high school? The one using Tuning Forks and Sound? The engine's vibration has everything to do with this important experiment. But wait, are vibrations Good or Bad? How to prevent or overcome them if they are bad? And how are they related to some high school experiment? Read on to understand. Theory of unrefinement states that it is impossible to attain extreme refinement unless the word Yamaha or Kawasaki are involved - actually, I just came up with that :P The engine is a mechanical device that converts energy derived from combustion to kinetic energy of moving piston - which in turn gets converted into rotatory motion thanks to the camshaft. This can easily be seen by the image shown below. The Ideal Engine! But what you see above is an ideal simulation- an ideal that can never be achieved. The engine will always contain microscopic imperfections or the firing of the petrol will happen slightly delayed or advan...

M y dear readers might be wondering why I am comparing two different pieces of technologies. Read on to understand the similarities and why bikes even use it when higher lap times could be made at times without them. There are two types of electronics/electricals that are used on the bike. 1) The components used to keep the bike running - Stator, RR, Ignition Coils, ECUs and more. 2) The components used to control the ride - ABS, Traction Control, LeanAngle Sensors and lot more electronics... Before we dive deep into why they are similar, let us understand what they are at first: ABS, short for Anti Brake-locking System is any electronic intervention in the brakes that will simply release a brake(disk) if it detects that the wheel is stationary (wheel lock) that will result in loss of control or skid. This is generally achieved by measuring wheel rotation and reverse pumping brake fluid if wheel rotation is found to be 0. More Info on Myths about ABS TC is short for Traction...

So last week some friends and myself were discussing an interesting topic: Which is more important for a motorcycle - Engine or Brakes? And which is the deciding factor when purchasing a motorcycle?. The discussions started with everyone praising Yamaha’s engine, which is praiseworthy - but it led me to retrospect why engines take up the limelight? Opps! Only if the brakes worked jussst a little better! Most people think that the engine is the most important part of the motorcycle, in fact the word motor itself stands for the engine. This I agree upon, but in a practical scenario- we are not just accelerating forward, but also accelerating backwards aka. braking to avoid being killed. Going one step further, Brakes actually out perform the engines on most motorcycles! How? Let us talk numbers to Prove Something: Motorcycles around 500cc (like Honda CBR650, Yamaha R6, Daytona 675 and lots more) 0-100kmph Usually around 3-5 seconds mark. 100...

There is a lot of misunderstandings of what ABS is and what it does and more importantly, what it doesn't do. Let us discuss it with a listing of what I think are 3 facts and myths surrounding ABS and why it could save your life someday . ABS is Anti Brake-Locking System As the name implies, it prevents brake locks - the heart-stopping panicking moments of wheel locking up if we apply brake too suddenly. Brakes? Kinda are more important than the engine themselves. This can cause awesome skids which could be attractive if you are a stunt rider and are stunnting. Whereas, if you are trying to stop because you are riding head-on onto oncoming traffic; I have no clue why you would be; but that wouldn't spell good for you, so stopping the biking when you want it to stop is critical for riding. ABS is any system that prevents the wheel lock, by releasing the pressure on the brake disc, if it senses a wheel lock. This is done using motion sensors, which in turn...

E asy Question to ask with the answer being- by burning more fuel. But the complication comes into picture when you compare two different engines of the same CC, can we infinitely throw in more fuel to extract more power? Let us take two different engines of the same manufacturer and compare them to answer the question. So how one produces 30% more power while being the same CC with only 500 rises in RPM? Let us look at another figure: Now, this is only 17% rise in torque curves with 1500 rise in RPM. So how does engine produce power? The air-fuel mixture is thrown into the cylinder and ignited. This combustion creates expansive pressure that pushes piston which turns the camshaft. Longer the stroke of the piston - more torque generated Shorter the stroke, More frequent the stroke becomes (higher RPM) - more power. So to increase the power output of an engine, it is important to increase the RPM at which the engine runs. How...

W e often state "That's a Bajaj bike, its engine wouldn't last much.." How do Some Engines last forever? While Some don't?! To state that the life of a particular brand's engine is short is berating the entire RND team's work for that particular company - Let us discuss why Why is Bajaj still in the market if their engines don't last? The overall engine life depends on multiple aspects. Every engine looses power as it runs more Kilometers . The engine life can be defined as the time period cum kilometers ran by the engine before the power loss becomes too high. The engine goes through a lot of stresses during its operation; let us call this abuse as it is inducing wear and tear constantly. Let us take Conrods for example.  These are an essential component of any engine.  They transfer the energy created during combustion to the camshaft which in turn rotates the wheels eventually. Conrods connected to the Camshaft Onl...

W hen an Automobile Engine is fresh and just assembled from a factory it will have microscopic imperfections. Even when they are produced through CNC controlled machines. If an engine is run at its top performance with these imperfections, the engine would get damaged due to irregular heating. The degree of imperfections has decreased considerably after computer controlled systems; okay maybe the one brand that still makes it by hand :P And yet we can see and feel a lot of difference between a Fresh Undriven Engine from Yamaha and Bajaj. This is not just because of imperfections but because it is almost impossible to ensure 100% purity in the materials made and hence the walls of the piston are always going to have at least one spot that will have a slight microscopic imperfection pushing against the engine wall and vise verse.  The process of refining and engine by gradually grinding down these imperfections by running it is known as Engine Break-In . This n...

The internet has a lot of information regarding what Compresssion Ratio means for engines. But there are very few articles that mean much to motorcycle engines and about how the CR influences the characteristic of a motorcycle. In theoretical terms, the compression ratio is the ratio of volume between the top-dead-center and bottom-dead-center.. Here are the CR for some common Indian Motorcycles: Model Wet Weight in KG Compresion Ratio KTM D390 163 12.8:1 R15 136 10.4:1 CBR 250 164 10.7:1 RE Classic 350 187 8.5:1 Avenger Cruise 155 9.5:1 What this number actually signifies is how much the air-fuel mixture gets compressed to before being ignited . That is, how much pressure would the combustion produce inside the engine. To Simplify:     More the CR, more the internal combustion pressure     More the CR, more the heat produced during combustion  ...