amcn.com.au 9
BYE BYE BUGDEN BAYLISS IS BACK!
After a top-level racing career spanning
16 years, Robbie Bugden signs off
Troy Bayliss is looking to add an elusive(^116) ASBK trophy to his bulging cabinet 120
COLUMNS SPORT STARTS PAGE 118
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It is but it isn’t: BMW’s G310RR
SUZUKI HAS FILED a patent
application for a new single
cylinder engine that uses a
balancer system virtually
identical to one pioneered on
Ducati’s legendary early-1990s
Supermono. Unlike on the
original design, Suzuki’s engine
is fitted to a motocross bike,
although the patent suggests
the engine may appear in other
models, including, perhaps a
replacement for the DR650.
What sets it apart – and
mimics the Ducati Supermono –
is the engine’s balancer system.
Balancer shafts are a familiar
idea but they normally have
offset weights on a spinning
shaft to counteract engine
vibrations. As well as making
for a smoother ride, they reduce
stresses and can allow engines
to rev higher, increasing power.
TheSuzukisystem,likethe
Supermono nearly 25 years ago,
does away with the balancer
shaft and instead adds a second
conrod to the engine. It goes into
a foreshortened dummy cylinder
at 90o to the actual cylinder, and
connects to a weighted arm on
a pivot. The result is a moving
mass that simulates the balanced
forces of a 90o V-t w in en g ine.
On the Supermono, the
system emerged because the
engine used was literally a 90o
Ducati V-twin with one cylinder
sliced off. It was patented back
in 1994 by Massimo Bordi,
which means Suzuki’s efforts
to get a new patent on the idea
might be stymied unless it can
show that its system is notably
different. However, since patents
generally last for only 20 years,
Ducati isn’t likely to have a hold
over the idea any longer, leaving
the way open for Suzuki to use
the technology. BP
Suzuki’s Supermono replica donk
EVER SINCE BMW launched the single-cylinder G310R,
the question of whether it would be joined by a fully
faired 310 sportsbike has been asked. Well here’s that
bike, but it goes under the brand of BMW’s Indian
production partner TVS.
The TVS Apache RR310 was hinted at by the
company’s Akula concept bike, revealed in early 2016,
shortly after the G310R first appeared.
With 25kW, it’s a category below the likes of the
Yamaha R3, Kawasaki’s new Ninja 400 and KTM’s
RC390, but it outperforms other bikes like the Honda
CBR300R and Kawasaki Ninja 250.
In mechanical terms, the bike is basically a G310R.
It has the same unusual engine – with its intake at
the front, exhaust at the rear and backward-leaning
cylinder – mated to an identical transmission and
bolted into the same steel trellis frame. Even the
wheels and the ByBre brakes are identical. As is the
Kayaba fork and rear shock. The bike’s peak power
is the same but the torque is quoted at 27.3Nm while
the BMW’s is rounded to 28Nm. Both the power and
torque peaks – 9700rpm and 7700rpm respectively –
are 200rpm higher than the G310R’s equivalents. That
could suggest a remapped injection system, or simply
a measuring difference.
The bodywork’s different, of course, as are the
rearset ’pegs, the higher 810mm seat and clip-on bars
which sit above the yoke rather than below it, resulting
in a relatively upright riding position. The yoke itself
resembles that of the BMW S1000RR, surely a hint
there’s a BMW-branded version in the wings.
At 170kg wet, the Apache is 11.5kg heavier than
a G310R, a difference that is surely down to the
bodywork. However, it’s also faster, with a top speed of
160km/h, around 10km/h more than the naked BMW
can manage. Watch this space. BP