AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDERAUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER | 113 | 113TURBOS AND SUPERCHARGERS
into the
The future of turbo or supercharging engines — typically seen
as the search for absolute power — is about a whole lot more
STORY: MATT SHIELDS
PHOTOGRAPHY: ARR ARCHIVESK
awasaki’s supercharged
H2 sportsbike has set
tongues wagging and hearts
pulsating. A production
bike, straight off the showroom fl oor
with a whopping 300 horsepower is
the kind of stuff dreams are made of.
That was six months ago and now that
the initial PR waffl e has subsided, the
300hp racetrack-only machine is for
most mortals a 200hp engine roadbike,
weighing in at a bulky 238kg wet — still
supercharged though.
So aside from an obvious wow
factor, why would you supercharge
a motorcycle in a day and age where
sensibility sells and extravagance is
increasingly ignored? It’s all about the
future: there is a big focus on the search
for alternative power sources at present.
Well, it’s a search that’s been on for a long
time but ramped up in the past decade as
emissions controls have been stringently
constituted and consumers have becomemore environmentally conscious.
The Earth’s fossil fuel reserves have
been depleting rapidly ever since the
industrial revolution of the 18th century.
With time we’ve become quite aware of
the eff ects of using this propellant and
change has been upon us for the last few
decades as governments legislate and
manufacturers evolve transportation to
be kinder to the environment.
The last decade has seen a boom in
the number of alternative fuel source
machines, with the car world pu ing
these into mainstream production. In
the motorcycle world we have seen bio-
diesel, ethanol, hydrogen and natural
gas as fuel sources for motorcycle
propulsion. Hybrid motorcycles — where
one of the before-mentioned fuel sources
runs in conjunction with a petrol or
electric engine — are also in the works.
Electricity as the power source
to replace the combustion engine is
being touted as the next step forward.
Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire with
around 100hp and 70Nm, weighingin about 210kg, is as close in terms of
performance and characteristics to a
“normal” motorcycle that an electric
motorcycle has ever been. But the bike
is still a while off production.
Yet as conscious as people have
been of the adverse eff ects to the
environment, no one wants to fork out
the currently big costs of an alternative
fuel source vehicle. They are ge ing
cheaper, but are nowhere near being
mainstream and inexpensive.
As a result, the pursuit of be er
economy, consumption and performance
is still with the combustion engine
because it is cheaper and has all the
characteristics that we bike riders have
come to know and love. But where to
next? The combustion engine has come
a long way since motorcycles started
rolling on two wheels and surely every
avenue has been explored. Seemingly
so, but it’s the avenues that were
briefl y travelled where manufacturers
are revisiting: namely the super and
turbocharger.►Future
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