8 of the best new technologies

1. Water injection
So fuel, air, fire and water aren’t supposed to mix, but German automotive supplier Bosch has worked out by that by spraying a very fine mist of distilled water into the ports of BMW’s 493hp six-cylinder sportscar engine that it can both increase power output, significantly reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon dioxide emissions. Because according to Bosch, in even the most modern engines, quite a lot of fuel is actually being used to cool parts of the engine rather than being exclusively used to power it – especially at high speeds or long periods of sustained use. So by spraying a fine mist of water to take care of the cooling duties. And because the combustion process is happening at a cooler temperature and in a more efficient way, up to four per cent less carbon dioxide is being emitted at the other end. Clever, huh? Bikes will be next.

2. Öhlins TTX Flow
Dirt bike bits was where it all began for the high-end global suspension brand Öhlins over 40 years ago and the Swedish brand went full circle with the release of an all-new motocross-specific TTX Flow rear shock. A motocross rear shock is arguably the hardest working component in motorcycling, and Öhlins’ latest uses the firm’s tube-within-a-tube design. But instead of the new design being more complex, the firm created a superior product out of far fewer parts and simplified the adjustment process so it’s more things to more people. There are patents still pending, so the firm’s still being coy on the gritty details. What it is saying is that it results in extremely fast recovery and that it’s ‘forgotten’ about a bump, a hit or landing in “less than one one-hundredth of a second.”

3. Drumcharging
Drumcharging, according to rights holder AltoEgo Hardware, is the future of supercharging for motorcycles. Because in these days of increasingly stifled emission rules are forcing manufacturers to find more grunt more efficiently, forced induction looks like the way forward. But superchargers and turbochargers are not only bulky, they’re expensive — enter the drumcharger. The unit comprises of a plastic chamber that is separated into two compartments by a carbon fibre membrane and weighs just 1kg. The hot chamber harnesses the exhaust pressure to push on the membrane as the gases exit the engine which compresses the cold chamber (and the air that’s in it) which forces it into the airbox. The cleverness lies in the simple fact that it’s inherently synchronised with the engine and its actuation is purely mechanical. A drumcharger may only offer a fraction of the boost that a conventional supercharger or turbocharger would, but its small and costs a fraction of the price.

4. Bosch integrated connectivity cluster
The handlebar-mounted dials we once referred to as gauges are these days going by the name of the Integrated Connectivity Cluster. Well, in the hallways of Bosch and KTM they are, anyway. The Integrated Connectivity Cluster (which you’ll find on KTM’s latest 1290 Super Duke R) uses full-colour TFT instrument cluster which both reacts and responds to your riding style and its surrounding conditions is. It will connect your helmet, your bike and itself to each other via Bluetooth, but it will decide what information you need and when based on your riding behaviour. For example, when the pace starts hotting up, the unit will decide you no longer need to be distracted by things like time and temperature and will gradually hide this info the faster you go. It’s the most intelligent set of gauges we’ve yet to see on a motorcycle. Not surprisingly, it picked up a bevy of gongs at the CES 2017 Innovation Awards in Las Vegas.

5. Self-balancing motorcycles
Honda raised more than a few eyebrows when it unveiled its innovative self-balancing motorcycle at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show this year and then backed it up with an all-electric version at the Tokyo Show. For while self-balancing motorcycles date back to the start of the decade, Honda swapped the more conventional (and bulky) gyroscopic solution to keeping a two-wheeled machine upright with a clever and unprecedented two-tiered steer-by-wire system. Like not or not, this and Yamaha’s robot-riding R1, is the beginning of fully autonomous motorcycles.

6. Fuel-injected two strokes
KTM unveiled an effective and sustainable fuel injection system for its large and successful range of off-road two-stroke motorcycles called Transfer Port Injection. For dirtbikes, where the attraction of a two-stroke engine is that it is lightweight, compact and mechanically rather simple, developing a FI system that ticks all these boxes had its challenges. “We have been developing two-stroke fuel injection for some time and our goal was to create competitive motorcycles with all the benefits of fuel injection, while fitting into our ready-to-race mantra,” KTM’s Joachim Sauer said. “There has been extensive testing and considerations for our Research and Development team to take into account during this process, so we are very motivated by this next step and world-first in technology, as we take a major step forward in this segment.”

7. Yamaha’s Power Tuner App
When Yamaha released its new-for-2018 YZ450F, it unveiled the world’s first production motocross bike to feature a smartphone-based engine tuning app. And while it doesn’t exactly break new ground in motorcycle circles, the performance of Zero’s range of electric bikes can be tweaked via an app, it represented the first time that tuning capabilities have been put in the hands (and the pockets) of the rider of a competition off-road machine. It’s a wireless set-up which talks to the bike’s ECU via an onboard Wi-Fi system, and it’s far more sophisticated than the simple three-way map selector we’re used to on the firm’s roadbike range. It’s basically the same GYTR Power Tuner that, for bikes built between 2014 and 2017, would set you back a bit over $420 as a genuine part from Yamaha. But for 2018, owners of the firm’s YZ450F get it built in as standard fitment and a world of changeable parameters can now be accessed quite simply through a free app.

8. Carbon-neutral fuel
Everywhere you look, countries are announcing when the sale of new petrol- and diesel-powered passenger vehicles will be banned in a bid to reduce emissions, but while everyone is scrambling to get batteries to a point that makes electric vehicles as practical as they are efficient, Bosch went and developed a process to produce fuel that’s carbon neutral instead. Bosch is the first to admit that electromobility is still the most effective way to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goal of reducing global traffic emissions by 50 per cent in the next four decades, but global traffic consists of trucks, trains, planes and ships as well as passenger vehicles like cars and bikes, and for those, it reckons this may just be the answer.