Submitted by David Emmett on
Thomas Morsellino is a French freelance journalist and photographer, with keen eye for the technical details of MotoGP bikes. You may have seen some of his work on Twitter, where he runs the @Off_Bikes account. Peter Bom is a world championship winning former crew chief, with a deep and abiding knowledge of every aspect of motorcycle racing. Peter has worked with such riders as Cal Crutchlow, Danny Kent, and Stefan Bradl. After every race, MotoMatters.com will be publishing a selection of Tom's photos of MotoGP bikes, together with extensive technical explanations of the details by Peter Bom. MotoMatters.com subscribers will get access to the full resolution photos, which they can download and study in detail, and all of Peter's technical explanations of the photos. Readers who do not support the site will be limited to the 800x600 resolution photos, and an explanation of two photos.
Ducati “triple winglet” fairing on the Desmosedici GP19
Peter Bom: A tri-plane winglet arrangement must have quite a lot of horizontal surface area. By spreading that surface area over three wings, Ducati also reduces the risk of damage in case of contact with other bikes. Bikes with as much aero as the Ducati can barely be ridden at all without it any longer.
Knee pads on Jorge Lorenzo’s Honda RC213V (Friday night)
Peter Bom: Jorge is obviously still working on something he feels is very important: the ergonomics of the motorcycle. Here, and below, the contact points on the fairing which he is apparently using to support himself on the bike while riding.
Knee pads on Lorenzo’s bike (Saturday morning)
Carbon everywhere … holeshot device, carbon fork, thumb rear brake on Dovizioso’s bike
Rossi’s office – the Yamaha YZR-M1
Sensors on the Ducati GP19: two front wheel speed sensors, hidden gyroscopic sensors, disc temperature sensor.
Special tank on Jack Miller’s Ducati GP19
Suzuki GSX-RR "double exhaust"
Suzuki single exhaust from the official launch photos
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Comments
Wonderful pictures!
Great to see about these little details.
Photos
I love those shots Thanks
Solid work
Love both the shots and notes
Thanks
Ducati Triple Clamp
You mention that the nut holding the triple clamp doesn't touch the cabron fibre, so I assume that the piece is bolted from underneath or is there some other fastening method I'm missing in the picture or otherwise ? I also see a little someone's photo on the triple clamp of what appears to be Dovi's bike. Any story on this ?
Thanks for the amazing photos and descriptions!
At least to me, it looks like
At least to me, it looks like the billet upper triple has a cylindrical protrusion/stand-off that the carbon fiber fits around. The nut then still contacts the billet upper triple rather than the carbon fiber in this way, and the carbon fiber is only for the flex characteristics.
The picture is of his daughter I believe.
I think the picture is of his kid...
typo
I don't get to comment often as I know diddley-squat about bikes, but I hope it's not true that ''Bikes with as much aero as the Ducati can barely be ridden at all with it any longer." ... Or maybe it is ... !
Re: typo
Thanks for noticing that. Fixed now!
Miller’s Tank
That’s great design right there. Save the rider fatigue and doing so elegantly and what seems to be inexpensive. Lorenzo’s knee pads are interesting. Just for give under breaking or is he actually using the fairing as a contact point, pushing weight through them when cornering?
Suzuki rear tyre cooling
Apparantly Suzuki does not need rear tyre cooling :)