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This is the HRC Works CR250 Automatic which won the 1991 All Japan Championship. 4 or 5 speed transmission. HRC ran two full automatic bikes in the series. In addition to the full works bike in the photo, there was one which was much closer to a production bike, which had consistent reliability issues. The full works bike never suffered a failure during the series and was an amazing machine to watch race. Honda had an army of technicians working on both bikes at each race.
Eric Geboers tried the bike in the photo out at the Tokyo Supercross that year and the bike almost killed him and saved his life at the same time. When he hit the big triple the first time, he did a huge endo, like over the bars land upside down kind of endo. As he was rotating and the bike was pointed straight down, he had the throttle pinned wide open in a panic rev, and the bike kept up-shifting through the gears, which reversed the rotation, and he landed on two wheels. Craziest thing I'd ever seen at the track. Geboers parked it after that stunt.
Proper factory bike. Nothing like today's bling'd up production bikes that we call "factory".
These types of boxes work in roadracing bikes because you shift so many times per lap, and the up and downshifts are more consistent lap after lap. Not sure how much time you could gain in the dirt? Is it really that important? Roadracing your lines stay very consistent and they don't really change throught the race, MX/SX the lines may change every lap on a soft track, so not sure if any box would work better than the one we have now and the human mind running it.
I love internal combustion engines, I love the sound and the smell. When I am at any race track the smell of burning race gas just gives me a certain feeling you can't get anywhere else. Overcooked batteries just don't smell as sweet. Long live dinosaur powerd racing!!!!
BTW, the sparky-scooter was boring and eye opening at the same time. It is one of our futures.
Not bashing your statement at all.....however in 1973 Honda released the CR-125 Elsinore. It was so far ahead of anything else available at the time that the magazines and players in the motoworld said the exact same thing. "The 125 Elsinore will put the mod shops out of business because there is nothing to fix on it.". Instead companies like DG, FMF, and host of others were founded making speed parts for the bike that needed nothing.
Yesterday I put in 4 sessions (15+ minutes) on an RM-Z 450 using just under 2 gallons of fuel; so, if I do that on an Alta, how do I "keep battery charged" & capable of supplying 100% of it's power for multiple 15-20 sessions w/ ONLY 10 MINUTES BETWEEN SESSIONS? And...What will that cost me?
I love new technology and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Silent Running that the Alta provides...&...I REALLY like the people at Alta & the quality of the bike, ESPECIALLY when you realize this is their 1st production bike.
But, I DON'T LIKE:
1. The Price.
2. The lack of ENDURANCE (short battery life/ESPECIALLY on the track).
3. Lack of availability of comparable bikes (competition among manufacturers would change my 1st two items).
If reports are correct, almost everyone who has thrown a leg over an Alta has immediately dropped their best lap times on their own set up bikes by several seconds on the 1st time on a bike not set up for them nor acclimated to the concept of no clutch or shifting.
Automatic transmissions become notable as a possible solution to internal combustion engines to regain that lost advantage.
When you can remove the shifter and clutch from an MX bike then we will have something that could be the next big thing. It's hard to imagine the manufacturer's haven't been more eager to adopt this technology not only for race wins, but for attracting new blood to the sport with a reduced learning curve.
For a touring motorcycle like a Gold Wing, they'd probably be great
Pit Row
The technology has worked well in fuel injected Vespa scooters, but removing the variator cover on a scooter is a few simple side cover bolts. I can only assume replacing the variator drive belt on a new car would mean dropping the entire suspension and sub-frame and doing a full 4 wheel alignment when your done. Anybody buying a car or suv should lookup the resale value of a 5~ 7 year old Nissan Murano.
A seamless gearbox is one that does not go into a neutral between disengaging the first gear pair and engaging the next pair. It engages the next ratio while the current ratio is still driving, and disengages the previous pair before the gearbox can lock up from a double engagement. This means that (1) the engine continues driving the rear wheel at all times during the upshift and (2) the clunk caused by the upshift is reduced to its minimum possible value—just the difference in engine rpm between the two ratios. You can bet that this is further softened by some electronic trickery.
A seamless gearbox is one that does not go into a neutral between disengaging the first gear pair and engaging the next pair. It engages the next ratio while the current ratio is still driving, and disengages the previous pair before the gearbox can lock up from a double engagement. This means that (1) the engine continues driving the rear wheel at all times during the upshift and (2) the clunk caused by the upshift is reduced to its minimum possible value—just the difference in engine rpm between the two ratios. You can bet that this is further softened by some electronic trickery.
" When the seamless gearbox first appeared in 2011 on the factory Hondas, we all reflexively first thought of the time saved by eliminating the neutral between gears. If there are, say, 30 upshifts per lap, and shifter-switch cut-off period is 0.012 seconds, a seamless box ought to give 30 X 0.012 = 0.36 seconds more time when the engine is driving, which in turn ought to improve lap time.
But that’s not what riders perceived. What they perceived was smoother, more confident acceleration off corners, because the size of the upshift clunk was reduced to the minimum possible. In many cases, riders with conventional gearboxes find the upshift so upsetting to the bike in corners that they either short-shift or overrev their engine to move a given upshift to a less upsetting place on the track. Riders talking about this have said the seamless gearbox gives them more options.
The seamless gearbox is also of advantage in improving braking stability (which doesn’t need any great clunks to cope with "
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