Reverse-rotating Rotors

[ikonoklass]

This could turn out to be snake oil, but if the claims are true, this could be the biggest handling innovation since swingarm suspension.

[GSXR600]

Ok what are you talking about

[jrock7896]

Of course its not snake oil..... and hes talking about this

 

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/Article_Page...3207&Page=1

 

http://www.reverserotatingrotors.com/

[Cobie Fair]

OK, so who has ridden this thing and at what speeds/where?

 

CF

[ulrichw]

OK, so who has ridden this thing and at what speeds/where?

 

CF

 

Ok, I finally located the article I'd read on this technology.

 

The article is in the Nov. 2006 issue of Roadracing World (Volume 16, Number 11)

 

It's on page 16 and is titled "Precession, Gyroscopes And Reverse Rotating Front Rotors", by Sam Fleming.

 

Unfortunately, I can't find an online copy of this article.

 

Here are some quotes:

"... I began to step up the pace into the four fast lefts of Jennings' back straing. With the extreme rake and trail set-up on the bike, and the absence of a steering damper, I was worried about stepping up the pace, since I fully expected the bike to go into an unrecoverable tankslapper going through the fifth-gear sweeper. However, no matter how hard I drove through the lefts, the bike remained stable and responsive."

"Eventually I was giving it the full-race throttle-pinned-catching-spped-shifts-pass-two-bikes-pull-back-onto-the-race-line-no-brakes-catch-a-downshift-and-flick-hard-left-hard-right treatment. The bike remained absolutely stable through out it all. no weave, no wobble, no drama. And this was not on a well-set-up racebike. This was on an OK set-up track day bike with no steering damper"

 

Elsewhere he mentions the greatly increased braking effect, because the rotors are moving 2.7 times as fast as the wheel (the ratio that the inventor chose to balance out the gyroscopic forces from the front wheel - note that the rotors are canceling out only about 80% of the gyroscopic forces, not all of them).

 

On the negative side, the significant increase in unsprung weight caused the bike to feel the bumps in the track a lot more.

 

Sam Fleming appears to have raced in WERA.

 

-- Ulrich

[Cobie Fair]

Ulrich,

 

Thanks for that. I wonder if it will pay off in the end, the weight saving's compared to the improved handling.

 

CF

[ulrichw]

Ulrich,

 

Thanks for that. I wonder if it will pay off in the end, the weight saving's compared to the improved handling.

 

CF

 

In the article, it says that Robbie Kasten (the inventor) believes that he can trim the weight significantly from the prototype.

 

The problem is that these rotors may not be legal in many racing classes, so it's hard to see how they'd catch on (and their usefulness for street-only bikes is less obvious).

 

-- Ulrich

[Cobie Fair]

In the article, it says that Robbie Kasten (the inventor) believes that he can trim the weight significantly from the prototype.

 

The problem is that these rotors may not be legal in many racing classes, so it's hard to see how they'd catch on (and their usefulness for street-only bikes is less obvious).

 

-- Ulrich

 

Well, if they work that well, you'd think the factories would give them a shot in the GP classes.