Re: [ST] More concept

[Gavin Lawrie <gavin.lawrie@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 16 Dec 2005, at 00:05, Emile Nossin wrote:

> Scoot or bike? A Victory concept with a CVT:
> http://www.motorcycledaily.com/12december05_victoryvision.htm

I suspect that (or rather hope that) the Victory concept is how it is  
because regulations require it to be so - as it looks plain ungainly  
and ugly to me.  I thought the new RT BMW was grim, but it looks  
almost stylish by comparison to the Victory concept.

I can remember in the late eighties when EU noise and pollution  
controls were first beginning to come in.  Manufacturers found that  
their existing models could not be adapted to suit - famously the  
then boss of Kawasaki in the UK reported that the Z1100 exceeded  
planned noise levels even when being towed with the engine turned  
off.  Meeting the noise regulations, it seemed, required either water  
cooling (to muffle mechanical noise) and / or enclosing the engine  
bay with noise baffles (aka full fairing).  For performance bikes,  
meeting pollution regulations required water cooling and (for large  
engines) fuel injection.  The result was a large amount of innovation  
- resulting in some ground-breaking outcomes (the GPZ 900 for  
example) and some less significant ones (e.g. belt drive).  The  
proportion of bikes sold with fairings went up significantly too.  We  
are still seeing the tail end of this wave of regulation driven  
innovation today - with manufacturers increasingly putting catalytic  
converters on bikes (and marketing departments obscuring their  
associated bulk and weight near the engine as 'mass centralisation').

But if the regulations mean that in future all bikes will look like  
the Victory concept, then I'm going to make sure I redouble my  
efforts to maintain my ST...

Best regards

Gavin Lawrie
ST 03




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