You are right. But they might still have been better off with a trellis frame than that useless carbon fibre air box non-frame abortion that they played with for far too long.
I guess if KTM strike problems with their trellis they can take a leaf out of Ducatis book and contract out a delta box frame design. Kalex might be interested?
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
"A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal
Oh hey, I dig engineers going in their own direction etc. Keeps things interesting. But if you look at Ducati with their tube frame, then their carbon mono jobbie etc etc...they're certainly going way better with a deltabox alloy jobby. It would seem way easier to dial in the desired amount of flex with alloy beams.
I don't think anyone is counting them out. As has been pointed out though there are consistency problems with trellis frames because of the basic design and the number of welds, Ducati found no two frames behaved exactly the same.
There has been speculation on various podcasts that Eugene Laverty would reluctantly quit Moto GP and head back to Superbikes where he may at least get competitive machinery and a reasonably financed team. Sad really because he had been doing probably better than could reasonably expected, he'd collected points at every round until Petrucci T boned him.
Petrucci made a very graceful apology and had impressed wordsmiths with his correct use of the word "mortified", until it was pointed out that Google Translate was probably responsible for that.
Overnight it was announced that Alvaro Bautista has signed for Aspar which has reignited speculation that Laverty will be announcing his departure imminently.
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
Anyone heading to PI?
If the desired torsional stiffness is known, Finite element analysis can design you a frame to those parameters in any material you want.
I'd take what is being said about trellis frames with a grain of salt. To be specific, garlic salt...
I was interested to see when team Roberts decided to build their own bike they went to a design house with a very firm and specific stiffness figure they wanted. I'm told I may run into Mike Sinclair in December so must remember to ask where the figures came from...
Bear in mind too that tyres are the big unknown as far as carcase stiffness goes, they're a spring of basically unknown rate. It's already obvious that the Michelins don't suit all.
The factories that have been in it for some time have the knowledge bank. Even more recent ones learn quickly.
When Aprilia replaced the alloy arm on their 250 with a composite they had to match the charcteristics of the alloy arm to retain the handling...Which they did.
I note that KTM for instance have a subsidiary building their frames. I'd bet they can give you all the data you'd ever need for trellis frame stiffness.
The story about the welds makes me laugh - how do you think the alloy frames are stuck together ? And the effect of welds on a sheet alloy structure is critical. Air/time hardening alloys help but you have to wonder about lifing those structures as the process doesn't stop....
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