THAT LOVING FEELING…

If there’s been one complaint racers have had with carbon fibre bikes, it’s lack of feel. This issue was typified by the Ducati GP9. Only Casey Stoner managed to gel with the bike to any significant extent. Other riders found feedback so lacking they couldn’t push the bike hard enough to drive heat into the front tyre. So how have BMW managed to turn this feel issue on its head? Quite simply, BMW claim that by fully automating the carbon composite manufacturing process, they have been able to manufacture a complete ‘monocoque’ frame that displays consistent flex in all the right places. And automated manufacture means that the repeatability of the product enables superior computer modelling in the design phase. BMW added that the fact that there are no joins or bonded section in the frame means that their new creation actually has superior feel to existing metal frames.