Motorcycle News
07-01-2008, 06:09 AM
Intelligent Design - Full Pin
http://images.sportrider.com/images/146_0804_01_z+motorcycle_parts_design+triumph_675_ engine.jpgThe parts Are easily distinguishable From The many others scattered around Carry Andrew's engine room at his hypercycle shop. A crankshaft with three evenly spaced throws sits on one bench, alone among cranks with four throws in a single plane. Next to that a cylinder head with three intake ports looks out of place. Under a cart lies a long balance shaft. The valve gear is grouped in sets of 12, and on a separate bench are three pistons, three connecting rods and three sets of rod bearings.
This is the engine of our Triumph 675 test bike, disassembled in anticipation of being entered in an ama Formula Xtreme race later this year. The entire selection of kit parts supplied by Triumph sits ready for installation: Cams, valves, a lightweight generator and other goodies-along with Andrew's magic-will boost power significantly. We'll have more about the project and its proceedings in future issues, but my visit to hypercycle and a look inside the Triumph's engine show some interesting differences from-and similarities to-the Japanese middleweights.
Overall the 675's architecture is clearly much the same as the typical Japanese in-line engine-but with one cylinder missing. The cam chain is on one end of the cylinder bank, the generator on the other, two cams up top and four valves in each cylinder directly actuated with shims under buckets. Behind is a stacked transmission, the input shaft sliding into the upper case half. And the balancer shaft sits in front of the crank, just as it does on many balancer-equipped Japanese multis. All very familiar.
I ask Andrew what the major difference is between the Triumph's engine and a typical Japanese engine, and he points to the materials and metallurgy. The 675's aluminum castings are thicker, made from what looks to be a slightly weaker material than the parts he sees on a day-to-day basis. The camshaft material appears rougher and is a darker color than the Kawasaki cam sitting nearby, an indication of different additives that probably Add up to weaker material as well. The evidence is in the holes drilled through each: The Kawasaki's cams have proportionally larger holes, leaving a lesser amount of a stronger material. The Triumph's parts are correspondingly heavier.
It makes sense based on the quantity of motorcycles each manufacturer produces. The big Four can buy raw materials in much greater bulk than Triumph can, allowing the use of better material with the increased cost spread over thousands of units. This is just one example of the several disadvantages the british manufacturer faces in trying to compete with the Japanese. The Japanese.
If many individual pieces are a bit heavier than their Japanese counterparts, then how did our 675 end up being lighter than almost all the four-cylinder 600s? The key is in the design of the engine-and no doubt the whole bike-resulting in one advantage Triumph does have over the big companies. Being a smaller company with fewer models updated less frequently (the 675 is entering its third year of production almost unchanged) allows Triumph to devote more time and attention to each bike's design, whereas a huge corporation churning out a dozen new models every year must spread out its resources accordingly.
Additionally, individual parts play a factor. A big company can use economies of scale to its advantage in many cases, but it can also be a disadvantage when it comes to sharing parts with those many other models. For example, the large manufacturer may use the same widget on four or five different models as it has for years on those and other models. If the widget is overbuilt and heavy for the current 600 but still does the job, chances are it will still be used. Cutting costs is important in the price-conscious middleweight class, and the company is not likely to design and manufacture a dedicated widget for one model's two-year production run. Triumph, on the other hand, has to design and build almost every part specifically for the 675, and those parts can be optimized for the application. End result? A lighter, better bike.
It was a very eye-opening chat with Andrew and interesting to see how Triumph is using the strength of its relatively small size to compete with the big Four. Our 675 FX project is turning out to be quite interesting in other aspects as well. While Andrew concentrates on the engine i've been rounding up the various bits for the chassis, and eric nugent, who helped with our last FX project, has been putting it all together. The Triumph is new to all of us, and it's sure to be an adventure.
Photo Gallery: Intelligent Design - Full Pin - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motorcycle_parts_design)
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http://images.sportrider.com/images/146_0804_01_z+motorcycle_parts_design+triumph_675_ engine.jpgThe parts Are easily distinguishable From The many others scattered around Carry Andrew's engine room at his hypercycle shop. A crankshaft with three evenly spaced throws sits on one bench, alone among cranks with four throws in a single plane. Next to that a cylinder head with three intake ports looks out of place. Under a cart lies a long balance shaft. The valve gear is grouped in sets of 12, and on a separate bench are three pistons, three connecting rods and three sets of rod bearings.
This is the engine of our Triumph 675 test bike, disassembled in anticipation of being entered in an ama Formula Xtreme race later this year. The entire selection of kit parts supplied by Triumph sits ready for installation: Cams, valves, a lightweight generator and other goodies-along with Andrew's magic-will boost power significantly. We'll have more about the project and its proceedings in future issues, but my visit to hypercycle and a look inside the Triumph's engine show some interesting differences from-and similarities to-the Japanese middleweights.
Overall the 675's architecture is clearly much the same as the typical Japanese in-line engine-but with one cylinder missing. The cam chain is on one end of the cylinder bank, the generator on the other, two cams up top and four valves in each cylinder directly actuated with shims under buckets. Behind is a stacked transmission, the input shaft sliding into the upper case half. And the balancer shaft sits in front of the crank, just as it does on many balancer-equipped Japanese multis. All very familiar.
I ask Andrew what the major difference is between the Triumph's engine and a typical Japanese engine, and he points to the materials and metallurgy. The 675's aluminum castings are thicker, made from what looks to be a slightly weaker material than the parts he sees on a day-to-day basis. The camshaft material appears rougher and is a darker color than the Kawasaki cam sitting nearby, an indication of different additives that probably Add up to weaker material as well. The evidence is in the holes drilled through each: The Kawasaki's cams have proportionally larger holes, leaving a lesser amount of a stronger material. The Triumph's parts are correspondingly heavier.
It makes sense based on the quantity of motorcycles each manufacturer produces. The big Four can buy raw materials in much greater bulk than Triumph can, allowing the use of better material with the increased cost spread over thousands of units. This is just one example of the several disadvantages the british manufacturer faces in trying to compete with the Japanese. The Japanese.
If many individual pieces are a bit heavier than their Japanese counterparts, then how did our 675 end up being lighter than almost all the four-cylinder 600s? The key is in the design of the engine-and no doubt the whole bike-resulting in one advantage Triumph does have over the big companies. Being a smaller company with fewer models updated less frequently (the 675 is entering its third year of production almost unchanged) allows Triumph to devote more time and attention to each bike's design, whereas a huge corporation churning out a dozen new models every year must spread out its resources accordingly.
Additionally, individual parts play a factor. A big company can use economies of scale to its advantage in many cases, but it can also be a disadvantage when it comes to sharing parts with those many other models. For example, the large manufacturer may use the same widget on four or five different models as it has for years on those and other models. If the widget is overbuilt and heavy for the current 600 but still does the job, chances are it will still be used. Cutting costs is important in the price-conscious middleweight class, and the company is not likely to design and manufacture a dedicated widget for one model's two-year production run. Triumph, on the other hand, has to design and build almost every part specifically for the 675, and those parts can be optimized for the application. End result? A lighter, better bike.
It was a very eye-opening chat with Andrew and interesting to see how Triumph is using the strength of its relatively small size to compete with the big Four. Our 675 FX project is turning out to be quite interesting in other aspects as well. While Andrew concentrates on the engine i've been rounding up the various bits for the chassis, and eric nugent, who helped with our last FX project, has been putting it all together. The Triumph is new to all of us, and it's sure to be an adventure.
Photo Gallery: Intelligent Design - Full Pin - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motorcycle_parts_design)
http://images.sportrider.com/images/146_0804_01_s+motorcycle_parts_design+triumph_675_ engine.jpg
Read More (http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motorcycle_parts_design) | Digg It (http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motorcycle_parts_design&title=Intelligent Design - Full Pin) | Add to del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/post?url=2&url=http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0804_motorcycle_parts_design&title=Intelligent Design - Full Pin)
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