BMW HP4 Tech Updates- Features- DDC- DTC

BMW HP4 Tech Bulletin Munich’s own hot-rod S1000RR.

In releasing the HP4 version of its S1000RR sportbike, BMW is double-underlining its continuing leadership in bringing the electronic aids of world-championship racing to the street. European makers were the first to put traction control and engine-mode control on production models, while Japanese makers adopted them much more slowly and often under confusing names.

The HP4 also increases BMW’s grip on “most race-ready sportbike,” a title formerly held by Suzuki’s GSX-Rs. A look at national Superbike starting grids, along with conversations with riders, reveals that BMW is now the least-expensive machine to bring to race levels of power, handling and control.

The HP4 variant continues the S1000RR’s class-leading 193 horsepower at 13,000 rpm, reduces claimed dry weight from 398 pounds to 372 and adds the following cluster of new or updated features:

» Dynamic Damping Control (DDC) “adapts to the current riding maneuver or road surface by means of sensors and electrically controlled regulation valves.” Once a bike has computer and sensors, think of the questions that can be asked. Like, what is the mean suspension velocity during the past second (easily calculated from travel data)? Or, what was total suspension travel in the last 50 feet? With data like this instantly available, the system “knows” how you are riding and adjusts damping valves to suit.

Revisions include altered cam timing, compression and combustion chambers, plus, on the limited-edition HP4, an exhaust system made entirely of titanium with a “controlled acoustic valve” to boost low-end and midrange torque (all riders—touring, sportbike and racers—benefit from stronger bottom end and midrange).

» Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) allows the rider to choose the level of “control intervention,” permitting race-style throttle-steering. Press-kit language refers to lean-angle detection and suspension travel monitoring via a “sensor” box. Sounds like the sophistication of MotoGP is coming to a showroom near you!

» Brembo radial Monobloc calipers, 320mm floating front brake discs and “further developed and refined Race ABS.”

» Launch Control senses wheelies and triggers torque modulation for quickest starts.

» Torque “perceptibly increased in the 6000-to-9750-rpm range” sounds like changes made to BMW’s World Superbike engines described to me at Miller Motorsports Park this past May by BMW Motorsport Director Bernhard Gobmeier. BMW’s success this year in World Superbike indicates that the company now “gets it.”

» Although BMW’s language makes Shift Assistant sound like a helpful clerk in a green eyeshade, it’s actually a race-style shifter switch to enable clutchless upshifts.

» A “competition package” and listed race accessories increase value to racers and trackday users.

As MotoGP inches toward a more production-based formula, BMW is bringing the sophistication of GP racing to production machines, benefiting all varieties of riders.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday.

farfegnookie

All fine for racing/track days but there’s a huge point that needs to be made that seems to be ignored while salivating over the amazing capabilities of this technology.The combined tech will allow just about any rider to go faster and closer to the limit of their abilities and often exceed it while relying on a safety net.Thus it further encourages or elevates the level of “pushing the limit” on the street. Driving a similar high tech automobile and crashing isn’t quite the same as going down on a bike.How many “limit pushing” s1000rr accidents are there for every wrecked BMW M3?Something tells me Uncle Sam will want to step in here and impose regulations on who can actually purchase bikes of this capability for riding on the street…possibly a combination of age,years of experience/driving record and even maybe requiring some sort of entry level racing license. Nevertheless I want one! lol

jfc1

Raising the old issue of unsafe driving being unsafe simply because you’re driving so much faster than normal traffic, not because you’re driving the car close to its limits with potentially catastrophic results. True. But that’s life. It doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to know that motorcycles are inherently unsafe if you rely on the structure to protect the rider and if you see the same speed-discrepancy that protects the rider as a threat to other vehicles not to mention pedestrians. That is not going to change either with or without such electronics…unless they keep the bike down to posted speeds and away from other vehicles and *keep* it from doing things like stoppies and powerslides.
jfc1

there are two obvious ways to make a bike safer. Make it less likely to crash when ridden in certain conditions. The other is to make it less likely to be ridden in conditions in which it is likely to crash as it sits now. Enthusiasts might be interested in the first. The government is most definitely going to push the 2nd, and likewise the army of corporate lawyers at the manufacturer.

jfc1

” With data like this instantly available, the system “knows” how you are riding and adjusts damping valves to suit.”

…actually it doesn’t know how you’re riding. I hate to pull rank on this but as an EE with a background in control-systems engineering, the only thing the system “knows” is the model in use and the sensor-data. This is the whole problem with computer-control systems: it’s easy for them to sense and to drive, but it’s hard for them to actually read the riders’ mind or provide the type of feedback that the rider wants or even “should have”. It’s like asking an engineer to design the perfect girlfriend for the rider. It just can’t be done: every rider is different, they need and want different things from a bike. The best that it can do is bring the bikes’ behavior in line with what it thinks that the rider should have/wants/needs. That is why for so long riders would simply turn these systems off, for better feedback. But the engineers could only be held at bay for so long, after all they were the ones designing the bikes in the first place. Sure a dynamic system can be better than a system with static controls (fixed damping-rates, spring constants and the like) but basically it’s just a better way of providing the feedback that the rider wants, just as progressive springs are better than fixed-rate springs. With the universal caveat: “if it’s well-engineered”. So to me all of these tech advances just mirror what Honda has been doing for years now. The real question is do they “work” for the rider(s) or not, and under what conditions? Of course, “can they be improved” is a follow-on question but you want to start with positive steps. It’s undoubtely a good thing that BMW has gotten into the electronics game. But the real proof will be the feedback they get from owners. And at that price I just don’t see much feedback. Pretty-much to me you put 193hp under their right hand and the main electronics they really care about are the anti-wheelie and the TC. The rest is just gravy. And I’m still hearing that riders just prefer to dial the TC to the minimum. And I don’t know if I’d want to even deal with an active damping-system.

jfc1

and I’m sure that a guy with $26k invested in a streetbike (and his insurance-agent) would be happier to know that they can ride wheelies and stoppies without tipping over, and do really bad things under braking and acceleration without highsiding or lowsiding the bike, than to know that the shocks and springs are dynamically-adjusted. That’s 5% of the problem, if the forks bottom-out or pogo you adjust the suspension to suit, BFD. Same with the steering-damping. The big thing is keeping the bike on two wheels, the rest is gravy. But keeping it on two wheels means keeping it away from the edge of control, of stability. It means turning the motorcycle into a carnival-ride.