Is this the future of motorcycle racing?

In the early 90's, I designed, machined, welded and built every part of my own hub centre bike, using a vfr750 engine.... I wish I still had the photos but alas they have been lost to time... Very sad that I can't show it off...

While racing focused, I was still surprised there was no mention of the telelever and duolever fronts on BMW R-series and K-series bikes.

I saw the Elf race at Laguna Seca in 88 and from what I remember they had clearance problems on the off camber turns. Ron was scraping the front arm in the corners. After that year we never saw it in Grand Prix again.

That ELF is my favorite motorcycle of all time. I hope someone in MotoGP gives it a chance. The Japanese have nothing to lose at this point.

It's not in use because the problems with conventional forks that you mentioned are benefits, the geometry change when braking is what makes it better. You can have a bike that's stable in the straights but can still lean in fast for the corners.

I always find it weird how people obsess over the drawbacks of a conventional fork setup rather than considering it's benefits. Every other technology people seem to focus on the benefits first. Even the video claims "the front end dive is bad", when in reality the dive is the biggest benefit of a fork setup. It reduces the rake and trail whilst also slightly reducing the wheelbase. Thus you get a bike far better on turn in which then allows a more stable platform on exit and on the straight. That's critical for race bikes particularly MotoGP bikes which have an especially unstable platform. Without a fork suspension dive the bikes would be borderline unridable. Instead a hub center bike needs to reduce turn in and agility to increase stability across all regimes so the bike is actually usable. Or in other words fork suspension is actually more stable for the same level of agility (both can trade agility for stability). The "inconsistent" handling is exactly what is desired here. It's more stable when you need it, it's more agile when you want it. There's a reason so many millions are spent on racing bikes each year yet all of the repeated attempts at using another technology have died off. If race teams could gain a fraction of a second dropping the forks they would do it in an instant.

The instability in the hands of a skilled rider can become a handling edge. Im reminded of the "snap oversteer" conversations in automobiles... Now if im writing software to control a vehicle I want flat cornering and a perfect front-rear balance. I think thats why its a focus in automobiles. Dunno about self riding bikes. But still, I believe what is responsive and agile in the hands of a skilled rider could be considered unstable to a rookie or on paper.

I've never seen this before. Awesome video. One crash and all those steering linkages would go boom

I have a Tesi 3D Edition Finalé and, as well as riding it on back roads, i took it on a trackday at Donington. I have no complaints with lack of feel or dive and was riding round the likes of GSXR's in the bends. A little high speed instability which I havent had time to sort yet, but can/will. Definitely deserves development.

Guy Martin said " it's the best period but the riders need to learn it at an early age, it's not something you can simply adapt to and be fast" Or something pretty close to that.

I ride an italjet dragster 2023, it's front swing arm certainly gets attention from other road users. At first it felt very different especially when breaking at 70mph. At low speed it felt like I had a flat tyre. Once I got used to how it works it's very fun to ride and cornering at speed is amazing. As its a light bike you can really flick it into corners. Perception is hard to change especially if it's different.

Many years ago I read that the problem was that they feel quite different to telescopic forks and when you engineer "feel" into them the advantages they do have reduce and you finish up with a compromise that doesn't have any overall advantage over telescopic forks. The article did suggest that they build hub center systems and simply let riders adjust to the feel. I guess feel on the edge is a big deal though as a crash awaits when that hard to feel limit is exceeded. Perhaps electronics would help but that's a new field that wasn't available when people last played with the concept.

Put 40,000 miles on a Yamaha GTS 1000 over a few years of commuting to the Isle of Man that bike was staggering with its stability. Only 100 BHP but even with a small lawn mower, 20L of emulsion and small step ladders on the back went over the mountain course quicker than a group of UK sports bikes, not a good look on your GO Pro!

Learning about this suspension makes me one step closer to building my Akira bike!

As forks compress the trail shortens which reduces steering force. Lateral tyre loads are taken by bearings near the stanchions, whereas with centre hub the loads are in the middle of the axle further away from the support arms (unless a single sided arm is used which results in wheel twist under load). A lot of steering linkages to wear. Limited steering lock. Other ways to separate steering and suspension besides forks and centre hub..

I met a guy from Australia last Nov in a ARRC race (Asia Championship) whom i cannot recall which team he was working for. Anyways he showed me the photos of a Hub center bike racing in some Moto2 racing which he was also working on. So they are still developing this technology as of now.

How about John Britten’s bikes???

while talking about the history, not one mention about the legendary John Britten that made his own 1000cc bike in a SHED, and went on racing? He developed motor, chassis, aero, all by himself and raced the motorcycles, darting over the competition? He entered some major races won some, but never won a championship because of reliability issues. Either way, when talking about front ends that differ from telescopic forks, John Britten is a legend and must be talked about. Also, there were some mountain bike designs that were good, but eventually went out of business because it is a hard place to design and produce something different. Trust forks and Motion E18 are the ones that come on top of my head.

Leading link suspentions give a different feedback also and the front end rises instead of diving and decreases fork angle, its very controllable ,sidecars are more common test beds for alternative steering

Another advantage is tgat they look awesome. Bimota Tesi H2 is my dream bike, it has my favourite engine but with linkage front suspension and lever action steering.