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They may make some of the most emotionally stirring bikes, but MV Agusta seems to be in dire straits (again) as they continue to struggle with finances. Only 1,823 bikes were delivered globally in 2023.

Back in 2018, they sold 2,748 units before the Black Ocean Group from Russia took over in 2019. Their investment saw some needed restructuring, with the promise of hitting 10,000 sales in 2-3 years thereafter. Unfortunately, the plans were scuttled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet sales in 2020, 2021 and 2022 fell short of the intended target despite the global motorcycle market’s recovery following the lifting of quarantines. In any case, 2022 saw nearly 3,000 sales but that was less than 50% of 2015 sales.

KTM Group stepped in to buy 25% of MV Agusta’s stakes in 2023, going on to handle the two strategic areas of purchasing and distribution. KTM was keen to bring the brand under their wings, but MV CEO Timur Sardarov had resisted vehemently, by including strongly worded statements to the press.

The Austrian giant’s investment gave MV the funds to expand their production capability, and indeed, a new line to produce 1,000 units per day was set up at the end of 2023.

Yet, they only sold the aforementioned 1,823 units, representing a precipitous 42.5% drop from the previous year.

MV Agusta had partnered with Loncin in 2019 on the premise of building more affordable 350cc – 500cc bikes for the Asian market, but there is no mention about this plan anymore.

Instead, MV had partnered with Chinese giant QJ Motor in 2020. Indeed, the Lucky Explorer 5.5 and Lucky Explorer 9.5 adventure bikes made their debut at EICMA the next year. They have also launched the Lucky Explorer 9.5 Orioli for 2024, which is a luxury version.

It has to be said that the MV Agusta brand, although a legend, had changed hands many times and none seemed to be able to help it. There was Cagiva (1991), Proton (2001), Harley-Davidson (2009), and finally Black Ocean Group (25% in 2016, full ownership in 2019).

It seems that MV is hurting themselves by producing ultra-limited, hence ultra-expensive motorcycles like the Superveloce 98 Edizione Limitata (main picture) that could only find a limited audience.

But that is MV Agusta. Their business exploits are as legendary as their achievements on the racetracks.

Crashing on a motorcycle is unfortunate, dangerous, and definitely not fun. We do not like deriving entertainment from the misfortune of others, either. However, someone had decided to stitch bizarre crash videos together from CCTV and dashcam footages. Add a rousing soundtrack and sound effects, and voila! These otherwise scary crashes turn into something even more bizarre, if not funny.

This video montage has been shared so much on so many Facebook pages and even Tik Tok that no one knows who the real creator was. Do inform us if you know the original creator this montage.

The majority of these accidents appeared to have been recorded in China, with one exception at 0:35 which was from Indonesia. But all of them showed mishandling, poor judgment, and lack of skills of the motorcyclists involved. Still, some managed to press the horn button when they lose control of their vehicles. You could also see that none wore protective gear apart from a few with only a helmet. Most were riding bikes were electric scooters and bicycles.

So, if there are lessons to be learned from these videos:

  • Always wear protective gear. It is better to have it than not need it, than not have it when you need it.
  • Always ride within your limits. Going too fast for your thoughts to catch up 3 minutes later is never good.
  • Always be vigilant. Know your surroundings. Look ahead, look behind, look left, look right. Think of yourself as a radar that scans 360-degrees. Built a “sixth sense” that allows you to have “a feeling” about something in proximity without even needing to look at it. (No, we didn’t mean dead people, rather, other vehicles.)
  • Always review your riding. Think back to what you did when you rode the last time. What were the things you had in control, what you did not, and how you can be better.
  • Always ride with some paranoia. Do not trust other road users blindly. They may want to swerve away from a pothole, or be distracted, or anything else between.

Needless to say, brake pads are part of what makes the brake system as a whole operate, and it is true for regardless if it is a hydraulic or drum system. No brake pad, no brakes! So, what are the standards for brake pads?

So, what is/are the standards?

Firstly, we must always start by determining the need for standards.

Standards call for repeatable testing methods that usually resonate with advancements. Standards also ensure that any tested and approved product meets a certain set of requirements – usually for safety benefits to consumers. On the other hand, manufacturers could do anything as the please to the detriment of consumers. The best example is the motorcycle helmet.

So, for brake pads, especially imported ones, are tested and approved through:

ECE R90

  • “ECE” stands for Economic Commission of Europe. Also sometimes marked as “CE” for Conformité Européenne.
  • “R” stands for Regulation.
  • “90” is the number of the standard. (Remember that motorcycle helmet falls under R22?)

Virtually any product sold in the European Union countries must be test and certified to their respective standards.

How about Malaysia?

Malaysia has her own standards for brake pads, namely:

MS1164:2015

  • “MS” stands for Malaysian Standards.
  • “1164” is the standard’s number.
  • “2015” is the year of the revision.

And which standard should I go by?

The MS1164:2015 came into effect as of 1st November 2015 and brake pads made in Malaysia must have these letters printed on the pads’ backing plate.

Imported pads should have the ECE R90 standard printed on them. But the importer or producer may also seek the approval of the MS1164:2015 standard.

Best to go for brake pads that are certified to ECE R90 or MS1164:2015 or both. DO NOT compromise on brake pads or any brake component, for that matter, because they involve yours and your loved ones’ safety.

We shall touch more on the tests involved in the near future.

There are several important aspects we look for when we buy a motorcycle helmet: Style, safety, features, comfort, price, although not necessarily in that order. There is another factor: Wind noise. Or more ideally, a completely silent helmet. Is that possible?

Continued exposure to exceptionally high levels of wind noise results in severe consequences such as permanent hearing loss. And no hearing aid and amount of surgery can bring that hearing back. Problem is, hearing damage creeps up progressively but early symptoms include the ears feeling “stuffy.” If unchecked, this damage will continue until the ears start ringing, a condition called tinnitus.

Additionally, wind noise distracts you from fully concentrating on your riding, besides tiring you out quicker.

Let us cut to the chase: Is there a completely silent helmet?

The law says NO

To be blunt, helmet regulations do not allow for a completely silent helmet. See the picture below, which is a page taken from the ECE R22 regulations pertaining to helmet tests.

Paragraph 6.4.5 states:

The helmet shall not dangerously affect the wearer’s ability to hear.

In other words, the helmet must not filter out environmental sounds and putting the wearer in a bubble of Zen. It is for safety purposes as you may imagine as aural cues keep us safe as we know if there is a vehicle in proximity. Additionally, ride long enough and we listen to the engine’s note as when to shift gears or gauge our speed.

However…

Premium helmet makers would already have the technology to produce a silent helmet by now. But since it is dangerous to do so, there are ways of making helmets as quiet as possible by:

  1. Ensuring a better fit. A better fitting helmet provides less room for air to move around inside the helmet. This fit also goes for the chin curtain which reduces airflow from underneath the helmet.
  2. Better visor seal. Ensuring the visor sits flush with the rubber seal around the helmet’s aperture (face opening) keeps wind out. A side benefit of this keeps water out, too.
  3. Better aerodynamics. The main function of motorcycle helmet aerodynamics is to reduce or eliminate helmet movements due to air pressure at high speeds, and to elevate the wearer’s safety and comfort. An aerodynamically “slippery” helmet also alleviates some of the stresses on the wearer’s neck muscles. A benefit of this is a quieter helmet.

In closing

There are ways in which the wearer can reduce noise, given the absence of a completely silent helmet. One is by wearing earplugs. There are “smart” earplugs that filter out the harmful frequencies and noise while allowing certain important sounds through such as speech, engine note, some environmental sounds through. This writer has gotten so used to wearing earplugs that he cannot ride without them. Cutting out wind noise helps with concentrating on riding, too.

Another is of course by wearing a full-faced helmet. It is absurd to compare the wind noise in an open-faced helmet to a full-faced helmet.

We all do it: Browse through a motorcycle’s spec sheets to look for the engine’s power above everything else. But why do more and more spec sheets use the unit kW for engine power instead of HP? Why do not we settle on just one power unit?

The short answer is about accuracy and a standard measurement, as we shall see below.

Where did HP (horsepower) come from?

It all goes back to the invention of the steam locomotive.

Thomas Newcomen was the inventor in 1712, but it was James Watt (familiar name, is it not?) who improved the design in 1776. Then, Watt devised the method of comparing the power of his locomotive to the equivalent of how many horses to promote the power of his locomotive on a more relatable scale. Hence, horsepower.

Since then, this value has been adopted for rotary motion for trains and through the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the value stuck for motorcycle and car engines.

Watt’s mechanical horsepower is defined as a horse lifting a 550lb. load 1 foot in 1 second, which equals 32,549 ft-lb of work per minute, or 4,500 kilogram-metres per minute.

Okay, so why Watt?

However, Europeans prefer to adhere to SI units or in other words, metric units. This is where the discrepancies creep up.

See, Imperial horsepower measures as 745.7 Watts, while the European SI metric horsepower unit also known as PS (Pferdestärke) or CV (Chevaux-Vapeur) is only 735.5 Watts.

This is why while some spec sheets pronounce an engine to produce 70 PS, it actually produces only 69 HP.

These different units i.e. mechanical HP, metric HP, PS, CV only created confusion to vehicle buyers, so in 1972, the kW replaced PS as the SI unit for engine power through EEC directives. But as of 1 January 2010, the EU only permits HP as a supplemental unit to kW.

How is kW calculated?

Kilowatt is a function of torque and revolutions per minute (RPM)  and is calculated as following: Power (kW) = torque (Nm) x speed (revolutions per minute, or RPM) / 9.5488.

The calculation is actually the same for horsepower: Power (HP) = torque (lb-ft) x speed (RPM) / 5,252.

However, to convert published kW to HP: Horsepower = 1 kW x 1.34. Thus, an engine which produces 12 kW of power equals 16.1 HP.

Let us talk a bit about the single sided swingarm, especially considering a video that went viral recently.

The footage showed a rider and his pillion on a bike when the pillion suddenly became agitated. The camera then panned right to show their bike’s rear wheel running next to the divider and overtaking them. It concluded with a Ducati Hypermotard on its side sans the rear wheel.

Netizens were quick to provide their own comments of the incident. Some were just pure banter, some were jokes, some were derision, some were er… post-mortems.

One such comment in our sister site, MotoMalaya attracted our attention. The commenter said, “That’s the disadvantage of the single sided swingarm.” The comment was followed by plenty of derision.

Like it or not, that comment has some truth. However, before we proceed further, we would like to state that such occurrence is very rare. And it is not only Ducatis that are fitted with single sided swingarms as several other manufacturers do so, too. For example, BMW, Honda, Moto Guzzi, KTM, CFMoto, MV Agusta, Triumph, and of course scooters!

The main advantage of the single sided swingarm

The primary advantage of the single sided swingarm is quick and easy rear wheel removal and installation. Remove the tightening nut or bolts and out comes the entire wheel without upsetting the chain tension and rear brake as the rear sprocket, brake disc, and brake caliper are mounted on a carrier.

There is a very short and stout axle to hold the wheel in place. Thus, one only needs to reinstall the rear wheel and retighten the locking nut or bolts and not bother with chain tension and axle alignment.

In fact, this was why Massimo Tamburini designed the seminal Ducati 916 with a single sided swingarm. It was thought that Ducati had wanted to enter the 916 in endurance races. Tamburini himself said that he drew inspiration from the Honda NR750. Other contemporary rivals were the Honda RC30 and later RC45 – both also sported single sided swingarms because they were raced in endurance events.

 

However, Tamburini did also mention that aesthetically, the rear wheel appears as if it is floating and not connected to the bike. It then became the signature of high performance Ducatis and continues to be used until today.

The double sided swingarm, on the other hand…

Conversely, a double sided swingarm requires an axle/spindle to be inserted through the center of the wheel to connect both sides.

One needs to pull the axle out, take the chain off the sprocket, and pull the brake disc away from the caliper.

The drive chain requires tensioning and the entire rear end needs realignment when the axle and wheel are reinstalled. The tensioning and alignment process needs time and care. An improperly aligned rear axle will result in abnormal tyre, chain, and brake pad wear, besides handling issues.

But should the lock nut break loose and depending on the design of the rear of the swing arm, the chain can hold the axle in place albeit misaligned. Similarly, the brake caliper bracket or holder helps to keep the axle and wheel from sliding out.

Then again, there are incidents where the rear wheel came off double sided swingarms. Point is, it takes a longer time for the rear wheel to slide out and there will be plenty of warning symptoms if the axle nut was improperly tightened or had come off, such as the rear of the bike pulling to one side.

In a nutshell

So, is a single side swingarm inherently dangerous?

All engineering practices consist of compromises. That is why the rear wheel is locked with a large nut and pin or several bolts. Therefore, the proper tightening torque is essential, so use a torque wrench, for crying out loud!

We would like to state again that this was a very uncommon incident. In any case, always inspect your bike before riding.

The 2023 Asia Harley Days was undoubtedly a success. We attended the event and enjoyed the atmosphere. But despite being held in what can be described as the party capital of Thailand, Pattaya, with all of its potential and reputation for great parties, could have been better. But that is not to say we did not enjoy ourselves, we certainly did.  

Perhaps the chosen location, Legend Siam, was too far from the town of Pattaya, which meant only those who were attending Asia Harley Days were there. For the regular person, Asia Harley Days remained inaccessible due to its distance from the town. 

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