During our “Spy Attitude” summarizing the changes seen on the GSX-RR during the 2019 season, we reported the apparent disappearance of the engine mounts integrated into the fairing.
“Finally, and this has gone relatively unnoticed, in addition to a new aerodynamic solution, the GSX-RR adopted at the start of this year new fairing sides which no longer reveal the carbon or aluminum engine supports, as is the case. was the case before. The latter, bolted and interchangeable, made it possible to adjust the rigidity of the frame according to the circuits. Are they still present, under the fairing, or have the men from Hamamatsu opted for another solution? For the moment, no one has unlocked the secret…”.
Thanks to an excellent interview with the Japanese journalist Akira Nishimura for the Japanese site mr-bike.jp, the secret is now out!
It must be said that the man is received with the greatest respect by all Japanese manufacturers, and his interview with Shinichi Sahara (MotoGP project manager) and Ken Kawachi (MotoGP Technical Director) is no exception to the rule, generating an extremely rich and interesting interview… Accompanied by photos of the GSX-RR without its fairing.
We will come back to this but, in the meantime, it turns out that the removable engine supports were indeed there, now well hidden under the fairing. Better, we see that the cylinders have 3 juxtaposed possibilities of anchoring points, which allows, together with different materials (and different thicknesses) of the engine supports, offers a wide variety of possible adaptations to each circuit.
Are they used? Only the employees of the Hamamatsu firm have the answer, but they are there and apparently give complete satisfaction, given the almost non-evolution of the GSX-RR chassis in 2019.
A finding confirmed by Ken Kawachi: “It's true, when I came back to the competition department, the frame was quite soft, so (carbon) was a direction to gradually add rigidity to it. We've done a lot of testing but you can't stray much from where you are, so I think we're in the right place. »
Happy men have no stories...
