RSV4 Dyno Blowup?

[Fredrc30]

A guy I know who works for Ducati NA claims that one of their dealers (who also carry Aprilia) ran an RSV4 up on a dyno; got 151bhp out of it, but it then let a rod go.
I'm wondering whether this is a bit of Ducati sour grapes; modern street motors breaking rods is almost unheard of, and it's not as though Aprilia don't know much about engine design, metallurgy etc.
Anyone else heard this story?

[Hawkeye]

No, but do let us know if you hear of anything more.

An RSV4 Factory blew a piston ring and seized 4 laps into the local SBK support race after the MotoGP round last Sunday evening at Sepang. That would have been its first race outing after running in. Very scant information so far, but I'll find out more in a day or two. I'd hazard its either a high engine temperature/oil supply issue that brought it on. The engine repair will be covered under warranty (the rider is supported by the Aprilia importers) so no issues there, except maybe a long wait for spares.

[Beau1K]

Nope...hadn't heard about this rumor.

[colacin]

Regarding the racebike here in SG - there hasn't been an autopsy yet to confirm the cause of death.

[amauri]

The dealer who ran the bikes on their Dyno is Spectrum in Irvine.
Both Cycle World magazine and Aprilia USA tested the bikes there.

None blew up and we rode them at the dealers meeting in Carlsbad two weeks ago.

Sounds like someone is jealous.

[rx7tt95]

According to Cycle World, their first bike put out 146hp and a replacement bike made 150. This seems to be down in power vs. the Euro bikes by a considerable amount. Someone on the R1 forum (I know, I know) is spreading a rumor that the bikes are being detuned from here on out. The article goes on to say Aprilia USA is looking into the matter.

[revdecal]

Well that is very bad compared to mine as my bike has been tested at a true 169-170hp at the rear wheel.
Not impressive if that's the case but why would they bother?

[rx7tt95]

It's a good question. I guess we'll have to see what actual customer bikes dyno at. But it's definitely not good press here in the U.S. Let's hope it's just an isolated bike or two.

[colacin]

A bunch of manufacturers have bikes that produce less power in US trim- the current CBR600 being one of them. You have California to thank for that...

[007]

Originally Posted by colacin

A bunch of manufacturers have bikes that produce less power in US trim- the current CBR600 being one of them. You have California to thank for that...

how is that?

[Diablo1]

Perhaps AF1 can find the right wire to clip on the ECU, and restore the HP?

[rsalco]

One [OK - actually 2] acronym[s] to explain the HP difference: EPA/CARB.

It is "fixable", but will take a knowlegeable tuner and will render the bikes illegal; no small matter in states that soon will, or already do, mandate annual "sniffer" inspections.

[Konstantin]

Originally Posted by revdecal

Well that is very bad compared to mine as my bike has been tested at a true 169-170hp at the rear wheel.
Not impressive if that's the case but why would they bother?

Just want to remind:
There are different ways to measure and calculate HP in Europe than in the US of A.
Even in Europe we have DIN- and EG-hp, showed on the crank, clutch and the rearwheel...
So what I want to tell you is that you can´t compare the hp without calculating the correction factors!

I have the formulas on my PC-Laptop to calculate, I must find out if the it still works after we had a flood water and if it works and will post them here...

Cheers

Konstantin
__________

[amauri]

good point Konstanstin

Originally Posted by revdecal

Well that is very bad compared to mine as my bike has been tested at a true 169-170hp at the rear wheel.
Not impressive if that's the case but why would they bother?

revdecal,

Do you know if your Dyno results were recorded in DIN or SAE standards?

European Dynos typically use the German DIN standard for HP measurement.
US Dynos use SAE standards.

By definition, DIN measurements are taken at the engine’s output shaft.
Either by physically connecting the motor to a bench Dyno or by calculation when the Dyno is driven by the bike’s rear wheel.

The DynoJet 250i used at Spectrum is set to record SAE rear wheel HP.
When I worked at Spectrum I compared it to L&L Motorsports 250i and both read within 2 hp on the same bike.

Could this difference in HP between Euro and USA bikes be just in the way it was measured?

Originally Posted by colacin

A bunch of manufacturers have bikes that produce less power in US trim- the current CBR600 being one of them. You have California to thank for that...

The only hardware difference between EU bikes and the CND/USA bikes is the addition of the fuel vapor canister that has no effect on HP.
All Aprilia bikes sold in the US are 50 State compliant now (have been for several years), no Calif specific bikes anymore.

It really is a shame that we have this HP war going on.
Consumers now place more emphasis on these easily manipulated numbers than how the bike actually feels, or how it performs on the track.

We can thank the magazines for that.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

The bikes we all rode at the dealer meeting were far from underpowered. We got shipping confirmation on our bikes, dyno testing will began after break in is done. Remember the first 2009 R1 I put up on the dyno at our shop did a whopping 125 bhp on the Factory Pro Dyno, then with nothing more than Akro full system and tuning went to 141.5 bhp.

Some Japanese bikes like the 03-04 ZX10R for example did not make best power until something "unlocked" in the UCU around a thousand miles allowing full power in the last 3k rpm. I personally tested this and the graphs are identical up to say 9k and then diverge to the tune of 12 bhp or so at redline on the higher mileage bike. HC emissions were slightly higher on the low time motor and CO numbers remained the same on both runs. This indicates at least for the 03-40 ZX10R the "break in" of the ECU/Motor allowed for more ignition advance at high rpm once the bike had passed a certain number of running hours or miles. I suspect the 2009 R1 may have been the same sort of deal but since I installed a pipe and PCV in the mean time, and then spent a LOT more time getting the lower rpms and throttle positions dialed in before moving on to the high rpm heavy load stuff I do not have a stock for stock comparison to see if it can be a proven theory, and i am not about to go out and buy one just to see if I am right even though I have the tuning forks tattooed on my back.

At least 2 of the bikes we rode at the dealer meeting were early press bikes, no worries, they were not slow!