RideFast JUNE 2021

To qualify for an official land speed record is worlds
apart from YouTube “records” that produce jaw dropping
outcomes with seemingly little or no effort or oversight.
The normal aspirated class (motorcycles without turbo’s
or superchargers) has two divisions namely Gas and Fuel
class. To qualify for Gas class the rider has to use normal
fuel pumped at a your normal friendly neighbourhood
filling station, in South Africa this is usually 95 octane.
To qualify for Fuel class acceptable fuels include
alcohol, methanol, ethanol, nitrous oxide, nitro-methane,
hydrogen, diesel and any gasoline not purchased from
the gasoline vendor.
To reach high speeds without using a turbo or
supercharger and on top of that only using everyday
pump fuel becomes a real challenge. To gain
horsepower, in this instance, one has to start looking at
things like airflow (Cd) to give you the advantage. And
for this reason the The Nose has been developed.
This aerodynamically designed nose replaces the front
mudguard on a motorcycle and drastically reduces drag
coefficient (Cd) when riding.
The nose has moving parts and when the rider attempt
a high speed, the side and front parts move up to
completely change the Cd. On a standard Suzuki
Hayabusa the Cd is 0.561 but when the Nose is in
full operation the Cd is minimized to 0.460. (at low
speeds, where air flow is critical to keep the engine
from overheating and blowing up the moving parts all
retract either manually or automatically – whatever your
preference is – and allow air back into the fairing and
over the radiators)
A standard Hayabusa, producing 152 horsepower on a
load dyno (250 Dyno Jet Dyno) can reach a top speed
of 297 km/h when racing on a flat road (no inclines or
declines). The same rider on the same motorcycle, road
and using the same fuel, reaches a top speed of 317
km/h by simply adding the Nose.
The 0.101 Cd difference that the Nose makes, translates
to a 20 km/h difference with the exact same motorcycle!
Some people might say that Gen1 Hayabusa standard
(no engine modifications) can make 180 – 200 horse
power, but keep in mind that this is not on a load dyno
(250 Dyno Jet Dyno). It is important with this type of
experiment to compare apples with apples.
.
On a Gen2 Hayabusa with +/- 168 horsepower on the
rear wheel there is a +/- 18km/h difference in top speed
when using the Nose. A Gen 2 Hayabusa can reach
329km/h with the Nose with 168 horse power on the rear
wheel. This does not sound like much, but the norm is
a Gen 2 Busa on a flat road (and no wind) needs 200
horse power on the rear wheel (load dyno) to reach
321.4 km/h per hour with a 100kg rider.
We tested different motorcycles like the ZX10, 750 GSXR
Suzuki and 1000 Suzuki; the difference in top speed with
the Nose average between 16-20km/h. Any modern
full fairing superbike you will add to the top acceleration
and well as down force on the front wheel by adding the
Nose.
The acceleration from 200km/h and higher is also better
since the Cd is lower on the motorcycle as well.
RIDEFAST MAGAZINE JUNE 2021 55