It' s classic Sci-Fi; man creates artificially intelligent technology, intelligent technology tries to destroy man. Motorcycles may not be that intelligent yet, but they're getting smarter. Should we be worried?At what point does the technology driving our bikes become too much? Think back to the old days of iced or flooded carbs, misfires and broken HT leads the answer is probably not for a long time yet. In fact modern bikes are incredibly reliable even the italian ones work most of the time.
But if nothing else, sci-fi movies warn us that at some point the technology will get too smart. They may even wage war against man in a bid to avoid being used in winter. Or perhaps not.
Ok, so artificially intelligent GSX-R1000s may be a while off yet, but technology is moving on and when we stood back and looked, we realised BMW's HP2 Sport is probably the most technically advanced production bike around.
Which got us talking, as it should. We take a lot of the technology on modern bikes for granted and didn't understand all of it either, if were being really honest. So, inspired by the HP2 land 2001: A Space Odyssey), here's a look at some of the neat things technology's doing for us and our bikes.
WIRING LOOMS AND DATA-LOGGING
There's no question bikes are going to become even more sophislicated, The problem is this normally requires more sensors in order to make those decisions. In turn that requires more wiring, and with a standard wiring loom already weighing in the region of 1.5- 2kg and being quite bulky, manufacturers need to be careful not to offset the use of all that titanium.
One solution is to use a CAN based system. In fact several bikes already use this, including Ducati's 1098 and now the HP2 Sport. CAN stands for Controller Area Network, and describes a communication protocol or language if you like. What it means in simple terms is less wiring.
Rather than having a separate wire for each signal as we do now. CAN allows you to use two wires to carry many signals. but idenuyng packets of information and broadcasting them one at a time.
It's a bit like police radios. Everyone heres all the information being transmitted, but only responds when they're addressed directly. Equally, when they want to talk they identify themselves by their call-sign so everyone knows who's talking.
Lets talk
In a CAN system a pair of wires act as the walkie talkies and connect all the sensors, and each sensor is told to continually role in The ECU acts as HQ listening to everything and does what it needs to with the information So. taking the throttle position sensor as an example, a small chip reads its position, converts it into CAN information and waits until nothing else is talking before reporting in. The ECU hears the throttle position sensors call-sign, and then stores whatever value it reads out. Of course all the sensors are reporting in so fast that to humans it appears they're all talking at the same time (but they're not).
The HP2 Sport has two separate CAN buses [a bus being a set of conductors that carry data within a computer]. One carries the information to run the bike and ABS and the other simply re-broadcasts some of that information to be used for data-log-ging. It's the same on the Ducati 1098. If you know what call-signs you need, you simply tell the logger to record them it's a relatively simple system to make work if you've already got a working CAN system So expect to see more bikes using CAN and more with the option of data-logging if your simply plug in a recording device.
SMART ECU
In one sense ECUs are dumb because all they do is follow instructions. But their ability to perform fast calculations opens up a wordl of possibilities to engineers who can design algorithms to do clever things for us like closed looping.
Closed loop is a term you'll sometimes hear used when talking about fuel injection systems and it refers to a luel system that can automatically correct itself using a lambda O2 sensor. You see these fitted increasingly as OE to help optimise catalytic converters The 02 sensor sniffs the amount of oxygen in the hot exhaust gas and turns it into an electrical signal that can be read the ECU. If the mixture is rich (too much fue) there will be less oxygen and the signal will drop and vice versa.
'Cruise' control
Normally. the amount of fuel to be injected is read from a 'table stored in the ECU. These are programmed by the factory to a value they know will work. However. in closed Ioop mode the ECU works a little differently. First it injects the amount of fuel specified in the table according to things like throttle position and rpm then a short time later it reads the signal from the 02 sensor and compares that to a target value.
The target value can be anything but say it an air-to-fuel ratio of 13.4:1 (13.4 parts air to one part fuel [by weight]). If the reading from the 02 sensor shows the exhaust gases to be rich, the ECU knows whatever it injected last time was too much. By dividing the value measured by the 02 sensor by the target value, it's very easy to arrive at an approximate correction factor.
The ECU then applies this and opens the injector for the 'table value' multiplied by the 'correction factor'. In theory, the air-fuel ratio should now be correct. By doing this over and over the ECU should in theory be able to fuel perfectly all the time in practice though this isn't the case.
For various reasons, it's only possible/wise to close-loop fuel injection in stable condition called cruise. This doesn't refer to the speed of the bike, but more the fact that the rpm and throttle positions are fairly static. The time period can be anything over, say, 0.5 seconds. The reasons for this are varied, but at the highest level there is the amount of time it takes the O2 sensor to read the signal.
The most common use for closed loop systems today is fuel conservation. If you're holding a certain speed, it's possible to safely run the engine leaner than it you're accelerating hard, where a rich mixture is more beneficial. However, while it saves fuel it can also lead an engine to feel harsh and surge slightly. As soon as you break the cruise conditions, values are read once again from the main table.
An extra protection system on the rear of the HP2 Sport's cylinders are knock sensors These detect detonation - remember fuel in the cylinder normally burns (rather than exploding) from the spark plug. Detonation is when all the fuel ignites simultaneously, putting massive stresses on the piston. Too much detonation will cause the piston to fail either sooner or later although the higher the RON rating of the fuel the Less prone it is to detonation. The BMW requires 98RON rather than the 95RON of normal unleaded.
Knock sensors effectively look for severe shock, and if the ECU senses it, suggesting a risk of detonation, the ECU will retard the bike's ignition timing and also richen the mixture to try and prevent it. All of which means you can put normal unleaded in the HP2 Sport and all you should get is reduced performance. rather than a repair bill.
ABS
Old hat now, but a clever technology all the same. The wheel speed is read differently to normal. Rather than out-putting a square wave signal (digital), ABS sensors normally output an AC voltage sign wave (analogue) ranging from 2v-50v. The frequency rather than the voltage is used to calculate speed
ECU
This is a pretty ECU. Inside you'll find several high speed processors and the transistors required to switch the injectors and ignition coils. While these digital switches have no moving parts they effectively offer lots or no resistance. However, because they switch on and off so fast there is a short period where they do act as a resistor and that generates heat. Without a heat-sink the components will easily unsolder themselves.
ENGINE SENSORS
Here's where it gets really complex. Before you can even fit the most basic fuel injection system you really need a minimum of 5 sensors: crank speed, cam and throttle position, air temperature ab pressure. But if you want to get more advanced there's no limit how many sensors you require. Because the ECU relies on each sensor to help correct its decisions, a failure in any one can put it into 'safe' mode.
EXHAUST VALVE
By adjusting the back pressure and velocity of the exhaust gases, engineers have found an effective way to kill two birds with one big techno stick. As well as helping boost low-down power it also knocks a few dB off the peak noise level during noise tests.
'ANTI-STOPPIE'
A new addition to the ABS system is an anti-stoppie function. It's not really designed to stop you doing massive stoppies, but it will try to stop the rear wheel lifting during hard braking and uses a brake pressure sensors to decide when to kick-in.
QUICKSHIFTER
Fitted for the first time a s original equipment to this very bike, shifters are also getting smarter. This one has a selective cut based on how much load the engine is under and how fast the crank is spinning. It doesn't simply turn the ignition on and off either. It's cut out and faded in for smoother shifts.
LAMBDA SENSORS
Lambda or O2 sensors are increasingly fitted to fuel injected bikes. The ECU can use them to see how well the engine is being fuelled and adjust its self accordingly. It's also possible to get the gas temperature from them but it's not as accurate as proper thermocouple.
SMART DISPLAY
1. The humble LED in all its glory. New high intensity LEDs can even grab your attention when you're doing 150mph and think you're about to die. These are described as sequential and programmable because you tell each one when to switch on
2. See the black bar near 4,000rpm! It's there because the dash board knows the engine isn't up to temperature so rather than trusting you won't rev out of it just yet it brings this rev-limiting bar down. The lights are on for the same reason. Technology it spoils all the fun.
3. Note the Vmin and Vmax values. 'V' in this case stands for velocity. Whoever rode this bike ;ast reset the dash at standstill (hence Vmin=0km/h) and got up to 295km/h (or 181mph). You could reset it when you're rolling along to record your minimum speed.
4. The only real fixed things on this dash are shift lights, idiot lights and the RPM sweep. Most of the other information can be moved around by delving into the settings. Although this death is in race mode you can see someone has transposed the speed and gear number positions. That's great, so you have no idea what gear you're in because you can't see it, but at least you know how last you're going. Lucklly there's a reset to default option.
5. There's a button on the switch gear that allows you to switch modes and enter a shed load of settings. You can see this dash is in Race mode at the moment. Someone's also been checking their laptimes although they probably werwn't using the optional laptime receiver because a laptime of 8m34.50s is pretty poor. Mind you it was on lap 21, maybe the tyres had gone off.
It's the digital switch-over in bike dash form. Since manufacturers first started dumping cable operated speedos in the late 90's and moved over to digital tachometers, dashboards have been getting smaller, lighter and more daring in their layout. But they still generally looked like conventional dashboards until now.
To borrow a phrase from the aviation industry. BMW's HP2 Sport has a glass cockpit and a smart one at that. There isn't a single moving part yet it's capable of relying far more information than any production bike dash to date.
So xhat can this dash do that a normal set of clocks can't? It has to do the basics of course; RPM and speed and recording the bike's mileage. It also has the usual array of warning lights too, neutral, high beam indicators and so on but the similarities end there. We mentioned in the launch report that you can change the dashboard's configuration by pressing a switch and that's useful in itself.
Multiple Layout
Different information is important at different times. For road riding your speed is more important than gear position so it makes sense to be able to change this to suit and the HP2 Sports allows you to change between Road and Race configurations. In race mode things like laptime and gear position are given prominence over speed and time.
However in the future there's nothing to limit how many layout are available it just depends on how much information there is to present and how it's programmed. For instance they might display fuel consumption figures if you hold a certain speed for more than 30 seconds or total running time on a mechanic's service pate to make servicing easier.
Lap Times
Good for track days or way-points. The Beemer's 2D dash can record up to 100 lap times which you can then review. This is nothing new in itself (Aprilia's RS250 was the first to offer this). The difference is the rider isn't forced to trigger it manually. You can buy a beacon and receiver from your BMW dealer that plugs straight in and gives you lap times accurate to within a thousandth of a second.
Programmable Shift Lights
Several bikes have a shift light but the HP2's dash has 8 (2 amber, 2 green and 4 red ones) and you can tell the dashboard when to light each one up. So they can come on progressively or all at once. You can also adjust how bright they are.
Average values:It doesn't matter how many features you read explaining how little time we spend on fullthrottle or how much we use low RPM, there's still a bit of us that says "not me, I'm always on full chat". I know because I still do it myself but the reality is we hardly use all the throttle or the revs even on race tracks.
The HP2 Sport dash poves this by calculating the average throttle position speed and RPM you've used. You zero them just like a trip meter before you start than review them when ready, and if nothing else it should help persuade you that it's not all about top end power so the fact that you only have 130bhp shouldn't worry you as much.
Apart from all the wizzardly applied as standard optional extras like this 2D laptime receiver are also available.
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