Championship On A Budget

Racing an old-ish bikes on cheap-ish tires…Scott Rybarik puts his theories to the ultimate test

Andria Yu

USA TODAY

The fastest motorcycle riders in the world gathered in Indianapolis for Sunday's MotoGP race, riding atop bikes estimated to be around $2 million.

Here's a look at why these bikes are so expensive to build:

1. Hand built. These bikes are all one-of-a-kind prototypes, using the latest technology available in the motorcycle industry, says Julian Thomas of Ducati. And every bike is hand-built, says Yamaha's Bob Starr. "Each engine is individually made," Starr says. Also, the engines are sealed under lock and key during the entire race season so teams are not allowed to open them up to make any changes. "Therein lies a lot of the cost," says Starr. "Engines have to be designed to give peak performance and to be reliable" through as many races as possible.
2. Rare parts. The very limited quantity of parts produced for MotoGP bikes also affects the cost. "When you produce a CBR100RR, you produce thousands" of parts such as shocks and brakes, so the price of a single piece goes down by a lot, says Livio Suppo, Team Principal for Repsol Honda Team. Although factories use parts from third-party companies, such as Ohlins for their suspension, for MotoGP bikes, few bike-specific pieces are produced and they are fine-tuned and custom adjusted for each rider. Regular consumers can spend about $3,000-$15,000 to upgrade their front forks using Ohlins parts or other brands. The cost of front forks for Yamaha's MotoGP bikes, however, are in the ballpark of $100,000, according to Starr. The engines are the most expensive part on these bikes. On Honda's MotoGP machine, the engines cost around $220,000.
3. Expensive materials. To keep the bikes light yet strong, a lot of exotic, expensive materials such as titanium, magnesium and carbon fiber are used, from the engine to chassis to the fairings. Carbon fiber costs about $10 a pound, whereas steel, at less than $1 a pound, and plastics, which are priced at cents to the pound, are much cheaper. "Production fairing is ABS (plastic)," says Livio, whereas MotoGP motorcycles use carbon fiber. The race machines also use carbon fiber-composite brake rotors as opposed to cast iron, which can often be found on street motorcycles.
4. Technology. On racing engines, pneumatic valves are used vs. spring valves, typically, for production motorcycles, says Livio. Also, the front-running MotoGP bikes have seamless transmissions, which allow super-slick clutchless shifting. The motorcycles also have from 30 to 40 sensors that gather data, such as suspension travel, brake and exhaust temperature and steering angle, says Ducati's Thomas. When the bikes come in after a race or practice session, the information is downloaded and analyzed.
5. Wear and tear. Because MotoGP bikes use race specific components that are also put under extreme conditions during racing, many of these parts may last only a few hours. For example, road tires on normal street bikes are made with different compounds that can last for thousands of miles. Race tires are made with stickier, softer compounds to provide the grip needed to keep the bikes from sliding off the track in the corners. These tires, which can withstand higher temperatures, have a drastically shorter life span.

The $2 million price tag doesn't even include the cost of research and development, says Thomas and Starr. Including that would bring the bike prices exponentially higher. In a sense, says Thomas, "These bikes are priceless."

Still, apart from these specialized parts, "a bike is a bike," says Livio. "There's a lot of things we can learn and there's a lot of exchange of information between production and racing and racing and production."

For example, fuel consumption in MotoGP is a key issue because factory teams are limited to 20 liters to finish the race. "Production technology of Honda is very good in fuel consumption and has been very useful for racing, also," Livio says. Meanwhile, the pinnacle of motorcycle electronics is in MotoGP, and "this is good to understand and learn more for electronics for the future of road bikes," he says.

So what can you expect to see at dealers, passed down from $2 million motorcycles?

There are a few bikes out there that come close.

Honda's RC213V-S is based on the RC213V, launched in 2012 to compete in MotoGP races. Honda won the 2013 and 2014 championship titles with that bike. "Aside from the pneumatic valves and the special transmission, this is the same bike," says Livio. The street version is also highly de-tuned, putting out as much as 159 horsepower in certain markets, while a MotoGP bike has in excess of 250 horsepower.

Still, the RC213V-S is not likely a bike for the masses, with a limited production of about 200 and a price tag of $184,000.

Yamaha's 2015 YZF-R1M inherited most of its electronics from the MotoGP bike, says Starr. It's a track/race-ready bike that provides riders with features such as launch control, anti-wheelie control, quickshifter, slide control and a GPS unit (to more accurately measure lap times). It is also the first street motorcycle that provides a six-axis Internal Measurement Unit (IMU) that consists of a gyro sensor that measures pitch, roll and yaw, as well as an accelerometer, which measures acceleration in forward-backward, right-left and up and down directions. The R1M also costs a more palatable $21,990.

Even the base model YZF-R1, which starts at $16,490, has many of the components the R1M model has, including the IMU, says Kevin Theisen, regional business manager with Yamaha's North Region Motorsports Group.

Essentially, today's motorcycle racing fans can buy a bike surprisingly close to a MotoGP machine. Formula 1 enthusiasts can't say the same.