• BMW R1100 S Boxer Team
• Tryphonos RF900
• Ducati 996 Biposto

Will we finally see the end of the front telescopic fork in the 20th century? To find out, let's try three different options of the future: three alternatives as efficient as different.

At last something new! After endless tests of the "same bike" - two wheels, one in engine and one telescopic fork - I am sure you like to submerge yourself in the world of new sensations. Take a good look at the yellow bike below. Is there anything missing? Of course, the forks! That's the Tryphonos, a spectacular alternative design with hub centre steering… Beside it, a more familiar but less impressive design, a BMW "Telelever", beautiful and very well equipped. And finally, as best representative of the "normal" bikes the Ducati 996.

Let's confront the present and future of the front suspension in work that could be titled "comparison of suspension, part to". The first part would be any of the multiple occasions in motorcycling over the last let's say, 30 years, of bikes fitted with the conventional telescopic forks. In the course of the history of modern motorcycles, they have been trying to dismiss them, but the fact that the matter is that "two out of three" modern motorcycles still have them. Something will have the water when they bless it: in the end, after announcing a new "definitive" system, a simple, plain, efficient and cheap form, always prevails.

The reasoning behind the Telelever

The main problem with telescopic forks is the lack of rigidity. This forces is the use of increasingly large diameters or the use of upside-down systems, and causes structural problems, such as stiction between this stanchion and slider, with negative repercussions in its performance. Moreover, the fact that the steering suspension are so linked to the effect of braking causes problems amongst themselves: when the springs are compressed by the action of the brakes they are hardly able to it as suspension, affecting the steering over the bumps.

BMW R1100 S Boxer Team

The BMW Telelever System

BMW "created the Telelever" - in fact, it found its inspiration from the design of an enthusiastic North American-in order to disassociate all these effects. This system uses the telescopic fork only for its directional purposes, the slider is empty, without hydraulic element. They wishbone situated in the central area and yoke above braces it. The steering functions normally, director from the handlebars, and walk is supported by spherical bearings on both of them. The suspension, on the other hand, is being taken care of by traditional shock absorber, with hydraulic reservoir, fixed to chassis point and the wheel moves through an arc.

The main advantages are: much more rigidity, and obviously, as stated before, the separation between the effect of suspension and steering. Therefore, the geometry changes, due to suspension travel, are very different, almost non-existent, because the wheel does not raise "towards the yoke", but straight up: the bike doesn't shorten all lengthen, doesn't shake during braking or exhilaration, benefiting stability, especially in very heavy bikes with large weights transfer. In the big BMW "Touring", the Telelever system is simply invincible.

BMW R1100 S Rear End with Shaft Drive

The special BMW is from the box team, winner of the German Endurance Championship in 1998, in the "Battle of the Twins" category reserved for to cylinder bikes - and almost wins over all! - within engine prepared to 1162cc and 118 horse power at 7,800 rpm - bigger bore, titanium connecting rods to increase ground clearance, special MHG exhaust, reprogrammed Eibach injection - and special Sachs shock absorbers, 20mm longer than the standard ones, and multi-adjustable. The brakes are Brembo 320mm and callipers "ex-Doohan", with Magura master cylinder and Michelin Race 3 tyres. In total, despite the carbon fibre, 202kg.

Tryphonos System

Created by Michael Tryphonos-London engineer, whose name clearly indicates his Greek descent, the "three voices" represented in his logo-who is dedicated eight years to this project, and made by the firm Performoto, is the fourth prototype of the saga with Kawasaki and GSXR engines in the past. This "definitive" version of the Tryphonos, they like to manufacture at around 20 units, at a similar price to a 996, with a RF 900 F engine of limited series, to propel approximately 160kg in racing configuration, and just ten more with everything needed to run on the road.

Do you find any similarities with the Tesi of a few years ago? Only in some aspects. The main one, naturally, the use of hub centre steering to turn the front wheel. On the left side, mounted without a linkage, a special Penske shock absorber giving 115mm travel. The brace on this side is supported by the kingpin with PFM brake callipers of six pistons each, which brake on one ventilated disc of 320mm diameter in the cenral area. The front rim is carbon fibre, at 3.50" - rear 6.00", both in 17" - with Avon "Sport Production" tyres.

The "U" shaped alloy chassis is similar, except the Tryphonos goes "underneath" instead of "above", as is the case in the Bimota of the Yamaha GTS. The wheel base is adjustable from 1,395mm to 1,400mm, also the basic geometry's parameters: from 16 degrees to 20 degrees caster and 80mm to 105mm of trail, respectively. At the back it uses a "normal" progressive system, from a GSXR 750 of 1998, with 130mm travel and an Ohlins shock absorber.

The Tryphonos rear end	The unique front end of the Tryphonos

Its steers by means of a column attached to the engine which takes the force of the handlebars directly in order to transfer it to the special "hub centre steering" or rotating axle in the central kingpin, a patent that constitutes "the essence" of this design. Michael Tryphonos was saying that, contrary to the "false rotating axle" on the Yamaha Omega, it is somehow similar to the mentioned Tesi, and it takes certain elements from the "Difazio" system… "the main objective of the system is to disassociate the effect of braking on the suspension, in order to facilitate both braking to the apex of bend and doing it with superior agility. And, what's more, avoid the "stiction", which affects the performance of the traditional fork when it flexes under strain, especially when faced with bumps taken right on the brakes. But I did not want to totally eliminate "dive", as it gives information to the rider from weight transfer, so in this respect, the Tryphonos offers similar feedback to the fork"…

The Conventional Fork

Let's see how the conventional fork works. Either conventional-slider at the bottom, stanchions to the top-or inverted. Mechanically, they are very simple: two legs held in yokes, will allow variation of the geometry in its entirety. Furthermore, and mainly the reason for its success, the geometry's variation proves to be excellent.

The Ducati 996

Single sided swingarm rear   The very conventional forks

When the bike brakes, the displacement of weight transfer forward and the suspensions collapse take place, decreasing three basic elements of the bike's geometry: the wheel base, steering angle and trail, so the bike's tendency to run on a straight line is reduced, favouring the entry bends. When it accelerates, the opposite occurs: the values and "stability" increase.

How do they perform?

In a conventional system, the steering geometry is defined by the angle of the forks to chassis. That way, the frames inclination conveys the direction and an automatic geometry variation takes place: the chassis dives on the brakes and reduces the caster angle, and vice versa on acceleration. The Telelever system, on the contrary, is not conditioned by this, so the chassis inclination is concentrated by the rising movement of the wishbone which increases the angle, in such a way that the geometry doesn't support the bumps and braking. But the angle and trail vary depending on the calculations of the pivot points, since the wheel moves through an arc. In fact, the Telelever, the steering angle and the feed increase significantly when the front suspension is compressed, and either way they very much less than a telescopic fork. Besides, if on a conventional fork the geometry change is more emphasised the more it dives, in the Telelever it remains practically nil at the end of the lap and it converts to constant…

The alternative system Tryphonos seeks to intelligently combine the advantages of both. Firstly, as we can appreciate this geometry variations against suspension travel, it compresses at the same constant, reducing trail by 5 mm for each degree of caster reduction which gives the same graph as radical sports bike like the Ducati, probably responsible for the marvellous and immediate "feeling" this bike offers: it feels that you are riding a "normal" bike. By contrast, thanks to the association of the suspension and direction effects, Tryphonos manages to use unthinkable geometry is for a "normal bike". Its basic parameters can be adjusted from 16 degrees to 20 degrees of castor angle, and from 18 mm to 105 mm of trail, using dimensions that not even a GP 500 racing machine would dream of. To make up the graph, we had started from 18 mm of trail and 20 degrees - the conservative measure - but in Calafat the bike was adjusted to, nothing less than 16 degrees and 55 mm! So at the apex of the bend, with the suspension compressed to its limits, we are riding a bike with only 18 degrees of castor angle.

How do they run?

The study of the telemetry demonstrates the great differences in performance between the suspension systems, but to the rider this (how and by how much the shock absorber moves) seems rather trivial, what's important is the general handling of the bike (how it deals with movement and displacement over bumps and on the brakes).

Taking the Ducati as reference, the BMW maintains a running stability worthy of transatlantic liner, it doesn't dive when it brakes, but clearly the front tyre moves, and even bounces on occasions-due to the amount of work involved, and a bike is extremely heavy. It doesn't produce the typical "brakes, lean, go in, release, open throttle and accelerate", because all the manoeuvres can be done individually. You can "go in" braking to "the kitchen", almost to the apex of the bend and open the throttle while still braking. You won't feel the difference in stability, since it is the tallest racing bike in the world, there are no visible geometry changes. In fast bends, it proves an imperturbable bike, concentrating the tyres grip and outline and dismissing the reactions of the front suspension. Not everything is good news: the bike is long and heavy, just when it shouldn't be, in the bends you must rev it decisively and the bike always seems three sizes to big.

The Ducati 996 BMW R1100 S Boxer Team

However, since you can't tell it is ready to "break" during braking, you end up braking too late and hard, which affects the stability, drives the suspension crazy and bounces too much. Considering, in the study from Pepe, the suspension is bad, the Bavarian "elephant's" lap times were quite convincing, even for Calafat, a track not very well suited to this bike's characteristics.

The Tryphonos, on the other hand, is an amazing bike. It feels that you're going to drop it (the handlebars movement arc instead of rotating round the steering axis, "as is proper", but once it surpasses the 10-20 km mark, the bike stabilises and functions normally. The first thing that is surprising is the enormous steering precision. If on the Ducati "you feel every bump through the handlebars", from the "pif-paf" on the parabolic entry, and "S-bend" in third with a swift change direction over a slope, the Tryphonos "eats" these bumps, "flying over it", so the steering is simply perfect.

In comparison with the Telelever braking effect, the bike dives and offers practically the same information to the rider that a traditional fork supplies of, proving extremely insensitive to vibration caused by ridged surfaces, avoiding the problems of "stiction" in conventional forks, which locks them up.

The Tryphonos can brake later, giving extreme confidence as stability to the grip of the front tire. Also, as stated before, in the bends, the bike runs well, easy, thanks to its design which allows conventional handling. The result in Calafat, superb, the bike is precise in the fast stuff, efficient over bumps and braking and agile in direction changes, and despite a standard engine of the only 135 CV, the lap times were absolutely brilliant. Is the Tryphonos Columbus is new discovery? Perhaps at the friend Christopher wasn't from Genova after all, but an Englishman of Greek descent!