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"What's that then?" says a guy in red overalls who's
sauntered up to admire the yellow bike. The obvious thing to say
is "a motorcycle, a two wheeled version of one's car",
but that would be facetious. Besides, it looks like he already
knows this.
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| Penske shock adjusts for high and low speed damping.
There's luxury. |
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"Ask him," I say, nodding towards Mike Tryphonos,
the creator of the machine. The guy looks expectantly at
him.
"It's a Tryphonos," says Mike.
"Ahh," replies Mr Overalls, non the wiser.
We're not trying to be difficult. We'd be the same if the
bike happened to be a FireBlade and someone asked "what
is it?". But there's a difference between the Tryphonos
and a Blade. The Tryphonos is hub-steered - it had no forks.
o what people really mean when they ask "what is it?" is: "They
don't normally build 'em like that, I'd be surprised if it's
any good". And surprised they would be, because it is
good.
Twenty minutes ago I was standing in the pitlane as John
Bickerdike from Performoto warmed the Tryphonos' 900cc Suzuki
engine. The upswept carbon can barked a crisp sound as fresh
unleaded tickled the pistons. Once the temperature gauge
hit 40degrees the bars were passed to me. Tentatively.
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The first striking thing is the Tryphonos's compact build. It's
like a malnourished whippet. It's not uncomfortable, just odd to
find a large inline four that isn't wider than me.
Lift a leg onto the high rearset and tap down into first gear.
Feed in a whiff of gas and let the clutch lever out. So far so
good - it feels no different to any other bike.
On the track I take things easy at first because there is a pair
of new Avon Azaros on board, and dropping it now would be very
bad. One gentle lap later they're scrubbed in and getting up to
temperature.
After a couple of seconds I let off, realising I'm slowing too
soon. Something else occurs to me. A forked bike braking this hard
would have buried its head in the ground long ago. And other bikes,
like the BMW Rs, with unconventional fronts would hardly dive at
all. But this bike is in-between, with enough dive to feel familiar
and give feedback.
As the turn-in point arrives the Tryphonos feels still more different
to conventional bikes. As there are no forks, you don't have to
wait for the front to settle after braking.
The hub-steering setup also means the bike can run extreme geometry
without the usual stability problems (from 16degrees to 22degrees
- an R1 is 24degrees). The steering angle affects how fast/easy
a bike tips-in. But on conventional bikes this figure changes as
the bike accelerates and brakes. On the Tryphonos the steering
angle is constant no matter what happens.
It doesn't even take a perceptible nudge of the bars and the Tryphonos
tips-in with the eagerness of an Aprilia RS250 - albeit a 160kg,
900cc one. A second after tipping into the right-hander it's time
to flick left onto the finish straight, but the bike's already
done it - and I haven't even thought about it.
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| At last. An inline four that lacks the expanse of wide
boy Bob. |
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Other race bikes stop drawing away. Even 600s can't leave
this bike through flicky bits, and lose out to the RF900 motor's
grunt.
The other place the Tryphonos felt different/better than a
conventional bike is through Schwantz curve, which has a series
of bumps on the apex. Other bikes I've ridden over these have
always felt nervous - like they're being bounced out of the
corner on the verge of a tankslapper. The Tryphonos doesn't.
You can feel what the tyres are doing through the bars but
that's all, no worries.
Soon 20 minutes are up and I return to the pits. It's at this
point, when I'm stood with a thousand questions in mind, that
the bloke in the red overalls wanders up and asks what the
bike is. I ask what he thinks of it.
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The guy goes quiet for a minute, then answers: "I'm not really
sure. It's alright I suppose," then starts talking about the
ZX-7Rs and 916s his son races.
Suddenly everything is clear. I am enlightened, and in that instant
I understand why Mike Tryphonos sounds almost frustrated whenever
he talks about his bike. It's because it's hard to change peoples'
beliefs and challenge their prejudices.
Since the year 19-dot motorcycles have had forks or something
similar, but they haven't had swingarms at the front, with the
notable exceptions of Bimota's Tesi, Yamaha's GTS1000 and the Elf
racer of the Eighties. So people find is extremely difficult to
accept anything else, whether it's better or not.
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And this design is sound. It's been raced on the IoM by Shaun
Harris in '95, finishing 11th in the Senior. And every year
racers who could get paid rides have offered to race it for
free. But still it's looked at with scepticism.
So why build it? The project started in '90-91, when Mike
came up with the idea for his engineering dissertation. Shortly
afterwards he approached Performoto to build the thing and
in '93 a second prototype was ready.
Mike: "Tele forks don't function very well and I couldn't
work out why manufacturers hadn't used this system. I'm trying
to show the industry I'm onto something.
"Hub-steering systems are better because the suspension
works without the problems of stiction. A telescopic fork is
subjected to quite a lot of force under braking, and that's
what causes it. But with this system you don't get that because
the shock is isolated from those forces. So it's more sensitive
to irregularities under braking.
"You can also run a steep steering angle for quick steering
with stability. The steering angle with forks is more or less
the same whether you look at a motocrosser, sportsbike or tourer.
If you set then up any steeper the forks try to bend backwards.
"Hub-centre systems can be lighter too. There's less
inertia around the steering axis as there aren't two heavy
forks. With a hub system the only thing steering is the wheel."
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| The centre hub |
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| Rock solid Tryphonos handling meant Bob could ride
it without the help of those stabilisers |
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And in this case it's an ultralight carbon fibre
rim jobbie. Because the shock only has to deal with suspension forces,
it works better when leaning. There's very little friction at the
pivot point too. Forks don't work so well leant over and rely on
some flex in the frame to help feel and suspension.
Mike and Performoto are struggling to find an investor to back a
road version. Everything's ready to turn this race bike into a road
bike. And, having ridden this version, I'm sure they'd succeed where
Bimota and Yamaha failed before.
But unless peoples' view change, the Tryphonos could slip into the
wastepaper bin of great British innovations. That would be more than
a shame. 
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