Hello NormanB and thanks.
If it helps, I am an engineer.
Pattakon is a team of Greek engineers (brothers and sisters).
Long ago I had a Yamaha XT250 and drove it for a few times before to remove its cylinder and cylinder head that were used for the harmonic engine prototype at
http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonPPE.htm#harmonic An old project of pattakon.
It is a single-cylinder (75mm bore, 80mm stroke, 353cc) four-stroke with pure sinusoidal (harmonic) motion of the piston. It is perfectly balanced; as perfectly as the Wankel rotary engine. The balancing of the single cylinder prototype is so perfect that it can stand free on the ground operating from idling to top revs (9,000 rpm, 24 m/sec mean piston speed) without any tendency to leave its place.
I don’t own, nor drive a Burgman.
I was involved with the V-belt CVT’s by chance.
A guy who sells and repairs motorcycles and big scooters here in Athens / Greece, and who is involved in racing things, met me in the machine shop of a common friend and started explaining (actually complaining for) the problems of the CVT’s and of the aftermarket variators.
“This is fast but burns a lot of fuel, this is better but quite unreliable, this is fuel efficient but too slow, . . .”
He liked SECVT of Suzuki Burgman, but not its reliability issues.
As a practical mechanic, he was wondering why nobody yet achieved to make a really
good CVT, good from every point of view.
Theoretically a good CVT is superior than a good manual gearbox, but in practice (and excluding the “easy of use”) the CVT proves worse.
You write:
“It would be useful to explain also, what your aim is by questioning forum members about the relative merits of your designs and the inefficiencies of the SECVT as fitted to the Burgman 650. Remember, we just own and ride these bikes and we have no influence on product development. The forum is not an arm or agent of Suzuki.”
Don’t underestimate the technical background of your forum members.
There are individuals (engineers, physics, mechanics, people who like to think) with great technical, scientific and practical background.
Those I am looking for.
Their “justified” objections may save a lot of time and money for me.
You write:
“Have you had any dialogue with Suzuki or any other motorcycle manufacturer? This would be, perhaps, of much more interest to forum members, many of whom would either have little interest in the technical details of your learned articles or question their relevance directly to them right now as an owner/ rider.”
Try, as an individual, to have a dialogue with the head of an R&D of an engine maker, and you will see how things work.
The people there obey to the strict policy of the company, and simply avoid responding. Some times politely, some other times rudely.
Read the first paragraph at
http://www.pattakon.com/pattakonPatMar.htm to understand what I mean.
With the PatEff presented in some big forums like this one, there is a chance the heads of Suzuki’s R&D (hopefully mr. Shinobu Tsutsumikoshi, the inventor of the SECVT of Suzuki) to see it and communicate.
On the other hand, the forum members have nothing to lose.
On the contrary they can start thinking / understanding the way their scooters operate as well as their limitations.
I think you should ask for threads like this one.
If the SECVT (the best CVT in its class) can be substantially better (a substantial reduction of the friction inside it, makes it better and greener and faster etc), isn’t worthy the trial?
I asked if somebody sees where my mistake is.
Because if the “state-of-the-art” CVT for lightweight vehicles (yours Suzuki SECVT) does operate with 500% over clamping at light / light-medium load and high gear (i.e. wherein most of the time it operates during a long trip on the highway) something is quite wrong and must be corrected.
If Suzuki does know already it and has the intellectual property for it, you should ask (as a big and respectable forum) the next version of the Suzuki Burgman to have the spring control because it saves a lot of fuel, of belt replacements, of power.
If, on the other head, Suzuki’s engineers never thought about this problems, it is time to start thinking about it.
Thank you
Manolis Pattakos