The patent application, filed in Japan, clearly shows a racebike design rather than a road-going machine, since it’s specifically interested in the arrangement of a short, virtually unsilenced exhaust system.
The patent drawings show the header pipe coiling around the lower front of the engine to terminate in a megaphone just ahead of the rider’s right foot. It’s part of an overall design based on mass-centralisation, packing the whole weight of the exhaust into the smallest possible space and keeping it as far forward and as low as possible.
Although we can’t read too much into the drawings when it comes to the rest of the bike – they’re not obliged to be accurate in order to gain the patent – they show a fairly conventional racer. An aluminium beam frame has a MotoGP-style swingarm that carries its bracing below rather than above, allowing the rear shock to be positioned lower and further forward, again in the pursuit of mass-centralisation.
The footrests are far higher and further back than on even the most extreme road-going sportsbikes. The subframe is clearly designed to support the weight of a lone rider, with no structure to allow for either a passenger or luggage.
Oh, the possibilities
At the moment, Honda and KTM share the Moto3 field between them, with 14 Honda NSF250RWs and 15 KTM RC250GPs accounting for the entire 31-bike entry list for 2019. We last saw additional manufacturers on the grid in 2017 when Mahindra’s MGP3O appeared under both Mahindra and Peugeot branding. The addition of another large Japanese manufacturer like Suzuki would surely be welcomed.
By Ben Purvis
