You may have seen this image in a PHOTO.GP Pressure Reducer and at PHOTO.GP we’ve speculated about what exactly this apparatus does when placed atop the Yamaha YZR-M1. We’ve come to refer to it as The Black Box.
The photo above is from 2013, and I’ve been wondering about this item at least since Mugello of last season. But only recently did I take steps to find out just what it is.
The fact is that while I wander up and down pit lane as someone who understands, at least in relation to the level of technology on display in MotoGP, only the basics of how motorcycles work, I frequently see exotic bits of engineering that are utter mysteries to me.
Some of the most popular posts at PHOTO.GP are close ups of the bikes, which I find fascinating and beautiful along with our readers.
But for each flash of steel, titanium, or carbon fiber that catches my eye in pit lane, there must be ten, a hundred, a thousand more that escape me because much of the time I just don’t know what the heck I’m looking at.
Given this high level of technology, and more to the point, the degree to which each factory guards its designs and ideas, the greater the mystery of a given item and the less likely you are to receive a candid answer about its function.
One of my pit lane buddies happens to be one of the few individuals trusted with Honda’s seamless gearbox. At Philip Island I asked him directly about the stories we hear of the secrecy surrounding this bit of kit, the Everlasting Gobstopper of motorcycle technology.
Indeed it’s true that when he removes the seamless gearbox from an RC213V, all other team members are required to be absent.
Only his eyes fall on the shoebox-sized marvel, which he then conceals in a specialized case and removes to a secure area where he, alone, services it. I couldn’t help but imagine him opening the case as the blinding light fills the room. Shut your eyes, Marion!
This chat had me wondering about the silver box shown in this image of Marc Marquez’ 2015 RC213V test bike arriving at Valencia:
Enter Speculation Mode: that silver box contains a seamless gearbox, cabled to the chassis in a manner similar to how briefcases are chained to unlucky sods’ wrists in spy movies.
Or more likely, the seamless gearbox is in place (and thus more difficult to steal) but covered by the blue/purple cloth, and the silver case is empty but strapped to the bike for transportation of the gearbox when needed.
/Speculation: MotoGP is a world where any technological advantage is guarded like gold if it can be kept a secret. For that reason, things like this Black Box haunt me a bit as I wander back and forth among the most sophisticated motorcycles in the world, looking for details that will provide interesting photographs. I wish I knew more often what I was photographing!
At Valencia last month I saw the Black Box in use again and decided to do something about this mystery. Amigo Alex Briggs was warming up Valentino Rossi’s bike with this unit in place, so I decided to ask about it.
Now I admit, trying to have a conversation while standing next to a running MotoGP bike is not ideal. You have to shout to send words above the level of engine noise and past the barrier of ear plugs. So I didn’t get as detailed an answer as I might have hoped for.
Still, I said to Alex as I pointed at the contraption shown above, “Is that thing top secret or can you tell me what it does?”
After a moment of figuring out what I’d asked through the noise barrier, he smiled in his typically friendly manner and replied that this thing is just a dummy fuel tank, something they can toss on the bike for these inter-session warm ups.
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed to hear this. And yet, there was perhaps more to the answer than met the eye. To have a dummy fuel tank reveals at least a bit about the actual fuel tank and what’s involved in installing it, no?
If you go to the trouble to create a substitute fuel tank for situations where you just want to warm up the bike to check data after a service, watch for fluid leaks, etc, how time consuming is it to put the actual fuel tank in place?
Those of us outside the Yamaha garage will probably never know. But the existence of the black box suggests that it’s at least complex enough to warrant an alternative option.
Photograph: © 2013 by Scott Jones / PHOTO.GP – All Rights Reserved
Camera Info: Nikon D4 with Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
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