Introduction
As automotive journalists we have a habit of looking at products as a whole. A new motorcycle launches, and we pass judgement on it after a few hours of riding it, and sometimes we lose sight of the fact that just for the motorcycle to run right, tens of thousands of components have to mesh seamlessly, over and over again. To achieve this level of perfection, it is necessary to put in thousands of hours of research, development and testing. The biggest single component in a motorcycle is arguably the tyre, and TVS Srichakra offered us the opportunity to have a look at their manufacturing facility and learn a thing or two about tyre testing as well.
Research and development
There’s a few steps before a tyre can make it into a showroom and onto a motorcycle. First, is it fit for the job? Second, will it meet a cost requirement? These, and a million other questions, are answered by TVS Srichakra’s research and development team. They have the capability to study any tyre on the planet and to develop their own. Once the prototypes are made, they undergo testing, both on rolling roads in the lab and in real world conditions. One of the machines even has the capability to test the tyre in speeds up to 400 kmph!
TVS Tyres has a team of riders who do a fixed route of a couple of hundred kilometres every day, and they keep doing this until the tyre is worn completely. The test riders offer feedback that is used to develop the tyre further. As an aside, TVS Tyres makes all their test riders wear helmets from renowned manufacturer Arai, and they switch to new helmets every year.
Once a tyre is approved for production and the correct price point is set, it is off to the manufacturing unit for mass production.
Manufacturing a tyre
Manufacturing as such isn’t difficult, but making sure it is done efficiently and safely is a task. The TVS Srichakra factory manages both very well, and manufactures a wide range of two-wheeler and three-wheeler tyres. You’ll see TVS tyres on scooters, and motorcycles from the 100cc commuter end all the way to 200-odd cc performance-minded streetbikes. It has recently added the capability to manufacture radial tyres.
Testing
This may seem the wrong way around, but testing is a continuous process. It happens from the time a tyre is a concept – through computer programs, in the lab with the materials, on the machines… and the part that we can relate to as riders - on the road, with motorcycles. TVS Srichakra has had a long relationship with Hide Okamoto, whose list of achievements as a rider is a mile long. He has completed the Baja 1000, has won numerous road racing titles in Japan, and has been a Moto 2 test rider. In fact, he is still very involved in the Moto 2 paddock, as a coach for young riders who don’t know how to communicate their feedback to their engineers well enough. Okamoto-san has 33 years of testing under his belt, so we knew we were in good hands.
We started off with a small lesson in theory – this was more physics than we’re usually used to, but in a few short minutes our understanding of tyre behaviour was made better. We learned quite a few lessons that day, the most basic one being that tyre testing isn’t what we imagined it to be. No, you don’t require a MotoGP test track, a Ducati 1299 Superleggera, a full leather racing suit or a racer’s fitness levels. Thank goodness for that last one. What we had at our disposal was an example each of a Honda Activa, Honda Shine, Bajaj Platina, and KTM 390 Duke. All were shod with TVS tyres, of course. It is surprising how much information a simple figure of eight on constant throttle can communicate to you, if you pay attention. A short discussion on the handling characteristics later, we were allowed to have a go around the test track on the 390 Duke – but the goal was to stop quickly, cleanly and without locking up the wheels. The ABS was turned off for this exercise, so it was up to the rider alone.
More practice. And then some more.
Hide-san maintained that becoming a tyre tester takes a lot of patience, effort, skill and constant back-to-back testing of tyres over many years. The session at the TVS Tyres facility was enlightening and frustrating, too; there was so much to learn, it would have been impossible to learn even the most basic things effectively in the short time that we had at our disposal. However, there was a promise of more sessions, which is something we’re looking forward to with a lot of excitement – very rarely do we come across a manufacturer genuinely interested in bettering our understanding of our own profession. Hopefully, the next installment should be soon! Meanwhile, you’ll find us in the parking lot, making figures of eight with as many two wheelers as we can get our grubby mitts on.
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