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Ride Review: Harley-Davidson Touring ST Models for 2022

By General Posts

by Dustin Wheelen from https://www.rideapart.com/

Balancing the raceway and the roadway.

Automotive and motorcycle dealers popularized the term “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” in the 1960s. While both motorsport and vehicle sales tactics have evolved over the decades, most manufacturers still leverage on-track supremacy for showroom success—including Harley-Davidson.

From the hillclimb to the drag strip, from board tracking to flat tracking, racing has been in the Motor Company’s DNA since Walter Davidson won the 1908 Endurance and Reliability Run. However, Harley’s Post-War production lineup made the brand synonymous with cross-country tourers in the latter half of the 20th century. Despite the XR750 becoming the winningest motorcycle in AMA (American Motorcycle Association) history and the company’s countless NHRA drag racing titles, the FL Touring platform remains the Bar and Shield’s top seller.

When MotoAmerica introduced the King of the Baggers (KotB) Invitational in 2020, the one-off race merged Harley’s flagship tourers with its racing lineage. Unfortunately, the MoCo’s first outing fell short of the top step, but the Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson team seized the 2021 KotB championship with Kyle Wyman in the saddle. H-D is wasting no time—or development dollar—following that title run, equipping the 2022 Street Glide ST and Road Glide ST with track-worthy components.

To test just how much race-bred technology has trickled down to its production models, the Motor Company invited us to Wilcox, Arizona to spin some laps around the inimitable Inde Motorsports Ranch. Harley certainly handled business on Sundays this previous season, and with the new ST range, it hopes to also dominate the competition on dealership floors.

Turning A Corner
With the U.S.’s interstate system crossing vast expanses of land, the Street Glide and Road Glide families prioritize comfort and convenience. Packing a six-gallon fuel tank, sub-27-inch seat heights, and a 64-inch wheelbase, the long-distance tourers allow travelers to munch miles to their heart’s content. On the other hand, track duty calls for a different set of attributes, and Harley outfits the ST models accordingly.

The design team lightens the load by trimming the front fender, adopting low-profile engine guards, and ditching the passenger pegs and seat. Harley developed the new saddle specifically for the ST tourers. That single-seat locks the rider in a more commanding position. The leather cover also allows users to smoothly slide across the saddle, easing side-to-side transitions through chicanes and back-to-back corners.

Gone are the Special trim’s stretched bags too. That decision may reduce luggage capacity from 2.7 cu-ft to 2.3 cu-ft, but it also supports the MoCo’s weight-cutting regiment. The efforts pay off as well, with the Road Glide ST saving 11 pounds at 842 pounds and the Street Glide ST coming in 13 pounds under its Special counterpart at 814 pounds.

To raise the ride height, H-D engineers exchanged the standard Street Glide and Road Glide rear shocks for units found on the Road King. The suspension swap bolsters rear wheel travel from 2.1 inches to 3 inches and stiffens the chassis for spirited direction changes. That nearly extra inch of travel may not increase maximum lean angle (31 degrees left, 32 degrees right), but it does modestly reduce trail to 6.7 inches.

What doesn’t show up on the spec sheet though is the confidence that the borrowed shock provides. In fast, sweeping bends, the STs feel planted and stable, encouraging riders to incrementally increase speed with each lap. Under acceleration, the shocks also accurately communicate grip, notifying the rider of the slightest slip of the rear wheel.

Both ST Glides retain the 49mm Dual Bending Valve Showa front end featured on all H-D Touring models, but the new rear suspension is a noticeable upgrade on the track. Performance-oriented customers will undoubtedly spring for the Screamin’ Eagle and Ohlins co-branded front and rear suspension upgrades in the long run, but the stock equipment does surprisingly well in the meantime.

Mo’ Powah!
The Street Glide ST and Road Glide ST may not boast the massive 131ci (2,151cc) Milwaukee-Eight V-twin powering the firm’s 2022 KotB race steed, but the performance baggers join the new Low Rider ST as the only non-CVO models touting the company’s 117ci (1,923cc) engine. Thanks to the mill’s 10.2:1 compression ratio, camshafts, high-flow air intake, and exhaust, the V-twin pumps out 127 lb-ft of torque and 106 horsepower.

Those numbers may sound daunting on the spec sheet, but the STs’ fueling and linear powerband make big-bore V-twin surprisingly tractable. The powerplant still offers gobs of torque on demand, but the smooth roll-on makes most of that 127 lb-ft (at the crank) quite useable. Again, those pushing for performance can always bump displacement to 128ci (2,097cc) or 131 ci (2,151cc) with the Screamin’ Eagle catalog.

Following a morning spent nailing apexes on the track, we rolled the Street Glide ST and Road Glide ST onto the surrounding highways, testing the performance baggers’ touring prowess on the open road. The 117ci engine may soup up the STs to set new lap records, but the V-twin remains ultra-smooth at speed.

In sixth gear, the Milwaukee-Eight spins just over 2,500 rpm at 70 mph and just below 3,000 rpm at 75 mph. Minor vibrations only course through the floorboards at 3,500, and the bars faintly buzz at 4,500. However, with the air/oil-cooled V-twin’s 5,500-rpm redline, those negligible tremors never become troublesome over the long haul.

While that even-keeled nature may be perfect for road trips, it can become problematic under heavy acceleration, especially in the lower gears. Due to the smoothness, I frequently hit the rev limiter before realizing I was banging on the 5,500-rpm redline. With time and practice, owners will be able to bypass that issue, but it squandered drive and momentum more than a few times on the road and track.

Middle-of-the-Road
Most Harley bagger fans have a preference between the Street Glide and Road Glide models. Chalk it up to aesthetics, creature comforts, or fairing coverage, but Harlistas typically favor one FL over the other. While ST variants offer the same track-oriented upgrades, they still have a personality all their own. For that reason, the Street Glide ST performed best on the track while the Road Glide ST proved its merit on the interstate.

With its fork-mounted fairing, the Street Glide ST offers enhanced visibility on track, allowing riders to keep their eyes on lines, apexes, and corner exits. However, the Street Glide’s short windscreen introduces turbulent buffeting to the rider’s helmet on the highway. That’s a problem that Harley’s Parts & Accessories (P&A) catalog can easily remedy but it’s never an issue on the raceway, where pilots frequently duck behind the fairing on long straights.

Conversely, the Road Glide ST’s frame-mounting fairing stretches away from the rider, providing comprehensive wind protection. That attribute comes in handy while touring, but the broad fairing also obstructs visibility on the track. In addition to wind protection and visibility, weight will play a role on closed courses. The Street Glide ST may shed 13 pounds off the Special trim, but its 814-pound wet weight is nearly 30 pounds under the Road Glide ST’s 842-pound curb weight.

That’s no small difference on the circuit, where every advantage matters, but most owners will use the ST models for long-distance trips, weekend canyon rips, and the occasional track day. With premium features like a Boom! Box GTS system, 6.5 TFT display, and two 5.25-inch speakers, we highly doubt that owners will want to risk sending their $29,999 bagger into a gravel trap. Instead, the ST line functions as a great starter kit for those interested in starting a performance bagger build, not a dedicated race bike.

Conclusion
Ultimately, the Street Glide ST and Road Glide ST are balanced entries into the performance bagger genre that don’t sacrifice too much on-road practicality for on-track performance. Despite lacking touring-friendly features like heated grips and stretched bags, the STs allow owners to ride to the track in the morning, spin laps all day, and cruise back home at sunset.

While the Street Glide and Road Glide may dip their toe into the performance end of the pool with the ST range, bagger racing is still in its infancy. If the MoCo continues to win on Sunday and sell on Monday, we can expect even more performance-focused components from Harley’s P&A and Screamin’ Eagle arms. Brembo radial master cylinder, a quickshifter, and 17-inch wheels come to mind first, but we’ll have to wait and see what the Motor Company cooks up following the 2022 King of the Baggers season.

Ducati Multistrada V4 Outshines Competition at Alpen-Masters Contest

By General Posts

by Benny Kirk from https://www.autoevolution.com

Engineers and designers from Ducati must be riding high lately as their Multistrada V4 S took an overall victory in its class at the Alpen Masters competition, winning over a slew of competition from different manufacturers.

For those unfamiliar with Alpen Masters, it is an annual competition sanctioned by Motorrad, a German motoring magazine. In this comparison motorbikes for a wide range of segments gather to be put through a rigorous and demanding series of tests to determine which bike is the best manufactured that year.

This year’s test came from the Grossglockner Pass, one of the most famous alpine passes in the world, especially for motorcycles. These tests range from the mundane, like basic acceleration, braking, and handling tests, but also a couple of challenges meant to see what the bikes tested can do under adverse conditions.

The Multistrada V4’s clever new 1,158 cc (1.1 liter) V4 engine performed admirably throughout the battery of tests presented. The engine was lauded for its smooth power delivery and efficient operation under adverse load conditions. As was the in-house developed six-speed quick shift gearbox.

The engine elasticity test, for example, monitors a bike’s acceleration from 25kph (15.5 miles per hour) to 75 kph (46 miles per hour) going up a steep incline with a passenger on board. Against strong competition from brands like BMW, Kawasaki, KTM, and even another bike from Ducati, the Monster.

The Multistrada V4 performed better than all other competitions and placing first overall. It marked the first time such a competition was won by a manufacturer based outside of Germany or Austria.

Ducati announced in May of this year that the Multistrada V4 family has already sold 5,000 units worldwide. If it continues to win high-profile comparisons like the Alpen Masters, that publicity is sure to skyrocket even more.

PRESS RELEASE:

Every year, the prestigious German magazine Motorrad organises the Alpen-Masters, an important comparative test in which motorbikes from various segments compete against each other on the backdrop of the Alpine mountains, undergoing various tests. These include classic challenges such as acceleration, but also the engine elasticity test, which measures how quickly a motorbike in second gear can go from 25 km/h to 75 km/h with a passenger on board while riding up a steep incline, as well as a series of other components such as comfort level, aerodynamic protection and technical equipment. Over the years, the Alpen-Masters has become one of the most prestigious comparative tests in the world, and in 2021 the Ducati Multistrada V4 S came out on top.

Since its presentation in the first episode of the Ducati World Première 2021, the Multistrada V4 family immediately aroused extraordinary interest, being the logical evolution of a successful bike such as the 1200/1260 series, but with new features that immediately made it one of the references in the sector of the so-called Big Duals, i.e. bikes with a strong touring character, but also capable of off-road riding.

The setting for this year’s Alpen-Masters was the GrossGlockner, one of the most famous Alpine passes, especially for motorcyclists. Much appreciated both for the variety of the route and the impeccable condition of the asphalt surface, it remains one of the best roads to test and evaluate the qualities of a motorbike. Here the Multistrada V4 S was found to be very ready and was judged the best bike of the lot with the following motivation: “Mission accomplished. Bologna will be happy, as they have worked so hard to achieve this result. The Multistrada V4 is an excellent touring-enduro. Equipped to the max, it is a tireless companion both for daily commuting and for fully loaded motorcycling holidays. And you can even imagine yourself with it doing a few rounds on the track without being out of place. It was a narrow but well-deserved victory”.

For the record, the new Ducati Monster was also present at the test, where it performed well, finishing in the Top 5. The Multistrada V4 S joins a long list of successes that in previous editions had gone to only German and Austrian bikes, and this recognition is even more important precisely because it was issued by a German-language magazine. This comparative test is also published by other European magazines, including the Italian In Moto.

The Alpen-Masters is just the latest of the awards obtained by the Multistrada V4, which has been able to impose itself in various comparative tests all over the world, confirming the absolute value of the product and proposing itself as a complete bike at 360°.

The 3D Printer Market Is Being Driven By 3D Printed Products In Automotive Industry

By General Posts

The Business Research Company’s 3D Printer Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Growth And Change To 2030

The growth in the use of 3D printed products in the automotive industry is a key factor driving the growth of the 3D printer manufacturing market. The manufacture of lightweight vehicle components is possible with the aid of 3D printing that reduces vehicle weight, boosts car performance, and increases fuel economy, and greater productivity can be achieved in injection molding equipment manufacturing using 3D printing technology.

For instance, in 2019, General Motors collaborated with Autodesk to produce 3D printed lower cost and lighter vehicle parts. Therefore, the growth in demand for 3D printed products in the automotive industry drives the demand for manufacturing 3D printers and contributes to the growth of the 3D printer manufacturing market.

The 3D printer manufacturing market consists of sales of 3D printers that are used in automotive, healthcare, industrial, consumer electronics, aerospace and defense industries. 3D printing is the method of creating three-dimensional objects by transferring consecutive material layers through a 3D printer.

The global 3D printer market is expected grow from $8.62 billion in 2020 to $11.1 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.8%. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The 3D printing market size is expected to reach $25.26 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 23%.

TBRC’s 3D printers market report is segmented by printer type into desktop 3d printer, industrial 3d printer, by technology into stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), polyjet/multijet printing (MJP), inkjet printing, electron beam melting (EBM), laser metal deposition (LMD), direct light projection (DLP), others and by end-use industry into automotive, aerospace & defense, healthcare, food, construction & architecture, others.

The major players covered in the global 3d printing industry are Stratasys, GE Additive, SLM Solutions, Voxeljet, Arcam AB, Hoganas AB, Groupe Gorgé, Renishaw PLC., Markforged Inc., Made In Space, Proto Labs Inc., and Tiertime.

3D Printer Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Growth And Change To 2030 is one of a series of new reports from The Business Research Company that provides 3D printer market overview, forecast 3D printer market size and growth for the whole market, 3D printer market segments, and geographies, 3D printer market trends, 3D printer market drivers, restraints, leading competitors’ revenues, profiles, and market shares.

Highsider Custom Motorcycle Components Now Available in the USA

By General Posts

Paaschburg & Wunderlich USA, LLC, 16315 Monterey Rd., Ste. 100 Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Contact: Holger Mohr, Holger.Mohr@pwonline.us

HIGHSIDER(TM) Custom Motorcycle Components Now Available in the USA
German Engineered – For whatever you ride!

(Morgan Hill, CA, June 4, 2021) — Paaschburg & Wunderlich USA, LLC, the North American subsidiary of the leading European distributor, announces the launch of its premium Highsider brand for the North American market.

Featuring modern styling, efficient technology, and superior quality, the initial product launch includes mirrors, headlights, turn signals, taillights, and related accessories such as handlebar weights, handlebar grips and load equalizers. High functionality, innovative design, and value for price paid are the brand’s hallmarks. Most Highsider components are TUV or EC-Approved, a certification not necessary in the U.S. but an indication of Highsider‘s rigorous testing and quality stance.

Founded in 2008 by Paaschburg & Wunderlich GmbH, Highsider is Europe’s market leader for innovative lighting technology and high-quality motorcycle accessories. According to company Co-owner and CEO, Dr. Oliver Moosmayer, this expansion across the pond follows the company philosophy of “Progress Instead of Stagnation.”

“We are extremely proud and happy to announce the creation of our U.S. organization and the official launch of the Highsider brand in North America. It has always been part of our plan to bring our innovative products to the U.S. market with local inventory and pricing in U.S. dollars to make it very convenient to shop for our products,” said Moosmayer.

Paaschburg and Wunderlich teamed up for the strategic planning and execution of this new venture with industry executive veteran Holger Mohr, who will lead the day-to-day operations as President. “I am extremely excited to lead the efforts in bringing this distinctive brand and product line to riders in the States,” said Mohr. “Nothing gets me more fired up than cool, inventive motorcycle parts, and Highsider is just that.”

“Highsider products are fully stocked and ready to ship from the company warehouse in California. B2B and B2C websites are fully operational. “Our dealers will benefit from the parent company’s proven SAP Business One e-commerce platform, offering efficient interactions and timely communications,”

Mohr added “We have teamed up with WPS and Tucker Powersports for U.S. distribution and are ready to educate dealers about the line.”

For more information about Highsider and the U.S. product portfolio visit www.highsider-us.com Dealers can order online at www.pwonline.us or via phone at 408-465-4555.

Why shortages of a $1 chip sparked crisis in the global economy

By General Posts

by Bloomberg from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com

The chip crunch was born out of an understandable miscalculation as the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. When Covid-19 began spreading from China to the rest of the world, many companies anticipated people would cut back as times got tough.

To understand why the $450 billion semiconductor industry has lurched into crisis, a helpful place to start is a one-dollar part called a display driver.

Hundreds of different kinds of chips make up the global silicon industry, with the flashiest ones from Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. going for $100 apiece to more than $1,000. Those run powerful computers or the shiny smartphone in your pocket. A display driver is mundane by contrast: Its sole purpose is to convey basic instructions for illuminating the screen on your phone, monitor or navigation system.

The trouble for the chip industry — and increasingly companies beyond tech, like automakers — is that there aren’t enough display drivers to go around. Firms that make them can’t keep up with surging demand so prices are spiking. That’s contributing to short supplies and increasing costs for liquid crystal display panels, essential components for making televisions and laptops, as well as cars, airplanes and high-end refrigerators.

“It’s not like you can just make do. If you have everything else, but you don’t have a display driver, then you can’t build your product,” says Stacy Rasgon, who covers the semiconductor industry for Sanford C. Bernstein.

Now the crunch in a handful of such seemingly insignificant parts — power management chips are also in short supply, for example — is cascading through the global economy. Automakers like Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG have already scaled back production, leading to estimates for more than $60 billion in lost revenue for the industry this year.

The situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. A rare winter storm in Texas knocked out swaths of U.S. production. A fire at a key Japan factory will shut the facility for a month. Samsung Electronics Co. warned of a “serious imbalance” in the industry, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it can’t keep up with demand despite running factories at more than 100% of capacity.

“I have never seen anything like this in the past 20 years since our company’s founding,” said Jordan Wu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Himax Technologies Co., a leading supplier of display drivers. “Every application is short of chips.”

2021-semiconductors-chips-shortage-inline
The chip crunch was born out of an understandable miscalculation as the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. When Covid-19 began spreading from China to the rest of the world, many companies anticipated people would cut back as times got tough.

“I slashed all my projections. I was using the financial crisis as the model,” says Rasgon. “But demand was just really resilient.”

People stuck at home started buying technology — and then kept buying. They purchased better computers and bigger displays so they could work remotely. They got their kids new laptops for distance learning. They scooped up 4K televisions, game consoles, milk frothers, air fryers and immersion blenders to make life under quarantine more palatable. The pandemic turned into an extended Black Friday onlinepalooza.

Automakers were blindsided. They shut factories during the lockdown while demand crashed because no one could get to showrooms. They told suppliers to stop shipping components, including the chips that are increasingly essential for cars.

Then late last year, demand began to pick up. People wanted to get out and they didn’t want to use public transportation. Automakers reopened factories and went hat in hand to chipmakers like TSMC and Samsung. Their response? Back of the line. They couldn’t make chips fast enough for their still-loyal customers.

A year of poor planning led to carmakers’ massive chip shortage
Himax’s Jordan Wu is in the middle of the tech industry’s tempest. On a recent March morning, the bespectacled 61-year-old agreed to meet at his Taipei office to discuss the shortages and why they are so challenging to resolve. He was eager enough to talk that interview was scheduled for the same morning Bloomberg News requested it, with two of his staff joining in person and another two dialing in by phone. He wore a mask throughout the interview, speaking carefully and articulately.

Wu founded Himax in 2001 with his brother Biing-seng, now the company’s chairman. They started out making driver ICs (for integrated circuits), as they’re known in the industry, for notebook computers and monitors. They went public in 2006 and grew with the computer industry, expanding into smartphones, tablets and touch screens. Their chips are now used in scores of products, from phones and televisions to automobiles.

Wu explained that he can’t make more display drivers by pushing his workforce harder. Himax designs display drivers and then has them manufactured at a foundry like TSMC or United Microelectronics Corp. His chips are made on what’s artfully called “mature node” technology, equipment at least a couple generations behind the cutting-edge processes. These machines etch lines in silicon at a width of 16 nanometers or more, compared with 5 nanometers for high-end chips.?

The chip’s makers have seen their shares soar with strong demand
The bottleneck is that these mature chip-making lines are running flat out. Wu says the pandemic drove such strong demand that manufacturing partners can’t make enough display drivers for all the panels that go into computers, televisions and game consoles — plus all the new products that companies are putting screens into, like refrigerators, smart thermometers and car-entertainment systems.

There’s been a particular squeeze in driver ICs for automotive systems because they’re usually made on 8-inch silicon wafers, rather than more advanced 12-inch wafers. Sumco Corp., one of the leading wafer manufacturers, reported production capacity for 8-inch equipment lines was about 5,000 wafers a month in 2020 — less than it was in 2017.

No one is building more mature-node manufacturing lines because it doesn’t make economic sense. The existing lines are fully depreciated and fine-tuned for almost perfect yields, meaning basic display drivers can be made for less than a dollar and more advanced versions for not much more. Buying new equipment and starting off at lower yields would mean much higher expenses.

“Building new capacity is too expensive,” Wu says. Peers like Novatek Microelectronics Corp., also based in Taiwan, have the same constraints.

That shortfall is showing up in a spike in LCD prices. A 50-inch LCD panel for televisions doubled in price between January 2020 and this March. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Matthew Kanterman projects that LCD prices will keep rising at least until the third quarter. There is a “a dire shortage” of display driver chips, he said.

LCD Prices Are Surging
Aggravating the situation is a lack of glass. Major glass makers reported accidents at their production sites, including a blackout at a Nippon Electric Glass Co.’s factory in December and an explosion at AGC Fine Techno Korea’s factory in January. Production will likely remain constrained at least through summer this year, display consultancy DSCC Co-founder Yoshio Tamura said.

On April 1, I-O Data Device Inc., a major Japanese computer peripherals maker, raised the price of their 26 LCD monitors by 5,000 yen on average, the biggest increase since they began selling the monitors two decades ago. A spokeswoman said the company can’t make any profit without the increases due to rising costs for components.

All of this has been a boon to Himax’s business. Sales are surging and its stock price has tripled since November.

But the CEO isn’t celebrating. His whole business is built around giving customers what they want, so his inability to meet their requests at such a critical time is frustrating. He doesn’t expect the crunch, especially for automotive components, to end any time soon.

“We have not reached a position where we can see the light at the end of tunnel yet,” Wu said.