Mudflap wrote: ↑23 Dec 2020, 15:43
I think the point is to decrease fuel consumption at part throttle rather than increase power.
How do motorcycles deal with cylinder deactivation? Are they completely undrivable or is it a viable option?
Unlike a car, the engine and how the forces (gyroscopic and torque) are very important in handling. You also need a very reliable and preferably linear gas response. This is one of the main reasons turbos never really made it onto motorbikes (apart from a few odd balls). Also with the low weight, small frontal area and limited use (much less bikes for a lot less distance then cars) there is less of a need to get the same kind of efficiency then cars.
These kinds of solutions are more to do with the insane range a modern super bike must have. They are sold as pure racing machines, very close to the capability of a prototype MotoGP bike (with the same capacity!!) but will do 4000 rpm in third most of their life (instead of 14.000).
It’s now already quite normal to have different injection systems on superbikes. One in the throttle body for normal use and a shower for professional speeds. BMW even had a valve system to tune the exhaust differently for normal use (next to the now standerd shift cam/VVT and adjustable intake length).
This is just the next step in engine transformation needed to poodle around on your hard core racing bike.
Bit the same problem Mercedes has with its project one at the moment.