Zie Germans are still hard at work this winter back in zie mother country, as the final production version of the Horex VR6 is coming together. Today, the German company has announced the official performance figures of its new street bike, and the base 1,218cc six-cylinder VR motor comes with 161hp on tap and 100 lbs•ft of peak torque.
Making its peak power at 9,000 rpm, the Horex VR6 also makes most of its torque extremely low in the rev range. With 66 lbs•ft of torque at 2,000 rpm, the German roadster reaches 74 lbs•ft of torque at 3,500rpm, which fits well with the company’s hope of making the VR6 easy to ride on city streets.
Perhaps more interesting that the performance figures is the announced constant solid-graphite chain lubrication system. As the name implies, the Horex VR6 will constantly lube its chain, but instead of using oil or wax, as is traditionally used, the German motorcycle company has partnered with specialists at the Schunk Group, who have created a system that constantly coats the chain drive with a thin layer of graphite.
Less messy, and not prone to being flicked off the chain by centrifugal forces, the dry chain lubrication system is an industry first brought to market by Horex, and sounds intriguing on paper. With claims that it increases maintenance intervals over standard chain lubrication systems, this is a feature owners will be particularly interested in seeing reviews of as the VR6 hits dealer floors.
“The testing was aimed at determining the final engine control settings for homologation. The performance results for our naturally aspirated VR6 engine are definitely impressive,” said Horex CEO Clemens Neese. “Our goal was to achieve an engine profile that delivers plenty of torque slightly above idle and then dynamically increases on a continuum up to the maximum torque output. And we clearly achieved this objective.”
“Our goal in developing the driveline was to combine riding comfort, i.e. stability and excellent front-to-back ratio, with low maintenance,” explained Horex Chief Engineer Robert Rieder. “A chain drive with a graphite-based solid lubricant system is the best possible solution.”
Horex hopes to have the base model Horex VR6 out in the Spring of 2012, with the supercharged version to follow later in the model’s future.
Source: Horex
BRAVO to Horex for some “Out of the box” thinking!!!
Using dry graphite lubrication is hardly a new concept. I used it for the wheels on my Pine Wood Derby cars when I was in Cub Scouts back in the 80′s. To think that it took this long for some engineer with an idea to integrate a similar system in a real world application is just laughable. I’d love to see an aftermarket system similar to a Scottoiler or a Pro-Oiler offered with this technology. I’d be first in line to start fitting it to Chain Driven motorcycles and bicycles.
Hi Kurt,
no problem – the system HOREX will use is also avaiblable as a kit version to mount on a number of bikes. More here: http://www.carbonforbikes.com/
Why is the rear rotor so large?
I truly love the looks of this bike and it looks like it might have some good performance too! Almost looks too nice to ride.
I hope more “outside the box” production bikes like this start popping up. Ten dollars says it is much cheaper than one of those confederate pigs too!
@Damo: I would take this “Piggy Roadster” over a Confederate any day of the week…(^_^)
@Clarence:I find your link relevant to my “Complete Drive Chain World Domination/Oblitaration Grand Scheme”.
Do u happen to know if at the moment they have a distributor of their product on the U.S.A ?
Do concept drawings need chain lube? You wanna impress someone? How ’bout producing a real, affordable motorcycle, not a series of “one offs”.
C’mon John, be a good sport, there’s plenty of Ninja250, CBR250, TU250, GZ250, Eliminator125, WR250X, Vulcan500, GS500, ETC “affordable hardware” for decades now…is just that people here on the USA don’t really give a crap about it. Harsh and Simple.
Let “Whorex” dream big and sell some of these Beasts. We all don’t want to ride “enviromentally friendly sensible HIGH MPG commuters”, do we ?
If they are meant to go under they will on their due time…give time time.
What he meant was, why does concept drawing need lubrication …. a dig that there’s ton of concept filling bandwidth quotas, yet no so many bikes. Bikes are only as good as people can buy them and afford them.
I’d rather take a chain on a real world bike … nothing to do with 250cc bikes.
U guys(MXS & John) are too pesimistic and thinking “too deep”…my head hurts.
There’s plenty of fish ALREADY for “your hooks” in the “motorcycle sea”…let the others hope and dream for “different fish”… even if it is the elusive “800 lbs $250,000 Blue Fin Tuna”(Horex VR6).
Unless u guys live on “a different paralell universe with no recession where money comes out of your “lowest back” everytime u take a dump” u won’t be getting all those “real bikes” ur hoping for…anyway, there’s more bikes ALREADY than u money to afford them all.
“A chain drive with a graphite-based solid lubricant system is the best possible solution.”
I dunno. An X-ring chain, with a hit from a $5 can of DuPont Teflon Dry Lube
http://www.amazon.com/Dupont-Multi-Use-Lubricant-Aerosol-D00110101-C/dp/B0009LSXOA
every week to two, is inexpensive, easy to maintain, completely clean, and just about ideal in all respects.
I’ve used graphite-based chain lubes and they tend to make the chain black, and if any of your apparel rubs against the chain it gets badly stained. Graphite isn’t a clean chain lube at all.
@John and msx:
The concept needs the lubrication as according tot he article the final production is coming toghether and also we are talking here about “Zie Germans” building a bike here…of course they have to have every angle covered (strongly recommend watching a short film how Bugatti Veyron was designed it will help you understand how german engineers think :) )
@MikeD: You are hunder % right. There is plenty of “affordable hardware” out there. Only if BMW were making some handsome devils like the one above altought they have a plus in my books for the S1000 RR
@Randy:
I had totally forgotten about that product u mentioned, someone said something about it some time ago but like with a lot of things it totally went under my radar’s scope…(^_^).
Im going to try to source it locally. I wonder if my “local” cyclegear store carries it.
@MikeD
There are several versions of DuPont Teflon Lube. There is one specifically made for bikes, and you can get it at any Wal-Mart in the auto department. I don’t like that version as much, as it is rather thick. I prefer the “multi-purpose” version that comes in the blue can. It is thinner, so it penetrates your chain better, and it sets up dry almost instantly. You can get it at any Lowe’s hardware store.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_213197-39963-D00110101_?PL=1&productId=1059839
I’ve been using it for several years now, and my chain and rear wheels still look like new! I’ve never had to clean either!
@Randy: Thanks my good Sir, i did a little digging and came up with this little chart from the DuPont products website.
I believe ur talking about the first can left to right ? (the one u prefer that is).
http://www2.dupont.com/Consumer_Lubricants/en_US/assets/downloads/DuPont_Teflon_Lubricants_and_Greases_Product_Availability.pdf
U are right on the $$$ about where to get it.
As soon as i kill my FREE current can of Bell-Ray i’ll buy & try it like the world’s coming to an end…(im a CHEAP SKATE, i can’t be helped) lol.
P.S: Thanks for the real world feedback from a real user…(^_^)
@LumenGrid:
They(BMW) already have a jewel of A foundation to make something AND BETTER than Horex…The K1600GT and it’s core hardware(powertrain & frame)
They just need to switch from the “TOTALLY makes sense both economically, everyone on the board gave it the thumps up and we gonna make tons of money out of it frame” mind set to the “Ahhh WTH! , WE ARE BMW, JUST ‘CAUSE WE CAN, I THINK IT WILL SELL, LET’S BUILD THIS B*&%” one.
Maybe one day they’ll kick out a kick-ass K1600R…just because…lol.
And before anyone goes preaching that it will be totally useless and overkill…all i have to say is…go get yourself a CBR250 and set the world on fire. LMAO.
I have used the DuPont stuff from new on the Benelli and after 13000 miles, the sprokets look new and I have a lot of adjustment left on the chain.
+1 for the DuPont Teflon Dry Lube. It works!