An interesting ST article re handling instability

I just stumbles across this and was surprised that I had never heard of it before. Thought I'd share (though it may be common knowledge).
Dennis

http://canadamotoguide.com/2012/11/16/interview-dave-hancock-head-of-product-planning-and-business-development-honda-motor-europe/

I'm glad to see this in print, because it just proves what engineers already know. Sometimes you find problems late in the design cycle that can't be properly fixed, so you just have to deal with it as best you can and ship it. I read often enough how "Honda designed it that way, and they know what they're doing" and that is true 99% of the time, but its that 1% that makes you have to question things when you find something that doesn't make sense.

What surprises me about the 1300 engine bolts is there are hundreds of bikes with the engine as a stressed frame member, I wonder why this was different from all the others? More trapped engine heat possibly, so the bolts heat up more than on other designs?

I was also not surprised to see the part about the Japanese test riders being hesitant to tell the engineers about handling issues because they didn't want to criticize. That's a Japanese cultural thing, I had to take a class to learn about that before going to Japan to work with a facility in Tokyo years ago.

Wow!

During Honda’s R&D track testing the ST1300 would ride fine for about two laps, but engine heat would change the consistency of the engine bolts, and the engine would come loose in the frame. Because the engine was acting as a stressed member and the swingarm pivoted in the cases, this would subsequently have a detrimental effect on handling.

Just Wow! I've seen many articles postulating the cause of the weave including too much weight in one or the wrong saddle bag. This is the first time I've heard of this.

More Wow!
The solution was specific to each individual bike...

And then some:
Following that press launch, Hancock got a call from the president of Honda R&D, telling him that a process would be put in place, that, as Hancock put it, ?R&D cannot produce any bike that hasn?t been signed off by me.? That process still stands today.
That was a 2012 article. What's it like today... Great article. Thanks for the link beek!

I think the definive interview with Hancock was in 2007 and it appeared in part in a 2008 British magazine article on ST1300 stability. The interview article with Hancock went into depth on differences between civilian and police model ST1300s (equipment, suspension, and weight distribution) that Hancock opined affected only police bikes and required a 120 mph restriction on 1300Ps. The swing arm fix was part of a 2002 recall on 2002 EC bikes and the fix was incorporated into US spec bikes for the following year along with a rewrite of how engine hanger bolts are torqued at the factory. The authors of the RIDE article data logged a test mule and ran many tests of windshield and luggage load configurations. Certain combinations induced a weave that was able to be recorded and documented. That article did appear in ST-O but due to copyright law it did not stay visible.