29 August 2018

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about aluminum's use in motorcycles


Aluminum is everywhere that either lightweight structure or high thermal and electrical conductivity are required. 

The typical sportbike has an aluminum cylinder block, head, and crankcases, plus a welded aluminum chassis and swingarm. Within the engine, the crucial aluminum application is its pistons, which by conducting heat so well are able to survive exposure to combustion temperatures far above their melting point. The wheels, coolant and oil radiators, hand levers and their brackets, top and (often) bottom fork crowns, upper fork tubes (in USD forks), brake calipers, and master cylinders are likewise aluminum.

Together with the wide variety of steels, aluminum is a basic workhorse of human civilization, but it’s more than that for modern motorcycles. It’s the meat of a bike, so ubiquitous that we barely see it or acknowledge how much of the machine’s performance we owe to it.

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