BMW patents active winglet system the adjusts on the fly
If you’re a superbike fan, you may have noticed that in the past few years, these motorcycles have evolved to have winglets in them which uses air as a downforce to keep the motorcycle attached to the ground, therefore giving its rider more traction. Cars have spoilers, motorcycles have winglets.
Unfortunately, and unlike in cars, these winglets give out a weird effect when the bike is leaned on a curve. Because of this, BMW Motorrad devised an Active Aero System that would keep these winglets parallel to the ground even when the bike is leaned.
In a recent patent filing by BMW Motorrad, instead of a static winglet, their new design allows the winglet to stay parallel to the pavement, no matter how far the bike is leaned. This system would allow all the necessary downforce for maximum traction on the road.
While this may seem cool, this new system may not be of much use to amateur and not-so-highly-skilled weekend riders like you and me and may end up on some special “homologation” version of a BMW S1000 RR or M 1000 RR.
Additionally, the patent filings don’t say too much on how the system would be adjusted but our best guess is that it will be adjusted by the bike’s lean angle sensor which is pretty standard these days on high-end motorcycles. This lean angle sensor works hand in hand with the bike’s ABS and traction control when the bike is equipped with cornering ABS and cornering traction control.
