If you’re a keen motorcycle fan, you’re sure to have heard of the name Bruce Dunn. Bruce is a motorcycle tester and journalist, working for some of the most respected newspapers and magazines in the industry, notably Motorcycle News, Performance Bike and Bike magazine. His job is to test motor bikes and to put them through their paces, so that anyone considering buying the latest motorcycle knows exactly what they’re getting for their money and how the bike performs. An essential tool of his trade is the data logger. Now having been in the business for years, he’s tried a variety of data loggers but has learned from experience that only the best equipment can deliver reliability, ease of use and on-going support. That’s why he’s an advocate of 2D data logging system. Yet with such an abundance of data loggers on the market, what makes him rate this data logging system so highly?
“When we test the bikes, the main thing I’m responsible for, and kitted out to do, is the performance testing. So, when a reader reads Motorcycle News and other publications I’ve been involved with, they want to see that the bike’s been tested properly and accurately. That means we don’t rely on the bike’s speedometer: we use an independent means of verifying the actual speed of the bike. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for 15 years now, and I know I need to have the best equipment available to do my job properly. That’s why I use the 2D system. Cost for me really isn’t a factor: I know there are cheaper systems out there, but they don’t deliver. The 2D system we use which costs us around £2,500, and we mainly use the GPS functions which give us around 10 channels of data. We don’t have any problems with signal dropouts, and that’s very important. With some of the testing situations we’ve been involved with, it’s critical to know the equipment we use is accurate and reliable.”
“I’ve been all over Europe and have conducted lots of one-off tests, like testing a new MV or a new Ducati, or we’ve managed to get hold of a new Masano for the afternoon: in these circumstances to have anything else but the best and most-reliable system available for testing is out of the question. You only get the one chance to test: you’re completely reliant on the data logger, so it has to work. It’s robust and hardwearing and extremely accurate. You have to remember that it’s a hostile environment on a motorcycle, so getting anything electronic to work is difficult at the best of times: yet this system manages to do it time after time without any problems.”
“I suppose you could describe the data logger as intuitive, but that’s only half the story for me. There’s no doubt it’s easier to use than other systems and logical, but because my job’s media-related, I don’t often have to go too deeply into the system and use some of the other available functions and channels: we don’t look at the throttle position, for example, as it’s not relevant to what we’re trying to test. If somebody gives me half a dozen bikes to test at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground or anywhere else, I can move from one bike to another and so on very quickly indeed using this system. In terms of ease of use and transportability, it’s as good as anything out there. Years ago we had to use systems where you had to put a wheel-speed sensor on and measure wheel circumference, but the modern way of doing things using GPS systems like 2D is superb. The data logging system is intuitive and very easy to use and the analysis software is extremely easy to pick up and easy to read.”
This article about data logging was submitted by Datron Technology