Hello, and welcome to PowerDrift.
This is Simplified where we take complicated ideas and break them down into simple things
and today we're talking about GTT or glide through technology, TVS's new idea for riding in heavy traffic.
What TVS says it does on motorcycles like the Apache 160 and the 200 is that, when you're in
really heavy traffic, if you let the clutch go and you close the throttle completely,
the motorcycle will still be able to do a chosen speed, I think it's about 7 kilometers
an hour in first gear for the 160, the new updated 160 for example. If you haven't seen the video,
we do have the first ride of the 160 up on PowerDrift, we'll leave a link for you in the description, please go check it out.
Now the idea of this is that if traffic around you is flowing at roughly 7 kilometers
an hour, you don't have to really control the motorcycle apart from its direction and
it will glide through traffic as it were. Second gear, the speed is a little bit higher,
I think it's 11 kilometers an hour, third gear is higher still, and so on and so forth.
But how does this work and is this really a revolutionary idea?
For that, let's just quickly rewind back to the basics of internal combustion engines.
Now four stroke engines obviously have four strokes, right?
It's called suck, squeeze, bang and blow.
That's how I remember it, it's faster than intake, compression, combustion and exhaust.
But the thing that you have to understand is that the crank which is driven by the conrod
which is driven by the piston, is only driven at one part of the stroke cycle
that would be the combustion cycle
when the explosion causes torque that goes through the conrod and actually starts to
turn the crank, the crank has weight so that it has inertia so that it can continue to
rotate between the arrival of combustion cycles
and if there isn't enough torque, for example, or there isn't enough inertia in the crank,
the engine will stall, and as new riders we've all stalled engines
because we've created conditions that make it difficult for the engine to continue running.
However, what you would realize if you've driven a diesel, is that diesels makes so much torque
right off the bottom that most diesels, if you don't touch the throttle at all and just
let the clutch go gently, the vehicle will start rolling forward, and it does stutter a little
bit but then it settles into a very, very low speed in whatever gear you're in.
And if you're on a flat road or going downhill,
you can actually shift up and continue to increase the speed.
This is also true for a large number of motorcycles.
I would suggest when you take your motorcycle out the next time try this, stick it in first gear,
don't touch the throttle, just let the clutch out slowly and see. Many motorcycles
will stall and not be able to run,
but you'll be surprised at the number that will actually be able to run.
To give you an example, my Tuono and my R6 both are able to do this with no intervention
from me required if I just let the clutch go, the motorcycles move forward.
In fact, my friend Anand who used to teach at the Ducati Riding Academy and the basic
program, most Ducatis they would say don't touch the throttle at all just release
the clutch progressively and the motorcycle will roll forward
and then you can take over the control of the throttle manually so that you don't have
to learn the coordination of the clutch and the throttle immediately,
that is something that can be postponed a little bit. What TVS does to that in glide
through technology is take it one step forward where the ECU is constantly monitoring the
motorcycle at really low speeds, and it is able to add fuel and subtract fuel so that you can
arrive at that 7 kilometers an hour speed.
In fact, if you're going to go downhill, the motorcycle will actually continue to add speed,
and you can change up the gears to control the speed a little bit more.
On the other hand, if you're going uphill, it is able to maintain the speed.
So let's say if you're going up slope or you're with a pillion, obviously the load on the engine
is different and the ECU understands that the load is different
so it raises the revs slightly so that it maintains that set speed which is 7 or 11
as I said for the 160. What you cannot do if you're going uphill is up-shift because then
the load is too much and then the motorcycle will stall.
This is not an unknown technology in many ways
because for example, Suzuki also does this for many of their motorcycles, where they also
have an anti-stall system which is meant to target new riders who are still learning how
to ride their motorcycles well.
And in that situation instead of making the motorcycle go at a certain speed,
although that's what the motorcycle will do,
what the ECU realizes is that the condition for combustion are becoming suboptimal, and
it's about to stall and it raises the fueling a little bit to stop the motorcycle from stall.
There isn't a dramatic difference in speed in any of these systems,
but they all produce the same result which is at really low revs the motorcycle engine
continues to run without stalling because the ECU is controlling.
In fact, if you take a test ride on the TVS motorcycles and try it, if you go uphill and
downhill, you'll realize that the combustion of the engine actually changes.
At a steady surface the revs be slightly lower
and when it's going downhill, you can actually hear the combustion cycles
shut down and restart, shut down and restart.
It doesn't sound like the motorcycle stuttering as much as it's very, very slow combustion
reminiscent of how old Bullets used to idle.
So that's a basic idea of what glide through technology is. In terms of how useful it is,
it depends on what the traffic around you is doing.
So in Bombay, I discovered that a lot of fairly heavy traffic, flowing smoothly though, not crawling
traffic, would usually go between 7 and 11 kilometers an hour.
So in that situation the Apache should actually work quite well.
But if the traffic was flowing faster, say at 13 kilometres an hour or slower, let's say
5 kilometres an hour, glide though would not be so useful, although it might still be an
improvement on you having to use the clutch and the throttle to control the speed constantly.
Do you think this is a great idea?
Do you think this is something that is a game changer for the motorcycle?
Do leave us a comment.
And if you have any questions about this, do leave us a comment as well because on Simplified
we try to get back to you with researched responses to your questions.
And if there's other topics you'd like us to cover, all you have to do is tell us in
the comments, DM us on Instagram, we're @PowerDrift on Instagram also.
And I would like to remind you at this point that if you found this useful, please do share
it with your friends and please, please, please do hit the subscribe button.
PowerDrift has India's best automotive content and to reach you directly we also need you
to hit the bell notification icon.
Thank you so much for watching.
That was a quick primer on TVS's GTT or glide through technology.