KTM has revealed that its new MotoGP simulator will be available for fans to try at its Motohall museum.
The new simulator has been developed in collaboration with Sevensim and KTM test rider and former MotoGP rider Jonas Folger and will be available from tomorrow (26 March) in the foyer of the Motohall museum.
The simulator will be available for ‘riding’ sessions of either 10 or 20 minutes for four weeks offering a “realistic” experience, KTM says.
“From 26 March, the simulator, developed together with MotoGP star Jonas Folger, will enable realistic rides on a KTM RC16 – including maximum lean angle,” reads a KTM press release announcing the simulator.
“The 10 or 20-minute rides can be booked online or directly on site.”
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KTM MotoGP simulator. Credit: KTM.
The simulator itself seems to feature a motorcycle-ish input device and a triple-screen monitor setup. A VR headset seems like it would be well applied here, because it would mean you wouldn’t need to unnaturally look over to a screen while leant over in order to see where you’re going.
That, of course, is a part of the problem of the idea of a virtual motorcycle simulator. With car simulators you just need a steering wheel and pedals, because a driver sits in a car; a rider, though, sits on a motorcycle, and uses their whole body to control it.
Therefore, a motorcycle simulator brings with it physical demands that you don’t find to the same extent in a car simulator. Most people who play motorcycle racing games aren’t elite athletes with the physical capacity to ride a racing motorcycle at its limit, so a simulation of that activity would have to reduce the physical element of the simulation compared to reality which, in the case of a motorcycle, would theoretically reduce the accuracy of the simulation because the way the way a rider moves around a motorcycle is so central to the bike’s behaviour.
Exactly how far the KTM simulator goes in its quest for realism is hard to say without trying it, of course, although we imagine it stops short of a trip to Barcelona to visit Dr. Xavier Mir for a plate to be nailed into your broken collarbone.
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