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Kalex issued the following press release after their test with the Triumph Moto2 engine and Magneti Marelli electronics:

PROMISING CONCLUSION OF FIRST TEST WITH 2019 RACE SPEC TRIUMPH ENGINE

From this week’s Tuesday to Thursday, the German chassis manufacturer KALEX Engineering continued its developing process and preparations for the next season with a three-day test at Spain’s MotorLand Aragón circuit.

The successful rolling chassis company KALEX Engineering also want so to leave nothing to chance in the future. As of the 2019 season, it is well known that a three-cylinder 765 cc engine will be supplied by British brand Triumph in the fiercely competitive Moto2™ category. KALEX was the first of the current manufacturers to test a prototype machine equipped with a Triumph production engine.

During the Aragón test this week, however a first version of this engine in full race specification for next year got its fire baptism. On this occasion, the completely new designed electronics package with ECU and software by Italian’s Magneti-Marelli company was put through its paces for the very first time.

For this outing, KALEX Engineering has recruited an experienced rider line-up with Jesko Raffin from Switzerland, who incidentally also did the first chassis rollout of the 2019 machine last February, Alex Marquez, currently third in World Championship, and Jonas Folger.

For the 24-year-old Folger from Germany, however, this opportunity was a temporary return aboard a real race bike after his long and complicated illness. During this last three days, all riders got stressed to its utmost at the demanding Alcaniz track as the test was accompanied by a scorching heat up to 37 degrees during day time.

Alexander BAUMGÄRTEL (CEO / Chief-Designer):

"Things went very promising during our first test with the Triumph engine in race spec with the electronics coming from Magneti-Marelli for next year. Our riders for this test, Jesko Raffin, Alex Marquez and Jonas Folger, have done a great job over the duration of the last three days at Aragón. On Tuesday, Jesko started with the first rollout of this completely new engine package. Obviously, there appeared minor issues though that could be expected for what was the start of this still new project. But with the great support and efforts by the engineers of Magneti-Marelli, they could be solved immediately. Jesko did also still further functional tests. So, the first day as well as the second with Alex were completely dominated by electronic matters. It was necessary to provide as much information as possible to the three partners Magneti-Marelli, Triumph and ExternPro and we think, that we have completed this part successfully because of the abundant experiences of Jesko and Alex. In addition, we have been able to work out a different mapping with Alex during his last exit on Wednesday afternoon. This mapping with an improved rideability was a massive help for Jonas the day after."

"Jonas ride with the Triumph bike was then also very enlightening, as well as all three riders gave us very similar inputs and statements. This, of course, is very positive and useful to support Magneti-Marelli with further information regarding the fine-tuning in terms of engine brake, engine management and throttle control required for the Moto2 class. For the engine itself, there didn’t appear absolutely no problems whilst with the clutch, there is still some work to do for the race starts. This is probably due to the particular torque for this three-cylinder engine. Otherwise, the functionality is guaranteed, as well as the riders felt comfortable with the adapted power delivery. Apart from that, there came also praise for the gearbox which is working flawlessly so far though it is to say that this part as a whole was far from being stressed to the maximum. But also, from our side everything went smoothly with regard to the technology and mechanics parts. Therefore, we can continue working on the setup now and waiting for the next updates coming from Magneti-Marelli. In addition, we got positive comments from each of the three riders regarding the chassis handling. Of course, there is still a lot of work to do until the start of the 2019 season but we’re looking forward to this new challenge for us. But first, a huge thanks to Jesko, Alex and Jonas for their great job done and all efforts in these extrem conditions."

Jonas FOLGER:

"First a big thank you to Alex and Klaus (Hirsekorn), as well as to all employees in KALEX for giving me this opportunity and helping me lot during the last two days. The support from everyone was really great. After the long absence from racing, it was a great liberation for me to return aboard a real race machine and it was also important for me to know how my current constitution is up to. I’m really grateful to KALEX for giving me this awesome opportunity, and for doing so, because everything was very spontaneous and easy too. Once back on the KALEX, I immediately felt comfortable with and I enjoyed riding a lot. Although, as said everything was very short-time, Alex and Klaus organized my ride perfectly. The first day with the old bike equipped with the Honda engine was good to settle in and get back the rhythm, it was an enormous help for me. But then, Thursday became even more interesting, riding the Triumph KALEX, however. Of course, I was curious about the differences in terms of engine characters and the new electronics used in this project. This package will definitely come a good deal closer to a real race engine. I was able to implement many experiences immediately and we made good progress throughout the day."

Photos courtesy of Kalex Engineering GmbH