I was sat with the Wee Yin watching the YouTube video I posted in my last blog - the one with the guys on various different bikes negotiating an obstacle in the Cambrian Rally:



I explained the different things to the Wee Yin as they flashed up:

• borrowed bike - cost a few beers
• BMW - 100 quid on Ebay
• Fully sorted Paris-Dakar weapon - £35,000

we watched the Dakar bike rider fall flat on his face where everybody else just coasted through. The Wee Yin considered this and innocently chimed - "that's a waste of money then". Such flawless logic, delivered with the timing of a comic genius.

I was reading an article in TBM about Christini all-wheel-drive (aka "AWD"). This is the motorcycle equivalent of 4-wheel drive - where both the front wheel and rear wheel are being powered.

There's a couple of advantages to this system:

• You'll never get stuck in mud - the front wheel pulls you out, instead of the nightmare my ITM had in Morocco
  
  
• You speed round flat corners like you're on rails - the front wheel doesn't wash out because it's not being pushed by the back wheel
  
  
• You can climb hills - even that hill - because you're being pulled as well as pushed
  
  
• You coast through soft sand - none of this head-first-over-the-handlebars stuff
  

Hold on. Did somebody say "coast through soft sand?". You now officially have my attention.

The disadvantage is that the front wheel is harder to get into the air (and sometimes you need to get your front wheel up to clear obstacles) but, apparently, this can be overcome by technique.

Martin has mentioned AWD a couple of times. Apparently Dakar bikes didn't use it because it was to expensive, too heavy and too prone to failure.

But what Christini have done is actually fairly clever. They add a new chain onto the front sprocket, with little gears going down the front forks and into the front wheel. It adds 6 kilos in all. Clutches and ratchets make sure that the wheel will freewheel when you need it to and - crucially - will turn in the other direction if you need it to.

They provide kits for various Honda and KTM bikes - so I've got in touch with them to ask if such a kit is available for a PR3/4 and, if not, would they be interested in working with us to develop one.

Looking ahead, the bike that we build will be the subject of much scrutiny. Because it's such a novel thing - take the smallest and lightest 4-stroke you can with excellent fuel consumption, add fuel tanks and a slightly bigger engine. Add a light rider. We've been through all this before (blogs passim).

When we get to the finish line - probably even when we get to the start line - there will be much interest. Much headlines along the lines of "Small, but Perfectly Formed", "Can this be done?", "Pioneering AJP" and "Is This The Way Of The Future?". Stuff like that. Such a small bike entering such a big race will cause a lot of heads to turn, and a lot of assumptions to be questioned.

So, if we can get Christini on board then there's a lot of kudos in it for them - and a lot of free advertising. What we'd get out of it is a AWD motorcycle, which still weighs in at less than 95 kilos. That would be one of the most competitive enduro bikes in the world.

Let's hope that Christini can look that far ahead, and are willing to help out with some of the engineering challenges we'll face in doing this.

That's the difference between science and engineering. Science is all about performing experiments and stuff to turn the theoretical into the possible - splitting the atom for instance. Once it's proven to be possible, actually making it happen is - as the scientists say - "an engineering problem".

Surprisingly, most scientific discoveries didn't happen by somebody shouting "EUREKA!" or similar. They started off by somebody saying something like "Hold on, that's a bit odd ...".

You might not always get what you expect, but you'll always get something.

Which, given that it's Christmas tomorrow, somehow seems appropriate.

Have a great Christmas. And I hope that it works out for you in the New Year - whatever "it" happens to be for you.

Thanks for tuning in. Next year is when we move up a gear. Stay tuned.

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