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At first glance RDE seems to be a road testing topic only, mistakenly. While Type approval test must be performed at the Road and Chassis Dyno, development work beforehand delivers solutions fulfilling the demanded legislation limits. Making the right development steps and decisions will lead to a technical solution within economy of scales. Much of this work done happens on engine testbeds and Real Driving Emissions (RDE) per UN-ECE legislation or the new test cycle for the chassis dyno according WLTP (Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Test Procedure) will not change that. The question is, are engine test beds fit for this new challenge or are changes required? One characteristic element of RDE is the randomness of operating conditions generated by a road drive. There must be found a way, to achieve RDE relevant test conditions in a most reproducible manner.

Fuel consumption is the most important contributor to the total cost of ownership for mass produced motorcycles. Therefore, best fuel economy is one main influencing criteria for a decision to purchase motorcycles. Furthermore, increasingly stringent emission legislations limit and additional OBD requirements must be fulfilled. A new combined test approach has been developed that minimizes accuracy losses in the development process which compensates for the variability of driving behavior in the chassis dyno environment. An engine testbed combined with a belt drive transmission enables operation in single engine or in Powerpack (i.e. internal combustion engine including transmission) configuration as well as under steady state or dynamic operating mode. Since the belt drive transmission is integrated in the test rig, realistic inertia situation for the single engine operating test configuration is ensured.

Specific test systems are essential for the development and optimization of powertrains for two-wheeler applications. The World Motorcycle Test Cycle (WMTC) is prevalently used for type approval certification in terms of emissions and fuel consumption. In this respect, decreasing fuel consumption and increasing efficiency within the WMTC is an important development goal. The aim of the development project presented in this paper was to investigate how the robustness and repeatability of the measurement data can be increased by using a specific measurement procedure and test setup. As fuel consumption and emission levels reach ever lower levels, any influencing factors related to performance and emissions are of particular interest within the powertrain development phase. When it comes to the differentiation of specific influencing factors such as lube oil behavior and its contribution to fuel consumption, very high measurement-repeatability and accuracy must be maintained.