MotoTrainer offers motorcycle racing fans their own simulator

Sim racing got a massive increase in popularity over the past year, especially at the onset of the pandemic, when all real motorsport came to a halt. Unfortunately, pretty much all of this fun was limited to four-wheel racing. Recreating the experience for us motorcycle enthusiasts would prove to be a little more difficult.

How much harder? Well, so difficult that it’s only now, with the MotoTrainer announcement on Thursday, that we’re even in the stadium. Unfortunately, as you see in the launch video, it’s not exactly the type of gaming solution you tie to your desk, given that it uses a real motorcycle as a peripheral.

MotoTrainer was developed in partnership with Dorna – aka the company that owns MotoGP – and works either with the MotoGP game, or riders can take a lap on one of the MotoGP circuits. Unfortunately, there are currently no hardcore motorcycle racing sims in the iRacing vein available to the public, so don’t expect to have the same experience.

“The software behind Moto Trainer, developed by our engineers, is capable of playing any on-board video and allows riders to save their efforts on a master telemetry track,” said Andrea Lombardi, CEO of MotoTrainer, in a statement. . “This means you can load any track and bike you want, with the riders replicating the video on the benchmark telemetry. The software then analyzes the rider’s performance by monitoring the throttle, front and rear brakes, gearbox and trajectories. “

Now this is all incredibly cool, but you are probably wondering what it will cost, assuming you have a spare motorcycle and the space to fit one. Well, less than you might think, in fact, and a lot less than a full motion car racing simulator, but still a lot. The MotoTrainer starts at around $ 6,000 and goes up from there if you want things like force feedback. The fully cheated version will set you back around $ 18,130 including a PC.

So, knowing all this, who would buy this thing? Well, maybe you are a die-hard motorcycle racing enthusiast who is unable to get to a racetrack with a bike, or maybe you are someone who is recovering from a previous injury. You may own a business like Base51 (which is owned by CXC Simulations simulation platform manufacturer), and you want to offer two-wheeled fun to your customers.

At the moment, it doesn’t appear that there is one open to the public in the United States, but we are keeping our fingers crossed as the pandemic ends, hopefully that changes.