[cageyar]

What's also interesting is that Kawasaki has been trying "big bang" technology since 2005 with Shinya Nakano and the MotoGP ZX-RR. While those results never fully materialized, you have to notice that what Melandri has been able to do with the bike after Kawasaki pulled it's full support and development is pretty amazing.

Apparently, this past spring, Kawasaki filed some patents for the 2010 ZX-10 on big bang so it looks like this technology is expanding but with an electronic twist:

"The Kawasaki design would traditionally have had problems, in that the radical nature of the firing order would have made the engine incapable of running at low RPM, due to a lack of momentum in the crank on the long 540° revolution. The second problem would have been the requirement for a very heavy and almost impractical crankshaft, which would have made the engine slow to rev, and would have limited high end RPM.

Kawasaki have solved these problems by using clever electronics. An electric motor operates only on every second revolution, during the compression stroke, and only on cylinders one and four. This tiny electric motor operates only long enough for the motor to gain momentum, and then switches off again. Engine sensors are used to monitor crank angle, degree of throttle opening, vehicle speed and gear position. The new electric motor will also be used as a generator to charge the battery when it's not boosting the crank, and that means it can do the job of the traditional alternator too.

The radical 540° gap in the firing order is double the gap that the new R1 uses, and means that the ZX-10R motor turns a full one and a half revolutions without any cylinders firing. The gap in the R1 firing order is only 270° which in itself was considered rather long.

However the most significant benefits from the Kawasaki design are that the crankshaft retains the natural balance as found in a traditional (screamer) in line four. This in effect reduces production costs, improves reliability, and also enables the normal high rev limit found in screamer engines, which means that the peak power output will not be adversely affected."