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This paper proposes a novel engine starter system composed of a small-power electric motor and a simple mechanical valve train. The system makes it possible to design more efficient starters than conventional systems, and it is especially effective to restart engines equipped with idling stop systems. Recently, several idling stop systems, having intelligent start-up functions and highly-efficient generate capabilities have been proposed for motorcycles. One of challenges of the idling stop systems is the downsizing of electric motors for starting-up. However, there are many limitations to downsize the electric motors in the conventional idling stop systems, since the systems utilize the forward-rotational torque of the electric motors to compress the air-fuel mixture gas in the cylinders. Our studies exceeded the limitations of downsizing the electric motors by mainly using the engine combustion energy instead of the electric energy to go over the first compression top dead center.

Recently, there have been many reports about development of Human Machine Interface (HMI) which used a visual or auditory display to improve driver assist. For a motorcycle, it is suitable to use a haptic display for rider assist, since there are many disturbances in open-air situation such as sunshine and surrounding noise. Therefore, a test vehicle based on a large motorcycle equipped with the haptic throttle grip that is connected to a motor by gear, an original ECU to control the motor, and a lean angle sensor to calculate the lateral force of the motorcycle was developed. To inform surplus driving force warning, the throttle grip, a haptic display outputs additional return torque estimated by the friction circle and ellipse with the lateral force of the motorcycle.