ambassadors
Didier Tirard is the factory director of Sherco, an all-encompassing job that looks after the bike maker’s R&D, production, quality, purchasing and machining functions. For him, choosing Motul as Sherco’s official lubricant partner made perfect sense. Here’s why.
The partnership with Motul is still fairly new: what was it about Motul’s products that attracted Sherco?
The high quality of Motul lubricants was the first motivating factor for me. Motul supplies the best lubricants on the market and it’s fitting perfectly with our product strategy, which is producing and selling premium bikes.
How does Motul’s products make Sherco’s bikes perform better?
Our technical staff and Motul work well together as one, to find the perfect product for each use. The lubricant is essential for the bike’s performance and longevity, so Motul is really part of it.
There are a wide array of bike oils and lubricants on the market. Why is it essential that people choose a good one like Motul?
We are selling premium bikes which are running at high RPM, so it’s essential to use the recommended oil which has been tested in the research and development department in the hardest conditions. We make a lot of tests before we deliver the bike and we have a very hard bench test, and we use Motul in this test to be sure the lubricant works perfectly for each engine. This is the reason we need to choose Motul.
Without going into too much technical detail, what does a lubricant do and how do you tell a good one from a bad one?
It’s the capacity to keep its principle characteristic benefit whatever the conditions, whether that’s cold or hot. The Sherco bike is a racing bike and we use it in very hot conditions, like the Dakar race, as well as cold conditions and extreme races. And we absolutely need help with the lubricants in the engine, so we arrive at the best result. This is why it’s very important to have the best lubricant in the engine, and this is why we choose Motul.
How closely do you/or will you work with Motul’s R&D team to develop lubricants for your bikes?
Like with all the collaboration with Motul, it’s very easy. Our team is giving frequent feedback to Motul R&D and we have meetings to exchange product development. Since the early beginning Motul has been involved with development and we have a very close technical partnership between Motul and Sherco. It’s a great help for Sherco to have this.
The holy grail of competitive motorcycling is obviously performance and reliability. How do you strike the balance between these two often opposing forces?
Motul is one actor in this balance. The high quality of the oil we use means we don’t have to compromise too much between performance and reliability. The whole team is working on increasing the performance of the product without compromising reliability. This is one of the main factors to be sure the reliability and durability is at the very highest level and to have the possibility to finish the race under the best conditions. It’s difficult to find the balance but this is why we need the best lubricant possible, to have the best performance for the engine and the best durability. This is the reason we work with Motul. To find the best lubricant for the best engine. This is a very important collaboration.
© Sherco, Actiongraphers
