2WD was first introduced to Öhlins Racing by Yamaha. The Japanese manufacturer was out looking for some sort of 2WD system and they first came across two French brothers that had come up with a pretty complicated chain driven solution.
Then Yamaha found patents for a solution with hydrostatic drive and took the patents to Öhlins and consulted us as we were considered experts on hydraulic systems.
The questions was pretty straight forward – is it any point for us to invest in this French patent?
We took a proper look at the technical specifications and we soon found out that the construction was pretty corny and very complicated. It had a slow moving hydraulic motor in the front wheel with a hydraulic pump in the rear wheel.
We told Yamaha that this function could be made much lighter and more efficient by installing a small high speed hydraulic pump above the gearbox then connect it to the gearbox sprocket and put an efficient high speed motor on the front wheel together with a reduction gear.
It was a much slimmer solution and we did not even have to use the French patent. We could instead apply some patents of our own.
Yamahas answer was very clear – build such a system for us!