WLAB

Case study · Enduro

Enduro, from the bike's point of view

In enduro, timing tells you how fast and a rider's tracker tells you where. We fitted a second unit to the bike on two enduro days, a tight EnduroCross-style track and a long hard enduro loop, to see what the bike itself could tell riders and teams.

Discipline
Enduro: short track and hard enduro
Riders
2, one day each
Kit
Rider-worn tracker + bike-mounted unit
Recorded
27 hits with traces, 23 harsh events, bike voltage

01 The challenge

The hardest moments in enduro happen where nobody is watching

A big landing in a rock garden, a climb fought metre by metre, the same jump hit lap after lap. Timing gives the result and a rider's tracker gives the route, but neither says what the bike went through, or where. We wanted to measure it.

02 The setup

Two units: one follows the rider, one records the bike

Each rider wore our tracker as usual. Each bike also carried a unit wired to the bike's 12 V supply. This is what each one sent to the platform on the two days.

RecordedRider's tracker, wornBike unit, on the bike
PositionWherever the rider isEvery 1–2 s, wherever the bike is
SOS buttonYesNo
PowerIts own batteryThe bike's 12 V supply
G-force hitsNoPeak g and place of every hit
Impact traceNoX, Y, Z at 100 Hz around each hit
Harsh accel and brakingNoEach event, with time and place
Bike electricsNoVoltage: charging, parked or running

03 The two enduro days

A tight 320 m track and a 16.6 km mountain loop

Opposite ends of enduro: short, repeated laps over obstacles, and hours on a technical route with long climbs.

Rider A · Short track

An EnduroCross-style track day

Sessions
4
Timed laps
12
Best lap
66.2 s
First lap to best lap
110.6 → 66.2 s
Distance on track
6.6 km
Top speed
30 km/h

Rider B · Hard enduro

One loop of a marked enduro route

Loop time
3:14:36
Distance
16.6 km
Climbing
≈790 m
Riding / stopped
64 / 128 min
Stops
7
Top speed
76 km/h

04 What we found · Short track

18 hits over 6 g in one day, all at the same three spots on the lap

Left: the peak g of each of the 18 hits, between 8.4 and 11.2 g, coloured by spot A, B or C. Right: total acceleration for three seconds either side of one spot A hit, peaking near 11 g.
Left: peak of each hit, by time of day. Right: 3 s either side of one hit, from the 100 Hz trace.

8.4–11.2 g

  • Spot A: 9 hits, 9.2–11.2 g
  • Spot B: 5 hits, 10.1–11.2 g
  • Spot C: 4 hits, 8.4–10.8 g
  • Between hits, the bike shakes at 1–4 g

The same spots, lap after lap: the hits show which parts of the track are hardest on the bike, and each trace shows how that landing went. Over the day the rider's lap time came down from 110.6 s to 66.2 s.

05 What we found · Hard enduro

9 hits in the first 26 minutes, up to 10.3 g. Most of the loop was ridden near 1 g.

Left: the peak g of each of the 9 hits, between 5.9 and 10.3 g, with the 10.3 g hit highlighted. Right: total acceleration for three seconds either side of the 10.3 g hit, a single sharp spike.
Left: peak of each hit, by time of day. Right: 3 s either side of the biggest hit.

10.3 g

  • The biggest hit, at 23 km/h
  • Under 2.5 g for 90 % of the riding
  • Each hit above 4 g for 0.03–0.76 s

The trigger started at 4 g and was raised to 6 g remotely after 26 minutes. No hit crossed 6 g for the rest of the loop.

22+1

Hard-acceleration events, plus one hard-braking event, over the loop

19in 2 min

Of those events on one climb, after the fourth stop: where the rider fought for grip

13.33V

The lowest voltage with the engine running. Parked, it never went above 13.26 V, so the bike's own voltage shows when it ran

06 Getting the data off the bike

94 % of bike positions on the map within 10 seconds on the short track

2.5s

Typical time from the bike unit recording a position to it showing on the map, short track

87%

Of the bike unit's positions live within a minute on the hard enduro loop, where it sent in batches

98%

Of the rider's tracker positions live within a minute on that same loop

07 What it means for enduro

Run the bike unit with the rider's tracker, not instead of it

The bike unit adds

  • Every hit: peak g, place and a 100 Hz trace
  • Harsh acceleration and braking, on the map
  • Bike voltage, charging and engine-on time
  • 1–2 s positions for laps and sectors
  • Power from the bike, not a battery

The rider's tracker stays for

  • The rider, when rider and bike part
  • The SOS button
  • Its own battery, whatever the bike does
  • The quicker live feed on the hard enduro day

What we tune per discipline

  • The sensor tops out at 8 g per axis: 6 of the 18 short-track hits reached it
  • The hit trigger: 4 g fired 9 times in 26 minutes on the hard enduro loop
  • How often the bike unit sends, for live use

The rider's tracker finds the rider. The bike unit explains the ride.

Two real enduro ride days in 2026. Riders, venues and dates are not named. All figures come from the platform's recorded data for those days. G-force is the total across the three axes; a hit is the bike unit's impact event over its trigger.