A lying motorcycle built in your backyard that features both-wheel steering is the RoHorn. And this is the most fascinating invention in the last 20 years.
@@pizzyp Seen it. There's also another fabricator in Japan doing the same thing, albeit his design deviates from Otomo's Akira bike, but still a reclined design.
Keep at it Robert! I've been riding for 50+ years and have spent many hours thinking of something similar to offset the high G effects of any modern fast bike with great brakes. I would love to see lap time comparisons with a well funded take on this idea..
I've always thought sitting ON the bike made no sense whatsoever. Once should work WITH physics, not against it. Great job on the bike! Would LOVE to ride something like this one day!
This is the closest I've ever seen of a viable method to make an Akira Battle Bike. Because it allows for an engine of any size as well as allowing it to be made oversize to fit the pilot. If I ever had the money ...I'd contact Robert to make it.
I've been building recumbent motorcycles for years as daily drivers. I've built a lot of them, As long as your body is in the right position and the steering is not crazy, then they're pretty comfortable ride. I never built one to race, though. I've built them for friends also who absolutely love to cruise around on them. Got a RU-vid channel full of them. I do admire this man engineering on his steering!
Thanks for sharing. The topic reminds me of some oil sheikh with an enormous garage full of supper cars. In the corner parked against the wall like a bicycle was I think a Kawasaki or some other more expensive bike. When asked about it he said it was a piece of crap, "if you drive a million dollar car it really feels like a million dollar car, the most expensive motor cycle doesn't feel any better than a cheap one." It kinda made me wonder, where is the innovation? If people with an unlimited budget cant buy anything there must be something weird going on in the sector. It is not unlike bicycles all looking like the heavily restricted tour the france bikes where recumbents got banned after (winning) the first race. Perhaps you can turn a velomobiel design into a motorcycle. They are recumbent bicycles with an aerodynamic body that fully covers the rider and wheels. It's a challenge to get the weight down with human power, lots of things should transfer to motorcycles nicely. lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GbEmZgOdwzU/T9_K1lzNRKI/AAAAAAAAJqs/YY8ld42g7uk/s1600/energieverbruik%2520vervoersmodi.png
OP: just saw your channel and subscribed! Thank you for mentioning it! Regarding the bike used in this particular video .. I had been trying to work out the handling characteristics of one that steers with both wheels like that, and the results seemed to suggest that the turning of the rear wheel would be a fraction of the turning of the front wheel (around maybe 20-30%) and that it would need a little rake on both ends. Interesting to see this guy's take on the BMW telelever suspension. (disclaimer: I am not an educated ME)
2:34 My aunt built a kit plane at home, in her backyard, decades ago, although admittedly she wasn't designing it from scratch to be a radical reconception of what an airplane should even be, so fair enough.
@@adrianjayne6580 Yah. Minimal front area profile. Most motorcycles have the sort of drag coefficients you'd see on trucks with stuff sticking off them. There's a guy on youtube who's made a fuel-efficient fully faired reverse recumbent trike along those lines .. see Paul Elkins, economical gas powered commuter trike.
I have been interested in the "feet first" idea for years. Ever since I saw a Quasar displayed at a show in Batersea. Later I got into FF bicycles and still have one..
How weird, I literally just wondered this morning if a foot-forward/recumbent motorcycle could be raced. I didn’t do a search this was just in my feed 😂
You left out that most full size semi-trucks are more aerodynamic than a motorcycle. The foot-forward design solves that problem while lowering the CoG. It has to be the way forward.
See Paul Elkins (on youtube) and his gas powered economical trike. Vehicles with such low CoD & CoG are definitely the way forward. The designers of yesteryear were focused on getting past horses & steam, peak oil and climate change weren't on the radar yet - another thing they didn't have then.
Love this bike, such amazing work. I hope he continues with development. I wonder if he rides it on the road. That would give a good testing. I ride a recumbent bicycle. I do notice a lesser stability at slow speeds. Also a twitchyness. This is far less when loaded up with panniers low down. I suspect his bike doesn’t suffer so. Especially with the vertical front steering axis, though be interesting to know if the rear wheel steering helps, a few folk have tried rear only steering with no real success. My main issue is that it is difficult to turn your head and look around at junctions or behind. A good mirror definitely needed.
YES!! Been thinking about something like this awhile. Super low profile, ought to have very good energy efficiency. Unfortunately also too easy for cagers not to see it :(
There has been a small but persistent Foot Forward movement in UK motorcycling for decades. The Quasar made by Malcolm Newell from the late 1970s to the early 1990s made an appearance in this video. Other exponents include Royce Creasey and his Voyager project
Dan Gurney in 1976 came out with a bike very similar to this design THE ALLIGATOR ... and raced it and was very successful ... it would be the most fascinating invention in the last 48 years
My FXR with forward controls has me riding in a position like this. Counter-intuitively, I can corner real well in canyons with it, and even navigate rough dirt roads
Роберт, давно наблюдаю за попытками победить физику и управляемость мото🤔 Твои изыскания вдохновляют на попытку исполнить нечто подобное🤓 Удачи😉 Быть Добру✊️
I have to agree with Robert on the mystifying appeal of cafe racers. My particular pet peeve are the fenderless scrambler-ish builds. A single mud puddle would cause the rider to be sprayed with mud!
Gustav Baumm was a brilliant pioneer, but he didn't go 200mph on a 125. His NSU 125 'only' went 150mph, with only 16bhp! The 250 got close to 300kph (186mph) IIRC.
I like the stick or fighter jet control. I whould move that to a left-hand or right hand position for ergonomic reasons. Also, to accelerate push the stick forward, pull back to slow down or brake. I whould also implement electronic stabilisation, so if one of the tires where to slip one does not fall over and slide across the road.
To the Author, i would love to know more about the geometry number of your machine 😅 the geometry of suspension is what makes or breaks any vehicle. I have some experience with building racing machines, but have always wanted to build a sit down bike, ever since I saw the Japanese anime movie Akira, would love to know to know more, as it will take me quite a while to learn the intricacies from looking at the footage of your inovative machines😅 thankyou for your input into the modern world of alternative sit down two wheeled machines
another version of the Dan Gurney alligator. kinda like this one better
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I owned a recumbent bicycle and also could test a low rider where you sit only about 10 cm above the street. It is a total different way of cycling. Starting is not so easy but then the sensations licks in.
Nice experiment. The recumbent design could have very low drag. Try adding caster to the front "fork" to make the bike more self steering and balancing like on a regular motorcycle. Also, to decrease the turning radius in the corners, have the rear wheel turn the opposite direction of the front wheel. Pretty cool.
based on a recumbent bicycle (optima orca, not mine, borrowed it) this is really not such a big deal. you quickly adapt. as for being seen, people often use a flag in the back, and modulated lights
What fascinates me about this frame is the engineering of the rear wheel, which can tilt the opposite direction of the front. This makes the turning quite nimble. I wish he would make a deal with the manufacturers.
Great to see Bob Horn get some well-deserved recognition here, and there are some fascinating facts and great images. However, for those of us who know something about the FF subject (and have ridden a great many of them) there are some really irritating errors. And why do you persist in using some fake AI-based voice-over that mispronounces words (some of which are clearly mis-spelled in the script). Only a non-English native speaker would call this a 'lying' bike; it's not even a lying DOWN bike. It's a recumbent or a feet-first or feet-forward (FF) machine not a 'Fitz-forward' as the robot mis-pronounces it. And how could you mis-spell WHEEL as 'WHELL' in the headline too?! FFS! The first Quasar shown was not a real Quasar, it was the New Zealand-built replica with a different shape and a different engine. Most people do NOT think that the true Quasar shape is ugly. You could and should have shown the precursor to the Peraves Monotracer, the Oekomobil/Ecomobile of 1985 AND the all-electric MonoTracer of 2009. The Voyagers of Royce Creasey should be mentioned too (along with the NSU Baumm streamliners of the 1950s). And how could you mis-write the QUAIL event as the 'QUALI' FFS! And why not mention the All-American Gurney Alligator by name if you're going to show one? I could go on, but I'll stop now...
He's correct. I've daydreamed about a similar abet even crazier setup myself with rear steering let the bike turn in and out of turns that much faster. Rear steer is a necessity on long wheelbase and or low cg bikes in much the manner that a long trailer is more stable but slower to change lanes behind an over the road truck. These designs will always bump up against the "race what's selling contingent" that until recently were funded much better than this individual. It's a shame he's not closer to Philly. I'd certainly help him out if not give him the machinery he needs.
I have long dreamed of a racing motorcycle where the rider would lie on his stomach with his knees bent, a bit like sidecar riders. Low center of gravity. Excellent aerodynamics. “Normal” handlebars. (Sorry for my basic English).
a leaning reverse trike? the complexity compared to a two wheeled bike is really through the roof with this. caster angle, camber angle, scrub radius, toe, bump steering are just some of the things that gets introduced that really isn't much of a problem with only 2 wheels. i'm not saying don't do it, but considering how much of a headache this one is to make the special rear hub, the work needed to make your city recumbent motorcycle idea probably adds a thousand hours work. of course if someone else builds it for you this isn't a problem
Maybe it needs ( needed) a gyroscope, and if he pushed the joystick left, it would make more logical sense for the front wheel to turn right, which we know would be like pushing the left bar on a bike.. “ push the joystick LEFT” and the feet forward bike should turn LEFT.
The best way to build an “Akira” style bike would be to make it true to the movie and have it be electric. With todays battery tech it is totally feasible to make a dual motor bike that is recumbent and fast. Building an electric motorcycle like the akira bike in the late 80s or early 90s would not have be realistic.
