LocostUSA.com

I have no intention of building one, but I happened upon the following image, which happens to be big enough and show enough detail that this mechanism could be reverse-engineered for those interested.

I'm not even sure where to start. Right off the top, it looks like whoever built this used an awful lot of split ring clamps on those two longitudinal shafts - I can't imagine relying on those to keep me upright, but I'm willing to concede that they were used in order to allow for easy set-up initially, and that their next version might be a jig-welded piece.

Other thoughts?

It appears that the "split ring clamps" as you call them are really split ring bushings. I think they are similar in construction to connecting rod bearings. They need to rotate around the 2 shafts in order for the suspension to work. They were split bushings for assembly and removal purposes since the steering shaft extends thru the upper shaft.

Unless this was an exercise to see if the mechanism would work and he's going to build another I'm not sure why he did this.

If there is a rider controlled locking mechanism (such as a hand pull of a cable to a spring pin that aligns with a hole when the bike is upright), folks that cannot physically hold up a motorcycle (handicap, age, size, strength, etc) could ride one that actually leans and handles as well as a real motorcycle.

Or he just wanted to build something cool? Front tires should last twice as long.

I count only two lines running from the handlebars down to the front, which looks like the disc brakes for each front wheel. So I'm going to guess that low-speed stabilization happens the same way it does with any bike - the rider's feet.

Not sure how much faith to put in the whole thing - those front tires don't look like they've seen much distance put on them. And note that the whole thing is bolted to the bottom of the frame - this mod is reversible.

Oooh, hey... just did some Googling, and found the following:

http://reversetrike.com/tmw.html

...which takes us to...

http://www.tiltingmotorworks.com

complete with videos and everything. This thing's on the market! Wow... who'da thunk it?

A couple of other sites dedicated to TTW's:
http://www.maxmatic.com/ttw_index.htm
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/tilting/

You don't have to go so wide on the track on a tilter, Piaggio's bike is much narrower for the same result. The wide front takes away all the advantages of a city vehicle as well.

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/ ... 3-scooter/

It might not be the same guy, but somebody's making a business out of it: http://www.tiltingmotorworks.com/
I'm not so sure it's going to catch on with motorcyclists, but crazier things have happened.

There's a big difference between the Piaggio MP3 and the TMW system above - the Piaggio is hydraulically powered, whereas the system above looks to be passive, or at the very least requires only steering-level power input from the rider. Perhaps putting the track so wide is a prerequisite to getting the input force low enough that you can simply rely on the rider's upper body strength instead of needing a powered system of some kind.


Same guy. Not sure whether it'll catch on, but with the number of baby boomers getting up and above retirement age, I'm not willing to count anything out.

The Piaggio is not hydraulically controlled. Both systems operate exactly the same way, with both additionally functioning from the riders perspective exactly like a traditional motorcycle. All above mentioned systems are free to tilt and will essentially fall over at a standstill without some type of locking mechanism, which the Piaggio does have. The rider countersteers the bike, causing it to tilt into the corner. There are no power systems involved in either tilting design. Non-tilters need the width to prevent flipping. But a tilter has few such problems, so it does not require a wider track at all...As evidenced by a motorcycle with it's single track, the narrowest of tracks. Many people just tend to find the wider track to be more visually appealing, and thus marketable in many circumstances.

I really don't know to be honest but it is a low cost mass produced scooter so I would be surprised if it did.

The Can Am has electric steering assistance though it's not a tilter.

As D5 mentions, there really is no need for the width including some apparent dangers such as catching wheels on obstacles and just a pain in traffic and parking.

I know I'd previously found mention from the Piaggio website that the tilting mechanism does involve electro-hydraulics (can't find it now, of course), but perhaps that pertained only to the tilt lock function and not the tilt.

Yes, the tilt-locking mechanism is electro-hydraulic. If one were to put a system that lets the rider control both the lean angle and wheel angle, via a single steering control, it would require a very complex and sophisticated (and expensive) computer system to determine how much of each is necessary to follow the riders desired path of travel. This is due to the fact that there is no simple direct correlation between lean angle and wheel angle for tilting vehicles.


I would guess that this is primarily due to the fact that the motorcycle handle bar steering input, with significant (for a motorcycle) weight on the multiple "wide" (for a motorcycle) tire contact patches, requires a steering ratio of less than 1:1. In other words the wheels actually rotate more than 1* for every 1* of steering input, so it increases the steering effort required...Which is the exact opposite traditional automotive steering ratios that make it easier to steer the wheels.

I think that this is a much better implementation of the concept.http://brudelitech.com/pictures_654.htm Just imagine this combined with the aprillia magnet layout!

It looks like the key in the design is to let the shocks themelves pivot and getting the wheels and uprights so that the centerline pivot point is in a 0 offset position. The key issue seems to be calculating what ackerman to use or how to make it progressive in order for the wheels to not fight eachother at different lean angles.

I know I'm late to the game here, but I was hoping someone would tell me what's the point of this? If it leans and drives just like a motorcycle, why not leave it as such?