3-in-line STV: A prototype to test the concept, built mid 2002.

Made from a Suzuki 80 step through (free) and a couple of 10” scooter wheels (20 euro). The idea is to test if any of the supposed benefits can be achieved, and what problems there might be in applying these. Middleton Link is a solution to a bump steer problem in this concept.

Benefits are: increased contact patch to unsprung mass ratio, increased contact patch to tyre width ratio, effectively reduced unsprung mass for a given contact patch area, contact with the road with at least one steered wheel on sharp bumps, second tyre running in drier road surface under straight line braking conditions, lower propensity to front wheel traction loss in cornering, potentially lower frontal area and un-steered suspension. Actual mass of the complete system is less than a single Kawasaki GPZ500S 16” front wheel and tyre.

The 2005 Quasar outing will take place in Hastings over the week-end on September 10th/11th. The format will be similar to previous years with us meeting up on St Leonards sea-front on Saturday afternoon from around 4:30pm onwards and moving on to Bo Peep pub for supper. There will be a ride-out on Sunday morning and we'll finish up at the Six Bells at Chiddingly for a late lunch.

All Quasar owners, Quasar enthusiasts, or owners of other Feet-first machinery are invited to join us.

It will be a long slow process, but I'm going to try to document the building of my FF machine on this page.

The machine will be built round a folded aerolam tub, with a cradle under and partly round the engine, continuing into a triangular cross-section box containing the fuel tank and carrying the seat, sweeping up at the rear into a backrest bulkhead, with the swinging arm pivoting at the back of the central box. A tunnel will be formed through the box containing an extension drive shaft. The machine will be about 10 inches longer than standard.

The first two drawings attached show the Hossack style front fork, and the main aerolam spar of the fork as a developed sheet ready to be cut. The drawings are all but finished, and will shortly be going for quotation for NC milling with an old client who has machines capable of cutting the job. It is possible to cut four sets of uprights from an 8x4 sheet of material, so I will have three spare sets that I may offer to the group.

Conspicuity of PTWs

20th. Nov 2000

Introduction.

It is clear that PTWs are involved in a disproportionate number of accidents where other vehicle operators fail to see them coming and turn into their path. This has serious consequences for the PTW user due to the poor safety performance of current PTWs.

I have been involved in developing better PTWs, seeking to improve comfort, handling, economy and safety, for twenty five years. In the course of this development I have become aware of several factors, which influence conspicuity, that I believe will be of interest to investigators of this subject. I have also considered nightime conspicuity and propose a specific experiment. I refer in the text to vehicles shown on the front page of my website.

I've posted a load of pictures to Flickr of my attempt at adding a Volvo seat. Click on each picture and you'll see lots of annotations describing the detail.

After much hacksawing, cursing and abuse of power tools, I now have a Volvo seat
mounted on my Burger400K3. Lessons I've learnt:-

- I'm crap at this metalwork stuff

- I should have listened to Royce, the Volvo 340 seat is the best. I was seduced by the fake leatherette of the seat from a bigger model but it doesn't work so well in this application. The problem is the mounting mechanisms on both sides are a good 4 to 5cms lower relative to the seat.

Honda reckon their hydrogen fuel cell bikes will be with us in four years

PRODUCTION fuel cell bikes are likely to resemble Honda's FC Stack concept

By Ben Purvis

Honda has announced it will have fuel cell powered motorcycles in production by the end of the decade but we won't be able to buy them for a while after that.
The huge cost of fuel cell technology means that Honda will instead lease the bikes at hugely subsidised rates, giving specially selected riders access to prototype machines worth millions of pounds for around the same cost as buying a normal bike on finance.
Last month, the firm did the same thing with its latest fuel cell car prototype the FCX. Worth an estimated £1.2 million, the FCX has beer) leased to Jon and Sandy Spallino of Redondo Beach, California, for just £250 per month. They'll use it for two years before it goes back to Honda to be ripped apart, allowing engineers to see how it has coped with real world use.

REACTIVE AERODYNAMICS

Fairings of the future...

Firms test ‘intelligent’ bodywork that will automatically adapt itself to your riding

By Dan Tye

FORGET plain old plastic fairings and fixed windscreens the next step in bike evolution will come from automatically moving panels fitted to bikes to make them turn faster and be more stable.
Secret plans by Yamaha and Honda to examine the technologies are well underway. Honda has already carried out research into placing aerofoils into the tail unit of the FireBlade to increase the downforce on the rear tyre.
Yamaha's Jiro Izaki, the man behind such landmark motorcycles as the R7 and R 1, is also interested in the emerging technology: He said: "Aerodynamics is always something we need to be thinking of. I am very interested in how aircraft use the air moving around them to make them work better. A motorcycle could use the air in a similar way; it would mean many good things for riding quickly on a bike."

As you can see from the photo, it is possible to fit a Volvo Seat on a Burgman!

This is the next stage in making my Burgman more of an FF. I got the seat from the Volvo Breakers on the A1 near St Neots for a mere 25 quid. It's a leather seat so won't need recovering. I had quite a choice and eventually plumped for an early 7 series instead of the usual 340 seat because of the leather, the filled in head rest and the fact that the lumbar adjust and the rake adjust are both on the left hand side. Not only that but it's got a heated back and seat base.

Hi folks,

During the '80s I helped build a couple of FFs. The first was based on a BSA A50. Basically all that was done was to extend the swing arm, so that a high backed seat could fit down behind the carbs. The steering was linked back to a second steering head where the handlebars were attached. It was a joy to ride, after you'd gotten used to the way it handled and steered. Later it was enclosed in fiber glass. It worked well, visibility was the only shortfall; you couldn't see much over the top of the forks!

Hi guys, especially to some of my old friends like Paul Blez if you're reading this...

I've now owned a Silver Wing for almost 3 years (bought it with 11k on the clock) and covered another 20K+ miles in that time. It has taken me back and forth between Sydenham and City of London every day with occasional trips to Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg etc, without breaking down ONCE!. In fact the only time it has been off the road was for a week after an accident I had with a minicab turning right without indicating. The damage was close to £2K but all is well again and the bike looks as good as new.

Has any one any information about an extende wheelbase on any megascooter ?
Cheers

As promised at Beaulieu, here are PDF versions of the plans used to make the current version of the ComforTmax. As I have an A3 printer at home, all the drawings are that size, so you may have to do something creative if your limit is A4. If anyone wants the (sorry, only 2D) CAD files in DXF or DWG format, please contact me at angib (at) blueyonder.co.uk

All these drawings, except the fuel tank, were made as guides to the guy who did the metalwork on my bike. They are not sufficiently detailed to give to someone to make the parts and they assume you have a Tmax in front of you to work from.

Here's a PDF sent in by Andrew Gibben on steering linkage layout on Funny Front Ends. (FFE)

For photos from the latest gathering of UK FFers, go to 'Events and Meetings' in the Image Galleries section and click on Beaulieu 2005. On a blisteringly hot weekend in June, this entertaining annual event at the historic village of Beaulieu in the New Forest saw most of 'The Usual Suspects' turn up, along with some welcome newcomers. Most notably, Beaulieu 2005 was the first public appearance of Andrew Gibbens' ComforTmax and its superb level of finish was much admired. Originally transformed to FF mode by Royce Creasey way back in 2002, Andrew has spent much of his spare time over the last three years making top-quality bodywork and seating to make a 'proper job' that almost looks as if it could be an official Yamaha option. (For pix of how it looked back in 2002, go to 'Royce Creasey's creations'.)