Performance enclosed motorbike

[dichotomous]

it would be way better to just have ports or flaps for your legs to come out and stabalize the craft. THEN I would call it a bike. basically, if you cant straddle it, its NOT a bike. its a cool 2ish wheel craft that looks like a torpedo, but I maintain that its not a bike.

I also consider the trike conversion's and old men training wheels on motorcycles to change it to another class of vehicle

[trebuchet03]

Is it recumbent or prone? I can't tell....

[Big Dave]

There is a saying among pilots about retractable gear.
There are three kinds of RG pilots
Guys who have landed with the gear up
Guys who are gonna land with the gear up (I’m still in this category)
Guys who are gonna land with the gear up AGAIN.

Seriously, prior to Hurricane Katrina, there was a guy in New Orleans that sold a kit for automatically retractable landing gear for a Honda Gold Wing. For those who know Wings and Wingers, this is not an affectation. A Wing is a big, tall, heavy bike and because it is not cheap, it tends to be owned by fiftysomethings and older. Scenario: Wing gets over center too much at a stop light. Geezer Winger cannot overpower heavy bike and over she goes. Very common incident. This guys’ landing gear solved the problem. If the road speed was less than 10 MPH, the hydraulic landing gear automatically deployed. At 11 MPH they suck up and the Wing is normal again.

The point is that automatic landing gear control is off-the-shelf available.

[MetroMPG]

Big Dave: I've heard that saying, except about sailboats and going aground.

[metromizer]

a physicist once told me about motorcycles "you know, the lowest energy state of a motorcycle is when it's laying on it's side..."

[cmroseberry]

Reminds me of the Bede Pulse/Litestar motorcycle-based vehicle. The Pulse has fixed 'landing gear'.

[dichotomous]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

There is a saying among pilots about retractable gear.
There are three kinds of RG pilots
Guys who have landed with the gear up
Guys who are gonna land with the gear up (I’m still in this category)
Guys who are gonna land with the gear up AGAIN.

there is a similar statement among motorcyclists that you have either crashed, will crash, or will crash again.

[Big Dave]

IMO, the wheel arrangement of the BEDE Pulse/ightstar is the worst of all worlds.

It has nearly the frontal area of a regular four wheels. Like a bike with training wheels, it tends to want to high-side the corners.

Looks nice. Terrible vehicle.

[cmroseberry]

Yeah, no argument here. I recall reading that the handling of the Pulse/Litestar "took some getting used to". It fulfills the statutory definition of a motorcycle by only having three wheels on the pavement at a time - just like training wheels.

[Cd]

The Pulse / Litestar had a turning radius of 13 feet.

I love the way the thing looks though.