Quote:
Originally Posted by Geebee
I second looking toward the hpv streamliners, fit bomb bay doors for stopping etc.
This is the Varna Diablo, they dont come much faster on limited power.
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Surely, we can make a better way to keep the machine upright at a stoplight than bomb bay doors to put your feet on the ground. Actually, the Swiss Ecomobile of ~20 years ago did this, with automatically deployed trainer wheels. Perhaps something even simpler can be devised, such as cable-actuated trainer wheels where you keep your feet inside the fairing and push on pedals to deploy the trainer wheels, rather than putting your feet down through the bomb bay like Fred Flintstone. Whatever.
Think of a typical bike kickstand, but with a wheel at its tip, extended by cable. Put one on each side of the vehicle so it cannot tip to either side. This also helps to elevate the vehicle to change tires, which is always the problem at roadside when a motorcycle tire goes flat, if said motorcycle lacks a center stand.
As to comfortable position, the semi-supine position has long been shown in sailplanes (and fighter planes such as the F-16) to be
much more sustainable and comfortable, as sailplanes have to circle in extended high-G turns while thermalling. This also makes for less frontal area, meaning a lower drag profile for the vehicle. It also puts your head and eyeballs in optimum position to look around.
So, mehinks take the drive system guts of a Burgman, and install them in an HPV stressed-skin shell. On reflection, and given the vastly greater aero efficiency of a Varna Diablo or similar enclosed design, you'd need only a fraction of the power of a Burgman, and therefore a fraction of the Burgman's propulsive and fuel weight.
Such a vehicle could probably be built at less than ~50-60 lbs. It would be much safer than a normal bike, as those HPVs have been dropped at max speed, slid quite a distance, but left the driver unscathed. The Swiss Ecomobile, btw, reportedly suffered a blowout at ~150 mph, slid on its side, yet the driver was untouched. This without benefit of an airbag.
Surely somebody has tried one of those tiny direct-drive-on-tire aux bicycle engines on a Varna Diablo type HPV machine?