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Old 02-09-2019, 11:14 AM   #60 (permalink)
Bicycle Bob
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Location: N. Saskatchewan, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard View Post
That's the platform that Arcimoto abandoned for handlebar steering. It saved hundreds of pounds and inches of wheelbase.


https://www.arcimoto.com/faq
Somebody has forgotten that we used to sit close to steering wheels, and it was only Stirling Moss trying to look cool that first changed the fashion.

Handlebars are needed on a two wheeler for the extremely fast steering needed to balance at low speed. At high speed, the travel becomes so imperceptible that Bicycling magazine once wrote that only the leaning controlled the turn, apparently caused only by force of will. I think that more precise control would be safer. There is also the problem of a trike being rocked on one-side bumps, which will make the driver's arm inertia wiggle the handlebars.

If this change saved hundreds of pounds, that's nice, but now it is time to go back, restore the steering wheel, and take out many hundreds more. A re-think usually helps a lot.
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