Roofs on bikes. Why?
Lit C1 car-bike hybrid
BIKES don't have roofs. They don't have roll bars or crumple-zones either. But for some reason there seems to be a never-ending supply of inventors out there with grand schemes to revolutionise motorcycling by adding some car DNA to bikes.
The latest to come onto the Visordown radar is this one, the Lit C1. OK, so at the moment it's little more than a few computer-generated pictures and a wood-and-polystyrene mock-up, but apparently it 'combines the efficiency and freedom of a motorcycle with the safety and convenience of a car.'
Just like all the other car-bike hybrid ideas of the past then. Quasar, anyone?
Normally these ideas start to come apart at the seams once the reality of trying to stop at traffic lights (or anywhere else) turns up: stabilizers, automatic side-stands and a variety of other gadgets have been tried in various past efforts along these lines, all with limited success. Or the inventors follow the Quasar/BMW C1 route and remove the sides so you can get your foot down – eliminating the weather protection and some of the safety in the process.
The Lit C1 gets around the problem a different way, using gyros to keep it upright (see video here). It's clever, although we're guessing that the spinning weights in those gyros have got to be pretty hefty to counteract forces that could otherwise knock the bike over.
Of course, being a modern concept vehicle, it's electric-powered, although quite where the firm is getting batteries that can power the twin gyros (with, apparently, 1300 lb-ft of torque – just for the gyros!) while also getting the claimed 120mph top speed and 200 mile range is a mystery to us. Presumably they're coming from some source that every other maker of electric bike and car has so far failed to notice, as nothing else comes close to matching those figures...
Despite scepticism over the car-bike-Mork's spaceship that is the C1, we're actually a bit more enthusiastic about the firm's other idea, the Cargo Scooter (last image below). Again it's only a prototype at the moment, but when it comes to taking advantage of small hub-mounted electric motors, it could make sense for short city-based deliveries: just imagine “Domino's” written on the side and you'll get the idea. Or perhaps it could be used for transporting rival firm Boxx Corp's new electric bike...
Discuss this story
If it won’t lean or fall over, may as well put a steering wheel and some more roads wheels on it. Then we’ll be able to steer it round corners and when you stop and switch off you won’t need the side stand to hold it up when the gyros stop spinning.
I think I may have invented something here!
Perhaps you can override the gyros for going round corners, but then you don’t need them when you are up right anyway.
I think I’ve invented something else here a two wheeled vehicle that requires rider input round corners but is inherently stable (due to the gyroscopic effect of its spinning wheels) when upright.
No! I’m being too cynical.
Posted: 10/01/2012 at 14:53
Granted, sticking a full windscreen and roof on an otherwise conventional motorbike (or scooter - BMW C1, Adiva) isn't a brilliant idea. It will provide some weather protection, but also raise the centre of gravity, therefore affecting handling and stability. However, it's unfair to dismiss the Quasar, mentioned above, without remembering that it was designed in the 1970s, but even so, it's a more radical concept than the later roofed bikes, being intended to have aerodynamics, ergonomics, weather & crash protection superior to any contemporary bike. Hence, it was built with a 'feet-forward' seating position, with a low c-of-g and a small frontal area. it failed commercially, partly because not enough could be built to satisfy demand.
There's a lot of sentimental crap talked about motorbikes. My reasons for riding a bike were basically practical: low running costs, highly manoevrable and easy to park. I would gladly have accepted a proper, lower, seat with a back, and a full screen and roof (as featured on Phil Meaton's 'BubbleMax' conversion kit for the Yamaha T-Max - Google it) and decent integrated luggage capacity. Manufacturers pandering to the conservatism of motorcyclists, whose tastes are reinforced by what's on the market, has left us with a 100+ -year-old design that's non-ergonomic, unnecessarily unstable, has the aerodynamics of a lumpy brick (with a sail stuck on top) and offers no protection from anything. Although this gyro-stabilised concept is basically over-complicated vapourware, it does at least show that a few people are thinking beyond the sportsbike paradigm of utter-bloody-impracticality.
Posted: 10/01/2012 at 23:38
The real puzzle here is where the venture money came from for all those pretty CAD drawings and the physical mockups. It's hard to imagine anything like that happening in the UK.
Meanwhile, having ridden a couple, I'm not a big fan of motorcycles with roofs. But I would dearly love a few different types of recumbent motorcycle/scooter of varying sizes and capability. Given that it's January and bloody cold, what's not to like about some real bodywork that is efficient, warm, comfortable and safer. It's just that this particular pipe dream isn't it.
Posted: 11/01/2012 at 12:36
Whilst I share the scepticism in the article about the performance figures for the Lit C1 and the practicality of gyro-stabilisation, there is some unnecessary rant in here, along the lines of: Comfort, fuel consumption, luggage capacity, safety, vehicle dynamics - who cares? We are and we know what we like and we'll keep on doing it until we are legislated off the road for being too dangerous to tolerate. You should be helping to open minds to accept new ideas rather than closing them further.
Posted: 11/01/2012 at 13:30
Sorry but there already is a production 120+ mph and 200 mile range MC. It's called the Zero Tracer and won the Around the world EV race and the 100mpg X-Prize contest at about 189mpg under their rules.
Why have a roof? Safety, all weather protection, eff from 25% of the normal MC aero drag. And since such a MC is so eff it needs little battery to go long and fast. Traveling comfortably at 80-100mph at over 200mpg really appeals to me and I'd bet many others if a reasonable priced one was avilable.
Personally I'd want such a MC but can't afford a new one so building my own. One doesn't have to lose the doors to use ones feet to balance, just some rubber flap slot shaped to not trap your foot and pop open door.
And I rather like the Quasar which was and still is ahead of it's time. Future transport will shrink as gas prices hit MC's and their terrible gas mileage. Roof along with aero and EV drive are the future of MC's.
Posted: 11/01/2012 at 13:55
"the claimed 120mph top speed and 200 mile range is a mystery to us.....nothing else comes close to matching those figures..."
Not true! The Peraves MonoTracer Electric (MTE) aka E-Tracer, aka X-Tracer actually beats the quoted Lit C1 figures above: 150+mph and 200 mile range AT 75mph AND 300mpgUSEquivalent. And it's not some 'smoke and mirrors' pipe dream either, it's here today and I've driven two different versions of it. Jerry Dycus is right, but he confused the DesignWerk ZeroTracer with the similar but different Peraves machines, and his figures aren't up to date.
Personally, I think the Lit C1 would make far more sense without the gyros, but the makers have got a long way to go before they can even convince me that their front steering and suspension would work properly, never mind the rest of it.
For me, the key thing about powered two wheelers is their acceleration, performance and the fun of leaning through corners with all the G-forces cancelled out. Nothing with 4 wheels can do that. And if you can have all that while also being far more safe, warm, dry and comfortable than when perched on top of a conventional bike, then so much the better. I've been there and done it and it's great. Which doesn't mean I can't thoroughly enjoy myself on conventional bikes as well. Don't knock it till you've tried it!
Posted: 12/01/2012 at 13:20
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