Aprilia Magnet

[Stealthsoldier20]

Sweet! A convenient carry handle! LOL.

[Mrfollowill]

what if you crash???

there go your balls!

[SykoEsquire]

@Mrfollowill in the event of a crash I suppose you may see them one last time as they are exiting your mouth.

[shorterthanu52]

Wow, thats a really good idea, maybe a head first design would work as well

[disndat11]

The reason we don't see these leaning trike produced is that it is very difficult to incorporate a 'correcting' mechanism into the steering. A bicycle, while being extremely simple, has that correcting ability.

While riding a Magnet,or any other leaning trike, the rider would have to manually correct the steering continuously. It would get very tiring after a short while.

[DocWolph]

Are you referring to self centering of the steering? If so, then you are in error. With wheels, the natural tendency is to point in the direction of least resistance and so roll most easily and so will "auto-correct". Lean correction is a function of having matched springs and/or a laterally balanced chassis. The real issue is whether you can force the lean or if the roll center above the CG as in a motorcycle.

[disndat11]

No!

As you know in a two wheeler or a leaning trike, the lean angle has to correspond to the steering direction in some shape or form. Otherwise you will have to correct your steering with every slight lean of the trike, because there is no self correction of the steering by through leaning.

In a Bicycle, although very simple, this self correction exists. that's why you can let of the handle bars and steer by leaning. Do you see my point?

[DocWolph]

Only in 2wheelers is the lean angle due to the geometry of the wheels themselves. Steering angle and the rolling path of a wheel play major roles in this. The rear wheel having more to do with lean than the front.

For any more than 2 wheels, it's a matter of centrifugal force. The suspension's lateral balance recenters for you as in a car. I've been working on the issue for years to find a solution for cars with complex mechanisms so I do study the dynamics of 2wheelers.

[disndat11]

So have you found a solution?

I've been working on a leaning trike Bicycle for the past 6 months. It works, except the problem I pointed out in my previous post.

[DocWolph]

Mine is for a vehicle with four or more wheels and is reliant on Centrifugal force. Because of this I'm not the most confident in my solution as yet. It can easily be subverted with only modest changes in the CG. It'll work for a sports car, where I can fix both ends of the car, but I'm trying to make it work for a truck or SUV. If that, then the final solution there will work on anything.

[999benhonda]

true, but the performace gained by having the motors in the wheels(unsprung weight) would be a nice advantage.

[DimsimMaster]

how would it turn sharp corners??

[shagster1970]

I dont see any point to this design. What is the Royal College of the Arts doing handing out design jobs if this is the result??!

[Docv400]

If you don't/can't see the point of this, check your pulse...you may just be dead!

If you don't grin like a loon just from looking at it, even though it's only a rendition, I suggest you take up knitting or crochet, and leave this sort of thing to those of us with some imagination and sense of fun ;o)

No offense.

[OrionSamson]

I dont get it.

I thought this was a magnet...

Nice Trike though :)

[cocodrilll]

wow

[TNSFE]

I think I'd want it if the roads around here weren't completely shot full of potholes. There's no way you could get a decent suspension system working well without the bottom scraping the pavement.

[jlan12]

WANT!

[WBD86]

Go Heikki!

[FruityLoopsas]

Looks like a siple thing :D ill make 5 wheels and new look... will it be something new??? no....

[mudaphucker]

looks like the nike car on gt4

[TheDirtNinja]

Beautiful concept.

But I think I would shit my self if I was sitting so closte to the ground at highway speeds

[balagecrf]

like star wars :D

[MRSBA7]

Magnetism is the future of movement

[untersuchung]

i will buy me one, when i have earn enough money and when this come to the markt

[tobeaswallow]

perfect design

[mkattdc]

Very cool, but here in Texas it would never be street legal, too many rednecks would run over you driving 50+ mph to get 1000 feet from where they are.

[queeenfish]

nice video

[Plutoniumwonkel]

Looks cool... But why would this be better than a normal bike?

[paperkarma]

much more stable in high spead turns

[mshimek]

Not so. Bikes are about as stable as you get for high speed turns but the three-wheel platform presents a HUGE gyroscopic challenge. It looks like Aprilia is aware of that though and they DO make awesome motorcycles. The main advantage I can see for a three-wheeler is never having to worry about dropping it.

[Jamesbowman777]

Bikes are about as unstable as you can get except a unicycle of course, motorcycle racers crash both highside and lowside with out any contact. A triagular base is inherantly stable and since the rider is inline with the tilting pivot point it should be very difficult to highside and impossible to low side. I think dynamically you could gain the lean vectored forces for traction and push the driver into not off of he seat just like a bike. You could also gain the platform stability of a car.

[mshimek]

The rotating mass of a wheel acts like a big gyrscope. Applying a moment to a rotating mass results in a moment, orthogonal to both, towards the positive axis of the applied moment. Motorcycles take advantage of this, cars (except F-1) do not have to worry about this phenomenon. This is why 3 wheel ATVs were outlawed.

High side and low side crashes are due to traction, not stability.

[bowmanfamilyoffaith]

I was a stable element(Gyroscope) Operator/Technician aboard a battleship. I think I understand the principals of angular momentum and gyroscopic precession. It simply resists a change in direction based upon its mass, speed and the location of that mass relative to its diamater @90deg. You could easily make two smaller lighter wheels with less angular momentum than many motorcycles operating today. Giving motorcycles stability in a straight line and resists their ability to change directon.

[mshimek]

While your qualifications are impressive, I have qualifications too (a master's in ME, working on my doctorate). In the end, I don't care about winning this argument. Neither of us work for Aprilia and it's their opinion that matters.

[Jamesbowman777]

No offence meant I just disagreed with your statements. There is a video on youtube for a three wheeled reverse trike called a brudeli that you might enjoy.

Good luck on your doctorates degree in Mechanical Engineering as well, where are you attending if I might ask?

[mshimek]

I'll look up the 'brudeli'. If you enjoy electric vehicles/trikes, I built an electric vehicle using a tadpole (reverse trike) platform. I have a series of EV videos on YouTube if you're curious.

I am at the University of Texas at Austin and am roughly 9 months away from graduation.

I think the crux of our misunderstanding comes from different difinitions of stabilty. I was thinking about stability from a system dynamics point of view because that's what I know.

[Jamesbowman777]

Thanks a lot I will look up your videos as I am interested in EV trikes, I was and partially still am considering building a reverse trike. I was going to build a LiFePo4 powered Bug-e and upgrade it for starters with A PMG 132 motor. Finances are too tight for now I have a house to sell to aquire the capitol. In the interim I bought a Yamaha XT250 Dualsport 80mpg and fun to drive, but still dream of creating a track day type of leaning Reverse trike. Tired of ridiculous gas prices as well.

[Jamesbowman777]

"This is why 3 wheel ATVs were outlawed."

This had nothing what so ever to do with why three wheelers were taken of the market? They were an inherantly unstable platform due to the fact that during a right hand turn the forward momentum forces the unstable platform over where it has no support on the out side left hand side? With two wide spaced wheels in front the stability is placed correctly for the forces involved.

If the vehicle tilts this further enhances stability in a corner!

[Jamesbowman777]

"High side and low side crashes are due to traction, not stability."

Not true while both high side and lowside crashes involve loss or sudden gain of traction its the instability inherant in a motorcycle that causes the crash. Note that a car that loses traction does not slide under itself like a bike does and usually does not flip over its center of gravity sideways unless it has a narrow platform and high cg (closer to a bike). The fact that a bike leans allows the driver to counter this?

[BIZRZKYKK]

that shit looks badass

[TheJadeEmporer]

my back hurts just looking at it. no thanks

[waterboost]

Wow...

If Aprilia make it then it will be the most comfortable, stunning, fun vehicle ever...

Shame it will need servicing every 3 minutes, like most italian crap...

Shouldnt we be a bit more environmental and vote with our wallets by avoiding companies that make things that are designed to break...

Even if they are amazing to ride and look at...

I've had 3 aprilias and I had to treat them like faberge eggs...

[starbuckracing]

Aprilia is no crap! Aprilia has 10000 km serviceintervals. all japanese has 6000 km! Aprilia is the 2nd biggest europe bikebulder!

And Aprilia build simply the best bikes in the world!

[ryan46little]

Im being a bit more enviromental by riding aprilia RS125 :) little 2stroke. heating up the planet geting a better summer.

[54spiritedwill54]

Nize, but i still miss the sound^^

[dreiseratops]

Cool.. Make it work and I'll buy one.

[bintoooi]

how do you do sharp corners on those

[vnonjuice]

I don't think you do....

[samoht1977]

...plus, on an accident, you'll be splitted easily in two by the way you are sitted..

[Hangdog98]

Luddite..

[johnet58]

Nice work very neat design.

[NR49165]

HEIKKI NAULAPAA IS A GENIUS.

[Jamesbowman777]

There may be some similarities to the Nike One concept but they are fundamentally different in so many ways that this is not a copy and tilting three wheelers have been around for almost a hundred years is Nike one a copy of one of them? I like this one and its realistically feasable. Neat design!

[ebeanhebat]

please..

i really want known more how that system function....

just send the all about that information to me...

ebean_studio

[justbluemail]

3greenwheels blogspot com

[dexter12322222222222]

Rip off of the Nike car..

[RomeoEskobar]

Nice, does look a bit like the Nike car though. And the Nike car was designed prior to 2004, as Gran Turismo 4 was released in 2004 :].

[skulhell]

is a bad copy of the NIKE CAR.

[bob18469]

The Magnet was done in 2004, the nike car in 2007.

Learn how to read a calendar.

[dexter12322222222222]

i have seen that nike car in 2004,,,

[jjdiggs]

If you think this is cool, check out "Another Mothership"

[jjdiggs]

Sexy, but i miss the ride -- Ooops, it doesn't exist!

[DaMitchi]

Nize, but i still miss the sound^^ ooops, its electric!(?)