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Almost every RWS bike or trike I've ever seen has been anywhere between having to change your underwear and reaching for the iodine. The ones that have come closest to working acceptably follow one of these two principles.
1. Like the one in post 10. Velayo.
This creates a virtual hub and goes some way to removing the tendency of weight to swing the steering further. If you ride slowly it's a passable solution. Still several such machines have been built and scrapped as not good enough.
2. Mosquito
Although it is technically the rear wheels doing the steering as the front wheel is fixed to the main beam with no means of turning, the lean into a corner of the seat and the front wheel manages to make it feel much more like a front steer than any other system I've seen. The downside is it's a fixed ratio of lean to steer. ie the two are not independent of each other and the rear needs to be wide to allow for the swing of the seat. I looked at the mechanism a few years back and came to the conclusion that the two upright parts of the trapezoid structure the rear pivots by would be better crossed over. Doing so keeps the rider much more central to the rear wheels as it turns than having them in the configuration above which pivots the rider to the outer wheel as it turns. Being a tadpole man I've always said that if I were to ever build a Reliant Robin it would be a Mosquito style one.
Without any exception I've ever seen a std headtube at the rear has been suitable for iodine share holders only as a road / skin interface is first on the list during the first ride. You can find videos of a few machines using them but those are always slow speed and a billiard table surface.
Of course there is always the "I'm building it because I can and want to" reason which has always been good enough for me to do something.
1. Like the one in post 10. Velayo.
This creates a virtual hub and goes some way to removing the tendency of weight to swing the steering further. If you ride slowly it's a passable solution. Still several such machines have been built and scrapped as not good enough.
2. Mosquito
Although it is technically the rear wheels doing the steering as the front wheel is fixed to the main beam with no means of turning, the lean into a corner of the seat and the front wheel manages to make it feel much more like a front steer than any other system I've seen. The downside is it's a fixed ratio of lean to steer. ie the two are not independent of each other and the rear needs to be wide to allow for the swing of the seat. I looked at the mechanism a few years back and came to the conclusion that the two upright parts of the trapezoid structure the rear pivots by would be better crossed over. Doing so keeps the rider much more central to the rear wheels as it turns than having them in the configuration above which pivots the rider to the outer wheel as it turns. Being a tadpole man I've always said that if I were to ever build a Reliant Robin it would be a Mosquito style one.
Without any exception I've ever seen a std headtube at the rear has been suitable for iodine share holders only as a road / skin interface is first on the list during the first ride. You can find videos of a few machines using them but those are always slow speed and a billiard table surface.
Of course there is always the "I'm building it because I can and want to" reason which has always been good enough for me to do something.
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