DannyC
0
Paul (@stormbird ) and I were discussing the drawback with an i-lean trike being that it typically wants to lean as far over as it possibly can when the rider dismounts. We wondered if there was a way to make it stay upright.
I had a bit of a think and retrieved my "wannabe" i-Lean out of the shed.
OK, so it is currently just a bit of a kids bike with a 1-piece crank, it still yearns to be an i-Lean in its heart.
It occurred to me that the simplest way of providing a self-righting function would be to use a spring attached to the chainwheel at one end and tethered to the frame at the other (as shown below).
The beauty of this approach is that whichever way the trike tries to lean the tensioning spring is stretched and it resists this.
There is a very narrow band in the very middle where minimal movement is possible, but go beyond this and the task becomes very hard indeed.
Personally, I think the spring I used here was far too strong, and a lower poundage "non-linear rate" spring would be better.
But in principle, the idea works as I expected it to. I think some trial & error with springs of differing ratings would bear fruit.
You want it stiff enough to resist all attempts for the wind to blow the trike over but not so strong as to prevent all the tilting you want to enjoy on a racetrack.
Here is a video of it that I cut the still frames from.
I had a bit of a think and retrieved my "wannabe" i-Lean out of the shed.
OK, so it is currently just a bit of a kids bike with a 1-piece crank, it still yearns to be an i-Lean in its heart.
It occurred to me that the simplest way of providing a self-righting function would be to use a spring attached to the chainwheel at one end and tethered to the frame at the other (as shown below).
The beauty of this approach is that whichever way the trike tries to lean the tensioning spring is stretched and it resists this.
There is a very narrow band in the very middle where minimal movement is possible, but go beyond this and the task becomes very hard indeed.
Personally, I think the spring I used here was far too strong, and a lower poundage "non-linear rate" spring would be better.
But in principle, the idea works as I expected it to. I think some trial & error with springs of differing ratings would bear fruit.
You want it stiff enough to resist all attempts for the wind to blow the trike over but not so strong as to prevent all the tilting you want to enjoy on a racetrack.
Here is a video of it that I cut the still frames from.
