Comments on: NERO Motorcycle Concept

By: rafe03

rafe03 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:54:38 +0000

IMHO the Britten front suspension is much less massive looking that these girder forks or the ones on the Wraith, etc. Big visual masses of these carbon fiber forks bring the apparent center of interest too far forward no matter how light weight they are. And the Britten front end is structurally elegant & lithe, doesn’t need “styling”

rafe03

By: Tom Clasen

Tom Clasen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:29:28 +0000

Wow, those ‘pivot points’ are interesting, very Vincent-like. I’m currently building an Egli, Spine frame, Sportster and there are a lot of challenges to this design- here the motor is the frame,period. I love it.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:52:25 +0000

Actually, I think what Matt in NC describes would be a bad combination. But let me tell you why.

It has to do with polar moments, and having some of the weight real low and some weight high would make the bike handle poorly in my opinion. The concept above would handle poorly the way it’s proposed. Losing the vertical cylynder would make it handle worse.

For optimal handling, it’s best to centralize the mass around the CoG, wherever that may be. I noticed this first hand when I was wearing my test dummy hat at Confederate. We had prototyped an alternate seat for the Wraith that was longer and positioned the rider further back. Because the seat was so long and flat, I was able to slide back and forth while riding and instantly feel the handling change. The closer I got to the engine, the better. When I sat back as far as I could while turning, it was like my body mass was fighting the bike mass causing the bike to handle poorly.

Another example of this would be a figure skater, spinning in place with his/her arms out. When they pull their arms in what happens?

By: Matt in NC

Matt in NC — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:55:18 +0000

I dunno… I kind of like it.

I’d like to see it as a single, and lose the vertical cylinder. Keep the majority of the mass as low as possible, but keep the rider upright and higher up. It’d be like an enduro seating position with the low COG of a dirt track Jawa. Seems like it’d be just the ticket for an urban traffic carver.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:32:46 +0000

I must admit, these concepts definitely have many of the individual features I’d hope to see in a motorcycle. However, it bothers me to no end that they’ve made no considerations towards the placement of turn signals and even the license plate. These are things that whether we like it or not, are necessary to the function of a road-worthy motorcycle, so they shouldn’t be added on as afterthoughts. Details are everything.