I'm sure it's better, and safer, and somehow healthier for the environment, but I give it a week on sale before someone puts spinners on it.

I think Harley Davidson has the patent on this.

My gene's base pairs are patented as well, I wonder who I owe money to.

looking at the pictures makes it obvious that it isn't done in the same way. The shock layout on the Harley is vertical , were as this bike is diagonal. In the patent world of technical stuff, I think that is all you need to claim independent art, slightly different configuration.

Wow great, you invented a quad-bike. Woohoo, all the limitations of four wheels and none of the benefits of two. Good Job. Never been done before.

>> ^Fade:
Wow great, you invented a quad-bike. Woohoo, all the limitations of four wheels and none of the benefits of two. Good Job. Never been done before.


What are you talking about, now you don't have all the weight being thrown to the outside like a normal quad. This enables the same sort of (though not exact same) turning as a 2 wheeler. I would imagine the turning rate is much much higher than a normal quad.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'tilting motorcycle susupension four wheeler quad' to 'tilting, motorcycle, suspension, four wheeler, quad, offroading' - edited by lucky760

I picture this with knobby dirt bike tires that they use on the rear wheels of motocross bikes. And with four wheel drive. It could benefit from an active suspension up front so it doesn't nose-dive when you hit the brakes hard. This must feel like a whole new kind of vehicle when you ride it.

So, if you go into opposite lock during a power slide or to compensate for a skid, does this thing roll and crush you?
It might work better if the tilt in the suspension was linked to the lean of your body instead of the steering.

...if anyone makes a fortune off of that idea, please give me a cut

>> ^grinter:
So, if you go into opposite lock during a power slide or to compensate for a skid, does this thing roll and crush you?


I think he does what you are talking about. It looks like the bike continues leaning towards the inside of the skid even though he turns the front wheels away from the turn.

>> ^grinter:
So, if you go into opposite lock during a power slide or to compensate for a skid, does this thing roll and crush you?

I think of this as being like riding in the middle of two motorcycles, so yes, if you lean the wrong way it would cause problems. If it did that automatically, it wouldn't be a leaning cycle but something else. I'm guessing that the first experience riding this uses a lot of intuition about what to expect when riding a regular bike.

Nice traction on the tires. I like to see that thing stop and start in a pile of mud.

From a physics point of view, I don't see that leaning the wheels gives you any more traction than keeping them vertical. Tilting the machine and rider while keeping all four wheels on the ground should give more stability.... and it definitely looks very cool. But I wouldn't say it's as radical an innovation as a hydrofoil.

Um I think the dirt bike circuit will stay with their 2 wheelers. Think aerial jumps and off roading will go this way ? Hell no. Those little dirt bike rule. Four wheelers? Nope too much expense, people wont buy it.

So what nitche can this fill ? Um nothing...

Perhaps it might win a 4 wheeler race or something.

Keep yer damn quads off my hiking trails.

It seems the same to me as you would get with a car with really soft suspension. The soft suspension gives you more grip, but it also means very slow weight transfer which makes the handling much worse (slow to react to steering input). I don't know if this really caries over to off-road vehicles though. I guess.

It does look like a similar layout to those off-road racing cars/trucks though, so maybe it is a good thing. I could also imagine that the slow weight transfer could have a tendency to throw you off if you were to hit a bump or something while it's still leaning the wrong way.

>> ^arvana:
From a physics point of view, I don't see that leaning the wheels gives you any more traction than keeping them vertical. Tilting the machine and rider while keeping all four wheels on the ground should give more stability.... and it definitely looks very cool. But I wouldn't say it's as radical an innovation as a hydrofoil.


I agree about it not being as radical an innovation as a hydrofoil...however from a physics point of view, it does give you more traction in cornering as your weight will be shifted in line with the wheels to the ground. Without being able to draw you a pic, just think racecar oval tracks. They are banked, not flat. Why is this? For traction so the cars don't slide off the tracks in cornering.

>> ^grinter:
So, if you go into opposite lock during a power slide or to compensate for a skid, does this thing roll and crush you?


The thumbnails says, "no", as he's in a powerslide in opposite lock...

Anyone care to explain the revolutionary part of this to me?

Right now, this only looks like an enhanced version of the tilting suspension of the mid '90s (Mercedes F-300 comes to mind) used on a quad.

Ugh, those FUCKING RIMS.... UGH.

>> ^grinter:
It might work better if the tilt in the suspension was linked to the lean of your body instead of the steering.


At about 0:12 the video does show the bike leaning with the motion of the body, as the bike is not even moving...

This type of suspension would probably keep weight more evenly distributed on all four wheels during a turn instead of putting most of the weight on the outside wheels. If nothing else it might be more difficult to flip.

I'd have to try one out to be sure though. =)

It looks to me like in order to get enough moment arm on the machine to control your lean to one side the weight of the bike and motor is raised a good 12" higher off the ground than would otherwise be necessary. It appears that if you hit any kind of solid object (like a rock) while in one of those slides it would be an instant flip.

I'd like to see an example of this with the center of gravity a good foot or more lower before I'd be convinced of stability.

>> ^grahamslam:
I agree about it not being as radical an innovation as a hydrofoil...however from a physics point of view, it does give you more traction in cornering as your weight will be shifted in line with the wheels to the ground. Without being able to draw you a pic, just think racecar oval tracks. They are banked, not flat. Why is this? For traction so the cars don't slide off the tracks in cornering.

Banking the track makes its reaction force nearer to perpendicular from the track's surface, which lowers the tendency to slide sideways. Just tilting the wheels while on a flat track won't make any difference to the sideways forces between the wheels and track. It may add stability, but not more traction. You're right though that it brings the force in line with the wheels -- that would allow the wheels to be lighter weight which probably would help corner slightly faster.

Ahh, willyoulookatthat. My assumptions about how this thing works were wrong. Thanks to all of those who pointed that out.

Now, I'd have to agree with the comment about slow weight transfer.

And, as for the traction debate: no more traction, but less likely to roll (ignore my ignorant comment above); that's my vote.

>> ^vermonter:
It appears that if you hit any kind of solid object (like a rock) while in one of those slides it would be an instant flip.



Perhaps, but I can't think of any reason why a tilt suspension would be any more likely to do that than a normal 4-wheeler. The wheels would be nearly perpendicular to the impact angle, so the tilt suspension should absorb more of it than a regular suspension.

It really depends on what the body of the vehicle does in a skid if the wheels stop... does the suspension absorb the impact, or does the body roll outward. I'm betting it mostly absorbs it, otherwise it would be nearly undrivable on most terrain. My guess is that if anything flips this thing, it would have flipped a regular 4-wheeler of similar mass and wheel base as well.

Either way, I still want to try it!

four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul

You all fail (well, most of you).

Of course there would be more traction - when you go into a "slide" you lose traction, speed, and control over the quad.

Other than in a slide, you would still get more traction in a high speed turn as the wheels maximize their contact with the ground with this system, as opposed to standard (now known as "obsolete") quad suspension systems which force the tires to lose at least some power and grip with the lateral motion involved in turning any 4-wheeled vehicle.

I say this as a lifelong quad driver. Class dismissed.

Robin, you hit the nail of the head. Moving the center of mass two foot inboard leverages the load to the tire. However, this can only be achieved if the wheels and the mass are leaned inboard as to balance the forces that be. Although simple in theory the dynamics associated with leaning three and four wheeled vehicles has left many frustrated and broken. In March video will post to www.wesllcorp.com displaying more of the suspensions unique capabilities. I hope you will continue to follow the technology up through the aerial back-flips and onto the show room floor.

First of all, I'm glad you requrie logins to comments, also, how new is the concept of tilting three-wheelers and four-wheelers, were either ever tried back before cars were full of microprocessors and still made of real metal?