-
Probably the toughest question. I guess you could say it started with a quest for simplicity... It must be about 5 years ago I got fascinated with cardan drives. Build a couple of frames with cardan drive... and in a first part of the quest for more simplicity I build a frame in which the cardan side and the other side were symmetrical, which was very pleasing to the eye in a "naked" kind of way. I was very pleased with the frame, but couldnt find a matching front fork to match it.
So one day i came walking down the stairs and viewed the bike from a higher angle that way.... thats the moment I kind of imagined the head-tube continuing downwards in a straight line. Problem was of course the wheel was in the way :) And, being in a stubborn mood, i reasoned that the argument for requirement for the wheel to be in that place and the fork to be build around it, that same argument could also be reversed to a requirement that a tube needs to be in that place, and that the wheel should make place.... Then there was this (as it later turned out false) notion that the two wheels need to be upright and alligned, so I started tinkering with ideas like asymmetrical tires and stuff in an attempt to compensate for misalignment.... It was probably weeks later when I was at my parents garage that I had some time to kill and decided to weld a mock-up together, just to see how it looked. And it looked nice from the start! :) Took the bike outside to have a better look at it and then wondered what it would be like to ride it. Because the welding I did was just for having a look i doubted it would hold my weight, but I gave it a try. Question was would it hold my weight. It did.... but looking down on the wheel was a frightening sight, it looked like the wheel was half broken away and about to come off. Containing the fear I rode for a couple of hundred meters and the fear weaned off and it began to feel comfortable. As Im fond of riding no hands in a natural move I took my hands of the handlebar... and the bike just kept going straight... My surprise couldnt have been bigger at that moment... I was totally NOT expecting this!! This cant be happening... not if the laws of physics were chaged very quickly. My certain expectation was for the bike to drift off to one way and id have to grab the handlebar again. But none of this happened!!! The bike kept going perfectly straight!!! How could this be??? This was impossible!
Of course my interest was awakened, I needed to figure out what exactly was going on here. It must have been maybe 10 (No)forks I welded together to make another one perform the same way as the first one. The fact that the first one turned out so well was a matter of sheer luck, nothing else.
Your question "Why" is probably the hardest question for me to answer, but maybe the way it all came about sheds some light on it...
The question remains... Why?
What advantage are you claiming over a standard setup? Or even a "lefty"?
If you can name advantages... Do you think they outweigh the disadvantages?