No-Fork project, bicycle geometry hacked

Very good and instructive video. The lefty is one good piece of engineering.

Thanks for all the comments!

The lefty works for two reasons.

1) big fat axles.
2) clamping above and below the headtube.

Your design simply has no crown. I'm assuming stiffness comes from tube diameter. Might be and idea to go with a 1 1/2" steerer. Depends on how stiff you need it to be I guess.

Srs though-bike wheels are not supposed to take much lateral pressure and I doubt axles/hubs are designed to either... won't you end up with mechanical issues further down the line?

Really?

This thread is fascinating! I just wish I had the required knowledge to participate in the discussion rather than lurking on the sidelines.

wish I had the required knowledge to participate in the discussion

I can tell you there's plenty of folk lacking the required knowledge discussing in this thread :P Doesn't matter really, does it? Don't hold back if you're curious.

Well then, my biggest concern would be the tyres. Because the wheels are angled the contact patches would be off centre from where I assume they are designed to contact with the road. Would this not lead to the cumulative failure of the ply on one side of the tyre due to repetitive stress on that side (especially if you ignored the advice of Mr Scoble and routinely leant to corner)?

Fucking magnets!

Fucking magnets!

Don't, you'll end up with a bipolar cock.

Well then, my biggest concern would be the tyres. Because the wheels are angled the contact patches would be off centre from where I assume they are designed to contact with the road. Would this not lead to the cumulative failure of the ply on one side of the tyre due to repetitive stress on that side (especially if you ignored the advice of Mr Scoble and routinely leant to corner)?

Could be a good idea to use bi-directional tyres, and turn them every now and again for even wear. But its not far off center.

I'm not convinced steering feel will be the same both left and right. As the coaste effect would be different. I'd be happy to be proved wrong though.

I haven't read every word on here, but can someone explain in a nutshell why having the wheels in line with the frame and using a single sided fork and rear end wouldn't be better all round? It's got to be a way better way of doing it. Besides the aesthetics of having the frame in line, which in my opinion is offset by the angled wheels I can't see any reason as to why this is a better idea?

Rob English's Righty looks a far nicer way of achieving a single sided set up but without the wheels being angled...and it's not like the couple of inches of fork crown spoils the look.

I love everything about that English. Its even my favourate colour.

would it be possible to ride this no-handed?

You realise the English has both wheels in line with the frame right?

I'm no engineer... but wouldn't there be a problem with the OP bike when taking sharp left hand corners quickly? What I mean is; there's only so far you can lean over, and this design reduces that (when turning left) by the amount the wheel is pre-leaning.

@Jeez
It just seemed strange to link to the pic of the english then talk about wheels not being centred in line with the frame when they are on the English, so I don't quite see how it relates?
The fact that it isn't symetrical is pretty obvious...It's one sided.

I'm no engineer... but wouldn't there be a problem with the OP bike when taking sharp left hand corners quickly? What I mean is; there's only so far you can lean over, and this design reduces that (when turning left) by the amount the wheel is pre-leaning.

If its fixed. You'd have massive pedal strike before that became an issue.

How does one strick a pedal?

Are the gyroscopic forces in play not going to be pulling the wheels to the vertical, making you feel like you're riding in a crosswind the whole time?

Belgian Classics training bike for non-Belgian pros? There's your market!

Interesting stuff... Not putting a belt drive on the LHS would be missing a trick.

Another successful single forked bike...

^ the Giant Halfway folder bike designed by Mike Burrows.

Are the gyroscopic forces in play not going to be pulling the wheels to the vertical, making you feel like you're riding in a crosswind the whole time?

Belgian Classics training bike for non-Belgian pros? There's your market!

Could be used for NascarEffect™ in the velodrome?

Like the UCI would ever allow it.

so......if you leant only slightly left going around a wet corner / manhole, you'll be on your arse.

also can you turn the tyres around, halfway through their shortened life?

i also think, you could have saved money on the patent......the design is pretty safe (in that aspect)

I'm no engineer... but wouldn't there be a problem with the OP bike when taking sharp left hand corners quickly? What I mean is; there's only so far you can lean over, and this design reduces that (when turning left) by the amount the wheel is pre-leaning.

No (approximately). The lean limit is when the plane through your centre of mass and ground contact points is at about 45 degrees to the ground; your tyres start to slip out from under you as you ask for more sideways force than the static friction of the tyre contact patches can provide. That plane doesn't change just from fitting wheels in a different plane - leaning just the wheels doesn't change the sideways force demanded of them.

('Approximately' because the tyre's friction properties may change as you run if further off centre - probably different surface material and pattern, and also they may squirm more when rolling at a funny angle.)

The other limit is if you get too large an angle between centre of mass lean plane and the plane of your wheels: then they may collapse. But the OP's wheels seem to be dished to cope with their offset.

Really?

I wasn't talking about the use of a monostay front end, I was talking about having the axle at an angle to the ground and not parallel to the horizontal of the BB bearings either... seems like a recipe to put more stress on all these contact points, as well as having one side of the rim/wheel under more pressure than the other?

would putting smaller or bigger tires on move the contact point with the road off center? making the bike want to pull in that direction?