Motofoil SWING TECH Sidecars- Schwenker | Vehicle, aircraft and boat

Motofoil SWING TECH Sidecars- Schwenker

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25.01.2022 SIMPLE THINGS FORGOTTEN... Its easy to lose track! When we built the first dirt bike MotoFoil the original need for wheel axle uprights on the swingarm wasn't needed due to ride heights of the dirt bike which kept the swingarm in a axle negative position to the pivot point, that very same chassis is being used for road development and without the uprights which house a 17 inch wheel. As I eluded too in a previous post we have been fine tuning the road version but getting clos...Continue reading

20.01.2022 SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO JUST WALK AWAY. A previous handling issue we had never had before..EVER! Manifestered itself as weight on the bars and pull to the left. But why? Admittedly a large amount of frustration surfaced and it was wise to just walk away from it and let calm return after several days brain busting. A few days ago my house mate pointed out the Swing arm appeared bent..WTF! So measurements were done parallel to a known qty, the chassis rail , and sure there was am ...8mm difference from front to rear, but How? Why? Camber out of the wheel was also apparent, as well as toe out, none of this had made much sense at all. We had just 30k's prior string lined it and picked nothing up then. All of this only became apparent after the shock was beefed up and the ride height lowered and the unlaiden chassis platform flattened. "STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES" (Forest Gumps Mother) lessons learned can be humiliating too. Some localised seam strengthening welds had been done on the suspension tower a few weeks prior and the heat transfer had weakened the nylon bushings that had been wrapped in wet rag but with the softening of the Bush the weight of the rig deformed the shape of the Bush and had loosened the torque on the pivot axle. After several 100 kilometers of hard riding the Bush unobserved had flogged out and the pivot bolt nut came loose from the wear. So the nut was electric rattle gunned back to its prior torque, due to the deformity of the Bush the pivot was no longer near 100% straight and the torque bent the pivot mounts at the top of the suspension tower and the wear accelerated causing the handling issues....phheeewww New bushes will now be made and fitted and the tower top straightened before any further actions are implemented. Prototyping is at times a lot of learning about many things, some mistakes are basic and some not and some from not following procedures to the letter....lessons learnt!

16.01.2022 TOUCHY FEELY...It's all about the feel! Sometimes I'm not sure if I've done the right thing, my head says do this or do that but the result at times is not what I expected. As a rider for me the bike has to behave and feel exactly how I want, no I don't accept near enough is close enough, technical figures and theory mean absolutely nothing if its not the "touchy feely" I enjoy!... Tonight I'm trying to diagnose in my head what I felt today and was what I was feeling a good thing or a bad thing or only a part of an incomplete equation? I've had the MotoFoil so the steering is just about normal bike 97% on the money. I remade and re-positioned the rear tele-Bar so it cleared the riders foot at big bank angles, by doing this one thing I was also able to square up the front Tele-Bar so it eliminates possibly damaging the engines oil filter on full lean and clears the front mounting cradle much better as well. The rear T-Bar mount was not put through the chassis rails but under them as well, this also gave more clearance for the riders foot which now is perfect. So success and success but only one negative, that near perfect steering loading is now noticeably heavier, about the same as a tire thats about 10psi down, it feels like it wants to pull left as well but letting go of the handle bars it still tracks true straight, it makes me want to load the left bar to compensate for something thats clearly not actually happening! The seat of my pants tells me the Foil wheel is lagging, it just feels way to far back now towards the rear and just by feeling alone my seat of the pants says move the foils wheel axle closer forward to the swing arm pivot point, remember the wheels are all the same diameter and the axle heights are the same, the swing arm pivot and the Foil pivot are also of very near heights. Today we reset the toe in to a very shallow 7mm making the foil track very much the same as the bike, it handles good but not great and still with a slight but noticeable weight load on the bars as all i can feel is the side wheel being too far back. I don't want to bastardise the swingarm because it probably will work very well on a longer wheelbased bike, so a new swingarm about 40mm shorter and with a revised geometry of the suspension tower is probably the next thing to do. Having a bike with an extremely short wheel base is probably the real culprit, but as most sports bikes are very short wheelbase then this avenue needs to be explored further... I will win as my intention is still the same and thats to build the fastest and best handling sidecar.... it's getting closer and closer...game on !

03.01.2022 It's hard to explain to a normal solo motorcycle rider who has never ridden a sidecar what a normal rigid mount sidecar feels like to ride and compared to a MotoFoil. This is pretty close to the mark.....lol