This has to go down as probably the most ingenious and impressive motorbike designs I’ve seen in almost 20 years following two-wheeled improvements. That does not imply I would have the cojones to trip it, particularly given its eye-popping steering setup!
The Kejashi tilt-wing motorbike took place as creator Kent Shillitoe contemplated the the explanation why Method One vehicles can get round a observe a lot sooner than MotoGP bikes. Positive, they have extra rubber on the highway for grip, however in addition they smash that rubber into the tarmac with extraordinary quantities of downforce. Not fairly as a lot as this crazy jigger, however extraordinary nonetheless.
MotoGP bikes run miniature ‘winglets’ lately, after all, however they’re tiny as compared, and since they’re fastened statically to the bike, they create an issue that F1 vehicles do not need to take care of: whenever you lean a motorcycle proper over in a quick nook, these winglets lean on the similar time.
The end result: when the bike goes past 45 levels, it begins creating extra power pushing the bike to the surface of the nook than downforce. On condition that the GP aliens at the moment are routinely dragging their shoulders on the bottom at lean angles past 65 levels, it is no marvel these winglets are small.
However what in case you might maintain the wing stage? You’d get all of the downforce and nothing pushing you in direction of the gravel lure. You possibly can run a very huge wing, too… Though you’d need to put it on the entrance of the motorbike, as a result of that is the place you’d need the additional grip.
Kent Shillitoe
Shillitoe, a South Australian motorbike mechanic, clearly is not a person to simply sit and marvel, as a result of he went and constructed the factor to see if it could work. “Tony Foale wrote a guide on motorbike dealing with and dynamics,” he tells me over a video chat from the bike dealership the place he works in South Australia. “He thought of this, however yeah, no one’s really been in a position to create a tilting wing that works. I am all the time considering whereas I am engaged on bikes, and simply got here up with the thought and thought, properly, if no-one’s tried it, it is as much as me to present it a go!”
So he pulled the engine and entrance finish out of his little Honda CB125 commuter bike, plonked in a 50-horseower 2-stroke dirtbike engine (full along with his personal custom-built ‘bellystinger’ growth chamber), after which set about creating a really mind-boggling steering and downforce system, hanging off the entrance of the bike in a big metal cage.
The offset, trailing steering system
It takes belief and religion to trip a motorbike spherical a nook. A part of that belief and religion for me has all the time been primarily based on the concept that even when the steering angle modifications, the entrance and rear wheels will nonetheless be in keeping with each other.
Kent Shillitoe
Not on this factor. Shillitoe’s Kejashi system, which sounds Japanese however is only a nod do his personal title KEnt JAmes SHIllitoe, disconnects the forks and handlebars from the traditional steering head, and mounts them on a trailing arm getting back from some extent properly out in entrance of the fairing. Consequently, whenever you push the left bar to provoke a left flip, all the steering column, wheel included, swings greater than a foot out to the appropriate of the bike’s middle line.
Which means you do not have to lean it as far, for one factor. “Offsetting the load towards the within of the flip, that is what the GP guys try to do with their our bodies,” says Shillitoe. “However shifting the wheel towards the surface of the flip naturally offsets the load of the bike and the rider towards the within, and reduces the quantity of lean angle required. It’s kind of like a Can-Am Spyder – on these issues, in case you nook them arduous sufficient you possibly can choose up the within wheel, after which it is type of simply appearing like my design.”
It additionally provides you a brand new occasion trick. “I sneakily rode it house from work as soon as,” laughs Shillitoe, “by the nation, I took the again grime roads. And there was a little bit of a boulder on the highway, and with out considering, I’ve simply gone ‘whoop’ and it is gone between the wheels. I used to be like, ‘what the…'”
Kent Shillitoe
So how does it trip? “Yeah, it felt every kind of fallacious to start with,” he grins. “However when you get used to it and belief it – and never take a look at it – it begins feeling very pure. It steers type of like a traditional motorbike, however it feels disconnected to start with. However it’s steady; you possibly can take your fingers off and it simply trails alongside, no worries!”
“When you trip the rear brake, it needs to fall down much more into the flip,” he continues, “and you may roll on the throttle and it will begin to choose again up just a little bit. It feels every kind of bizarre, however it works. I do not understand how!”
The tilting wing
That outstanding steering head additionally tilts the wing association, which pokes up quite inconveniently in entrance of the rider’s face if they are not tucked down. “Ah, it is type of like a Method One automobile with the HALO,” says Shillitoe, “it is simply bought that single beam in entrance of your eyes whenever you’re going lifeless straight. The principle wings are up above your eyesight. And whenever you’re cornering, you’ve got bought completely clear imaginative and prescient.”
Kent Shillitoe’s tilt-wing motorbike steering system
How’s the load? “Nicely, it turned out not too dangerous, as a result of I stripped numerous the road-going gear off,” he tells me. “The usual weight of the bike is 128 kg (282 lb), and regardless that this prototype’s constructed from metal, the entire bike nonetheless solely weighs 130 kg (287 lb).”
There is a notable quantity of drag approaching the bike’s prime pace of round 150 km/h (~93 mph), however the downforce can also be obvious. “Once I rise up to that pace,” says Shillitoe, “you possibly can see the entrance forks compressing just a little bit. In line with my calculations, at 150 km/h, there ought to be about 60 kg (132 lb) of downforce. You do discover a little bit of drag… Sooner or later, I would like to run one thing just like the DRS system in Method One, and simply tilt it as much as scale back drag.”
And what in regards to the cornering? Nicely, just a little arduous to inform at this stage, since he is primarily banging it round back-country grime roads the place downforce is not going to make an enormous distinction. However the really feel from between the wheels is encouraging, he tells me. “It’s very steady, and also you simply swing the entrance out, it leans in, the wing tilts… After which it feels prefer it simply pushes you across the nook like nothing else.”
Take a look at a video:
Loopy New 2 Stroke Motorbike Design
The place to from right here?
Shillitoe needs to take the Kejashi bike to the observe and experiment with higher-speed cornering in an setting the place grip is paramount, however he is ready till the chilly South Australian winter abates. In the end, this design is wildly inappropriate for the road, and it will not be any good in head-to-head racing, both. “It is extra designed for one-lap time assault kind racing or hill climb occasions,” says Shillitoe.
He’d like to see someone with higher manufacturing gear at their disposal take the thought up a notch or two from his 12-month shed-project prototype. An excellent-rigid, light-weight carbon body might work actually properly, he reckons, for the reason that offsettable entrance wheel might probably act like a secondary suspension system when the bike’s leaned proper over.
“I bear in mind when Ducati went to their carbon body, and it was simply approach too stiff,” he says. “I believe the Kejashi system might go to that carbon body as a result of it is bought that lateral bump absorption in-built… Look, I’ve bought goals that it will go someplace, however I do not know! I can not hype it up an excessive amount of ’til I’ve really confirmed it correctly. However I’ve ridden it lots arduous on the highway, it is succesful.”
Kent Shillitoe
I’ve requested Kent to vow he’ll inform me when he takes this factor to the racetrack, as a result of I would like to see it in motion. It is such an out-there concept and such an audacious method that I would like to see it work. The closest factor I’ve ever seen on the tarmac could be the Zenvo TSR-S hypercar, which takes lively aeros to even larger extremes, together with tilting its rear wing to push the again of the automobile into the nook.
I suppose if the entire downforce factor would not pan out, Shillitoe can all the time flip that wing the wrong way up, see if the Kejashi flies, and ask Guinness if it’s going to qualify because the world’s quickest dangle glider? Both approach, godspeed, you magnificent bastard, you are a braver man than I!
Take a look at the gallery for extra photographs of this distinctive bike, and a few diagrams Kent’s put collectively exhibiting a number of the physics ideas behind the design.
Kent Shillitoe
Supply: Kent Shillitoe
