Top Dead Center 2 - or - Why Motorcycle Blogs Suck

The local bookstore, The Tattered Cover, recently called me and said that my copy of Kevin Cameron's book just arrived. I'd already seen the Table of Contents on Amazon.com - and I'd already read the articles when they were first published, remembered most of them, and in a few cases, kept them. But I hadn't read most of them since then. It is one thing to read technical wisdom when it is published, it is another to read it decades (in some cases) later and realize just how valid it still is. There are very few authors I can re-read and enjoy - with the passage of time and the change in perspective making an even bigger impact. Kevin Cameron is one of them. I get to read his new columns and articles when they come out once a month in print, but they are far more interesting than all of the "posts/comments" in the "new media" motorcycle news blogs.

That there is a market for the above book says everything worth saying about the content of "old media" motorcycle magazines - nobody will ever spend money on a collection of the banality traveling at the speed of light that is the entire motorcycle news blogging world. If you read this book, and are familiar with any of my work, you'll understand why I like it. Erik Buell's Foreword and the article on him written before Harley owned his name also are great reading. Kevin's work in print - and Erik's work in the real world - have inspired me like nobody else's work in any other realm.

Going from 2D to 3D

Suspensions work best on a frame rather than on top of my toolbox, which means that making the frame is the next step. So one weekend was spent collecting dimensions, placing everything where it needs to go, finding out what interferes with what, then connecting the dots in full scale on coroplast. Now I'm connecting the dots with steel and a welder.

Toads, birds, and nutty individuals

From Cycle, May 1984 - Chassis & Suspension, Part 4 - Kevin Cameron:

This new form will have to be a complete concept - not just a mass of little impovements. It is hard to prove the advantages of wings by attaching them to a toad; they really do work best on a bird. To leap from the toad to the bird is generally too radical a step for conservative business corporations. They have invested too much money in producing better toads.

The novel concepts, therefore, come from nutty individuals, many of whom seem to like change for its own sake. Because of this they can make mistakes that make even their good ideas appear laughable; consequently, these ideas must wait until traditional thinking is completely bankrupt. Then they are widely adopted and labeled “progress.”

The Very Advanced Racer Project

Over the last year, I've been buying, measuring, and otherwise staring at a growing pile of components, tooling, and materials required to make a motorcycle. Metal chips started to fly last week, which means I'm past the bulk of the "Enter your credit card number" phase. Now it is in the "Turn lots of little parts into one big part" phase. What it is going to be:

• A track bike. And if it performs as well as I expect and the organizers don't object, a racer. There are NO plans for operating it on the street or for making a street version.
• Powered by an EX500 engine. It is a fairly compact, reliable, common, and cheap twin. It also had to be eligible for a "builder & budget friendly" racing class, which pretty much means twins or singles. A Supermono was considered first, but the good engines cost more and produce less power than the light twins.
• A proof of concept bike using many of the ideas seen below. My mental test rider loves it. The theory promises large performance gains. The low power experimental bikes performed very well. But stopwatches at the track with a real motorcycle will tell me if it really works. And after that happens, the opportunities for racing and further development with even higher performance engines will present themselves.
• Very cheap. The budget for this entire project is less than a set of high end racing forks. If it weren't for the miracle of loose credit back in mid-2007, this project would still be in the hot air phase. There are no sponsors for this project - yet.
• Done entirely by: Me. That includes the design, machining, welding, and composite work. Nobody else's fingerprints are on it.
• Adaptable. A number of design details are experimental. It will be better to finish a more conventional bike that is configured to allow those experimental details to be adapted when it is convenient.

The 2WS lowracer scooter

This lowracer is powered by a 29cc "RC" 2-stroke engine with a spindle drive and hard tires - about as cheap and crude as one can get in motorsports. It was constructed in the late spring of 2006 and ridden in June 2006. The 2 wheel steering system produced very high cornering speeds and exceptional tracking stability. Slides were easy to control. Unfortunately, the minimotorsport series based on the stand-up scooter fad collapsed in the summer of 2006. As a result, this concept was never put into production. It is now hanging over my desk as a decoration.

The 2WS/2WD experimental recumbent

One of the most influential articles I ever read was written by Kevin Cameron and published in the Jan '87 issue of Cycle magazine. He theorized that a 2 wheel steering bike could enter and exit corners harder. I spent several years designing a 2 wheel steering "kneeler" type bike - until I saw a Ryan recumbent bike sitting in a bicycle shop in 1998. That struck me as the perfect configuration for a 2 wheel steering racer. But rather than spend a lot of money building a high powered one with no prior art available to depend on, I built a lightweight electric one to test 2 wheel steering stability and control. It has 3 12v batteries, 2 800w Heinzmann hubs, and a Curtis 1204-001 speed controller. It was finished in early 2002. The steering has a 2 axis control - moving the stick left steers the front wheel right - which causes the bike to roll to the left - just like an airplane. The rear steering is proportional to the front - with the stick forwards, the rear steering angle was 50% of the front in the same direction - and with the stick aft, the rear steering angle was 50% of the front in the opposite direction. The proportion was completely variable with no rear steering at all when the stick is centered. The speed control and brake lever is also on the control stick. The second to last picture was taken at a recumbent bicycle rally in Arvada, CO, back in 2004. The bike is currently hanging from my living room ceiling after several hundred miles of successful testing.

The H-D powered sportbike project

This one was designed in 1987, initiated construction in 1988, and finished in early 1991. It was powered by a 1988 H-D Sportster engine. The wheels, frame, bodywork, etc. were fabricated at home. The front brake has an "inside out" rotor on the left side of the rim. The front end steered on an upper ball joint and 2 virtual pivot arms aft of the hub with an 18 degree steering angle and 4 inches of trail. The bike weighed 365 lbs. It was dead stable at any speed and could be ridden no-handed from 100+ mph down to 10~mph with no wobbles at all. The bike was featured in the Oct '91 Motorcyclist, Jan '92 Hot Bike, and Summer '97 Battle2win magazine. About 4200 miles were on it when it was sold in '93 to build the Big Twin powered follow-up bike - which never got finished and the parts were sold.