Japanese self-steering bicycle

[Peter Fox]

News item here
<http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>

about a bike which senses lean and corrects.

Ummm.

"It's a bicycle that's easy on elderly people," a Sakai Municipal
Government official said. "We want to use it to revitalize Sakai's
manufacturing industry."

Do 'elderly people' have such a difficulty and how do you get it to go
round corners?

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the submarine business went under
[email protected]
www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

 

[John Hearns]

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 09:39:34 +0000, Peter Fox wrote:

> News item here
> <http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>
>
> about a bike which senses lean and corrects.
>
> Ummm.
Ummm indeed. What's wrong with a tricycle if you have difficulty
balancing a bicycle?

 

[Alan Holmes]

"John Hearns" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
> On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 09:39:34 +0000, Peter Fox wrote:
>
>> News item here
>> <http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>
>>
>> about a bike which senses lean and corrects.
>>
>> Ummm.
> Ummm indeed. What's wrong with a tricycle if you have difficulty
> balancing a bicycle?

And, with a tricycle, cars might give you a lot more room when they pass!

Alan

 

[M-gineering]

John Hearns wrote:
> On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 09:39:34 +0000, Peter Fox wrote:
>
>
>>News item here
>><http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>
>>
>>about a bike which senses lean and corrects.
>>
>>Ummm.
>
> Ummm indeed. What's wrong with a tricycle if you have difficulty
> balancing a bicycle?

Storage space? This is Japan after all

--
---
Marten Gerritsen

INFOapestaartjeM-GINEERINGpuntNL
www.m-gineering.nl

 

[[email protected]]

I can remember a programme about frame goemetry where they said that it
was possible to build more stabilisation into the frame and forks, but
that this would make the bike less easy to ride. A framebuilder
demonstrated on that he had built by sending the riderless bike down a
long traffic free hill. The bike balenced its self and rolled off into
the distance!

 

[John_Kane]

Peter Fox wrote:
> News item here
> <http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>
>
> about a bike which senses lean and corrects.
>
> Ummm.
>
> "It's a bicycle that's easy on elderly people," a Sakai Municipal
> Government official said. "We want to use it to revitalize Sakai's
> manufacturing industry."
>
> Do 'elderly people' have such a difficulty and how do you get it to go
> round corners?

I don't know. The oldest person I have ever ridden with was only 83 and
annoyed that his club had forced him to move into the senior triathalon
that year because they were short of members over 55.

On the other hand we had a club member of about 72 who was charged with
failing to stop at a stop sign. She claimed she had done a track stand
and demonstarted it in court. Case dismissed. (A vile and nasty rumour
going around did suggest that she learned to do trackstands after the
stop sign incident but who would believe that?)

Somehow I doubt that age is the determining factor particularly as
cycling is a psychomotor skill and such skills tend not to be affected
by age alone.

There may be some conditions maybe hearing loss or other ear problems
that might affect balance that are more common in the elderly.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

 

[Jon Senior]

John Hearns wrote:
> Ummm indeed. What's wrong with a tricycle if you have difficulty
> balancing a bicycle?

Simple. Why let practicality get in the way of a good gadget? ;-)

Jon

 

[James Annan]

John_Kane wrote:

> Peter Fox wrote:
>
>>News item here
>><http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060107p2a00m0na028000c.html>
>>
>>about a bike which senses lean and corrects.
>>
>>Ummm.
>>
>>"It's a bicycle that's easy on elderly people," a Sakai Municipal
>>Government official said. "We want to use it to revitalize Sakai's
>>manufacturing industry."
>>
>>Do 'elderly people' have such a difficulty and how do you get it to go
>>round corners?
>
>
> I don't know. The oldest person I have ever ridden with was only 83 and
> annoyed that his club had forced him to move into the senior triathalon
> that year because they were short of members over 55.
>
> On the other hand we had a club member of about 72 who was charged with
> failing to stop at a stop sign. She claimed she had done a track stand
> and demonstarted it in court. Case dismissed. (A vile and nasty rumour
> going around did suggest that she learned to do trackstands after the
> stop sign incident but who would believe that?)
>
> Somehow I doubt that age is the determining factor particularly as
> cycling is a psychomotor skill and such skills tend not to be affected
> by age alone.
>
> There may be some conditions maybe hearing loss or other ear problems
> that might affect balance that are more common in the elderly.

It seems very clear from the stats I've seen that the elderly are
heavily represented in cycling fatalities in Japan. It's not impossible
that a self-balancing bike would help a bit, depending on what
proportion of the deaths are simple falls rather than getting hit. But
even if there is a control problem, I still think that trikes are likely
to be a more sensible solution.

James
--
James Annan
see web pages for email
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/
http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>,
John_Kane ('[email protected]') wrote:

>> Do 'elderly people' have such a difficulty and how do you get it to go
>> round corners?
>
> I don't know. The oldest person I have ever ridden with was only 83 and
> annoyed that his club had forced him to move into the senior triathalon
> that year because they were short of members over 55.

The oldest person I've ever ridden with was (I think) 97. He rode the
eight miles into the Quaker meeting house in Lancaster every Sunday, and
rode the eight miles home again, on a 20" wheel shopper bike. He wasn't
very fast, but he got there.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

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