So, I got to ride the prototype today (which is good, since I'll be using the bike (in non-prototype mode) on a cycling adventure).
The good:
* Ride-quality: It is both awesome and strange. At low-speed there is waaaaaaay more stability. I totally believe that climbing really steep hills (and doing hill starts on really steep hills which is royally annoying in standard mode on a 20% grade) is going to be way easier. At higher speeds, it is a bit more hesitant to tilt, which shouldn't come as a surprise. The question there is: is this something that one can learn/forget about/intuit after a while?
*Looks: It doesn't look totally dorky, and could probably be made to look cool.
The bad:
* It is a prototype, and it has fatal flaws that mean that it will be relegated to the scrap heap (though work will start on a v2).
* The original cam profile was way too curvy/steep. It worked really well. As in you couldn't ever really tilt. So, scratch that profile. Not that this was entirely unexpected as two other cam profiles were made...
* The location on the cam which interfaced the roller was crushed and distorted by the cam (did I mention that I did some "abusive" hopping on it while at a standstill to ensure it wouldn't dump me? No. Well I did.).
* After the cam was distorted, it raised a pressure ridge which destroyed the cam follower/roller.
* The way the assembly was mounted just didn't inspire confidence. You could see the carboyoke receiver flexing when I bounced (admittedly hard) on the bike. I worried about frame fatigue if it was ridden for any moderate length of time.
Next steps:
Less and Simpler!
Now that we understand how the Silvio frame acts on these kinds of loads, I'll do a redesign that actually loads it that way. The redesign will have the virtue of being more easily mountable on some other bike as well (anyone want to donate a Vendetta? No? Ok, can't blame me for trying
).
Basically the redesign will look a lot like the original design: A cross-piece similar to the current prototype with a (likely square) boom is attached which (for the Silvio) will head towards the suspension mounts and attach there. I'll ditch the rails and instead probably just have it slide within a slot on the boom. This should work just fine since the total amount of travel needed here is probably < 10mm.
This should have the virtue of being simpler, easier to mount in a variety of configurations (rotate it and add a piece and one could instead stick this on the rear triangle of a Vendatta, probably), more robust, and lighter.
I'll try to remember to upload a few of the photos!
