Motorcycle with double front wheels - photos

[tonyfoale]

There is a whole class of vehicles known as TTWs. or Tilting Three Wheelers.
In one way or another I have consulted on several such projects. Some have the two wheels at the front and some have them at the rear. Some tilt all the wheels and others only tilt the third wheel.

I first became interested in the genre when I saw a video of the "Lean Machine" swooping through a park. That was the brainchild of Frank Witchell(sp) of GM in response to a fuel crisis in the 70s.

I got a bit of a reputation in this field early on and was asked to write a chapter on them for R Q Riley's 2nd edition of his SAE published book "Alternative Vehicles for the 21st Century".

Here are a few pix.

Click thumbnails for fullsize pix.
Prototype of what became the Ariel 3. Ridden here by the late Vic Willoughby, a good friend and mentor. Honda bought the rights to it and made the Gyro.


Here I am testing the Spanish Calleja near Granada.


Testing the JeffcottMicro in southern England.


Enjoying a HD powered version in LA.


The GM Lean Machine. The device which first sparked my interest.


I planned to build this, but I never found the time. Power would have been from a BMW twin.


Even Mercedes got in on the act. Called the Life Jet.


BMW did not want to be left out.


Mother Earth News made this.


The P32, I consulted on this one.


The Tracer, made in Australia.


The Dutch made Carver. This was in production for a while but the company did not survive. I had some small input on this one.