Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
(OP)
Pardon me, this is WAY out of my field (HVAC design), but I have an interest in it.
Anybody familiar with the Rokon off road motorcycles? They are 2 wheel drive using (what appears to me) to be a pretty complex mechanical drive system.
It occurs to me that it would be much neater to use a hydraulic drive, separate motors for each wheel, driven in series, so that if one wheel is slipping, the Hp (?)/ torque (?) is available to the other wheel.
Looking at mini-bike design, they often use a "torque convertor", which seems to allow the speed of the bike to increase if the torque requirement drops.
I am trying to wrap my head around how this works with a variable speed gas engine driving through the "torque convertor" to a hydraulic pump.
Just so you get an idea of what I am thinking is a 5-8 hp motor with 25" VERY wide low pressure tires, resulting in a floatation type of situation that would be environmentally friendly to grass, etc.
Anybody have any thoughts?
Anybody familiar with the Rokon off road motorcycles? They are 2 wheel drive using (what appears to me) to be a pretty complex mechanical drive system.
It occurs to me that it would be much neater to use a hydraulic drive, separate motors for each wheel, driven in series, so that if one wheel is slipping, the Hp (?)/ torque (?) is available to the other wheel.
Looking at mini-bike design, they often use a "torque convertor", which seems to allow the speed of the bike to increase if the torque requirement drops.
I am trying to wrap my head around how this works with a variable speed gas engine driving through the "torque convertor" to a hydraulic pump.
Just so you get an idea of what I am thinking is a 5-8 hp motor with 25" VERY wide low pressure tires, resulting in a floatation type of situation that would be environmentally friendly to grass, etc.
Anybody have any thoughts?





RE: Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
I don't think it was a motorcycle company if it was then it was Honda.. This has got to be 15 years ago at least
You might find it with a patent search ...
http://freepatentsonline.com/4041922.html
I don't know anything but the people that do.
RE: Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
RE: Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
you are right about the torque convertor.
I have also considered powering this bike with a small diesel engine. Anybody know of a source for reasonably priced small diesel engines?
RE: Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
There was a lot of interest in 2 wheel drive racing off road motorcycles a few years ago. They were over-driving the rear wheel and letting the front free wheel in the forward direction. The idea was that it would behave like a rear drive in most situations but if the rear lost traction then power would transfer to the front. Like a lot of ideas, the extra weight, cost and complexity seems to have over powered the advantages.
RE: Hydraulic drive, 2 wheel "mini bike"
htt
http://www.gizmag.com/go/2351/
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http://home.mira.net/~iwd/2x2x2/intro.html
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http://www.off-road.gr/article117.html
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Diesel motorcycle
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4272/