Side view - low rider mode. (The "front" designation from Solidworks isn't true...I avoided capturing it in the following screen images.
Had an online session today with Alan Ball, Rory McCarthy, and Bill Warner. The Morph is Rory's invention, Alan is providing industrial design, and Bill is providing project management and design input.
Side view - high rider mode.
Top view - low rider mode.
Front View - Low rider mode. Not how very low this vehicle goes.
Front View - High rider mode - and in high mode (like all our designs) the bike goes to a seating height above the rear wheels, which are 27"
Iso View - High rider mode. Note the twin tubes for the upper and lower link arms. This lets the purple frame nestle between them in the low mode.
Low Rider Iso. Seat is still in the works.
The red area shows the single gas shock in this design. It is compressed here, at a length of 9.7 inches.
High Rider Mode - Gas spring is at 14.1 inches. We are planning on a single gas spring in this design. Morph II had two gas springs.
Still some interference between the shock and the main tube. Will fix this.
Alan is working on the tube paths. The version we currently have, with 12" radius curve, puts the tube too close to the seat supports, and too close to the seat back. We working on this issue a bit today.
The blue tube should really go through the center of the grey seat support.
The orange circle represents the seat support. The purple tube needs to come back further and then rise at a steeper angle.
Can a 10" radius do it. No.
Can a 6" radius get the tube in the right position? No. And 6" is the very smallest radius that could be considered in a 2" tube. (and that's not a great idea.)
Here we remove the radius, but we still have interference.
Now we move the tube back further and angle up.
This is basically an angle-cut weld. (Not shown exactly that way.) High rider mode.
Angle-tube in low rider mode.
Still some interference of the top seat support.
Alan is going to work some more on the frame design and resolving the interferences. Then our plan is to make a new wood model which we'll use to nail down the final frame design. Its much easier to discuss ideas when you have an actual model in your hands.
