MWF Morphing Handcycle Project Blog

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June 16, 2009

Our Next Morph - "Morph Out" 'Cause We're Going to Build 5 And Get 'Em Out for Real Testing

This sequence shows the Morph Out geometry taken a step further into 3D. This is a just a proof of concept frame, but it uses the earlier "twin flanking members" to allow the rear morphing elements to overlap the main tube when the bike morphs down. This gives us extra room to put the seat sub-frame and still maintain a low riding position

The Solidworks e-Drawings file lets you see this vehicle in 3D, and also choose the configuration you wish to view (lower left of display). Get the free e-Drawings viewer here, and try it out!

Click here to download:
morph out 06152009.EASM (287 KB)

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June 12, 2009

Just Like Your Teacher Told You, Geometry is Important -- A Detailed Look at the Geometry of the Next Morph

(download)

This Powerpoint presentation reviews today's online design session with Alan Ball, Rory McCarthy, and Bill Warner. The goal is to nail down the geometry of the morphing mechanism in stick figure, and then proceed with some basic frame design.
 
Now that we've got two morphing vehicles on the road, the benefits of the Morph II design are easy to see. It has excellent steering geometry in low rider and high rider modes. Mainly, we need to fix the issue that we can't adjust the seat angle, and the struts provided on Morph II turned out to be an unworkable solution due to the high forces that travel through those struts while you are sitting, and even higher forces while you are riding.
 
This presentation compares Morph II, the Bobby Hall, and a proposed new design, which essentially keeps the Morph II morphing frame, but allows it to morph through its full travel. Next will the the challenge of designing a seat that allows the proper adjustments.

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June 10, 2009

bobby hall handcycle compared to morph 2 and proposed morph out

I would like to establish the desired dimensions for the next version of the Morph hand-cycle, called "Morph Out". It seems like the dimensions embodied in Morph 2 work better than the dimensions of Morph 3, particularly in regard to ease of turning and "float". Morph 3 is superior in that the low position is lower than m2, and the frame is significantly lighter.
 
As a goal for Morph Out in the low position, it should match the geometry of the Bobby hall hand-cycle. In the high position it should be as high as Morph 2 high position.
 
What follows is a pdf comparison of these different layouts, and proposed layouts for Morph Out. Please comment.
 
Al

(download)

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May 30, 2009

A Tale of Four Handcycles - 1982 to 2008 - With Side View Comparison Drawings - And a Dog

The New England Handcycle (1980 to 1990)

A little history: I started New England Handcycles (NEH) in 1980, just after I graduated from MIT. I ran NEH as a side business (my main occupation was in high tech at companies like Computervison and Apollo Computer. I later started Avid Technology, Inc. in 1987, and Wildfir Communications in 1992) Rory McCarthy was my third customer at NEH, and he started doing wild things like 24 hour bike marathons, riding across the country, and then in 1995, he rode around the world (13,500 miles in an epic trip organized by World T.E.A.M Sports) using a Freedom Ryder handcycle (not shown here).

The photo above was taken in 2004 when Rory and I took a trip to Scotland using our NEH handcycles. They aren't fast, but they are comfortable, practical, and they turn on a dime. You can ride inside and outside. To this day, I mainly use the 1982 NEH handcycle shown here.

This post is about comparing the geometry of these vehicles. Right now, we're in process of exhaustively documenting the geometries that work on our other handcycles. These drawings are from back in 2006 during the design of Morph II, and while they are not dimensioned, they do show relative layouts.

The Travel Bike (2003)
This is the "Travel Bike." I commissioned this bike and co-designed it with Mike Augspurger of One Off Titanium.  It is shown here with the seat folded down. The bike weighs in at a wonderful 34 pounds, and yes it does have some titanium. (The large vertical for the front pedals is titanium; so are many of the telescoping parts. The rest is chrome molly steel.) The silver coupler (follow the main tube to the left of the "off" decal and you'll see it) lets the bike break in two in a few seconds. It then fits easily in a car trunk. Below its in the back of a small minivan.

I've taken the travel bike all over the world and had great results with it. The benefits of the middle coupler cannot be overstated. That, with quick release wheels and a fold-down seat make the vehicle amazingly portable.

We hope to come close to this portability with the Morph by also offering some kind of mid-bike coupling.
Here is the side view layout of the Travel bike. Not sure that the head tube is shown at the correct angle


And here is the comparison with the NEH bike. Notice how much further forward the rider sits in the Travel Bike. The result is dramatic. The Travel Bike (red) is like a mountain goat when it comes to climbing steep hills. You can go straight up, and the wheel doesn't slip. The NEH bike has the rider sitting much further back, which puts less weight on the front wheel.

The Bobby Hall Handcycle


Rory and I both own Bobby Hall handcycles, and we love them. They are fast, comfortable, and stable. The Bobby Hall bike is our "gold standard" for the Morph for low rider seat position, seat height, seat layout and  pedal placement. That's me with running my dog Jake using the Bobby Hall in the photos-ops above. But the truth is, I mainly use the NEH handcycle. The Bobby Halls are fast, but they are very hard to maneuver and hard to get into because they are so low. For example, the Hall handcycle has difficulty making a U-turn in a normal suburban street. The NEH handcycle can turn in its own 75" length. The low 13" seat height of the Bobby Hall is great for speed, but very hard to get in and out of from a wheelchair.

The Morph will address all of this. You get in and out an any height that's comfortable. You morph down for speed, and then up (and even way up) when you need maneuverability, or want to go inside, or talk to people you meet.
Here is the side view of the Bobby Hall. Note how low the seat is, and how much it tilts back. The dashed line shows the extension of the head tube, and you can see that there is about 4" of trail.
Here's Rory on the Morph II in Newburyport, MA in June, 2007, posing for a photo.

Here we see a side view comparison of the Bobby Hall with the Morph II in low rider mode. I believe this drawing shows the Morph so it matches the Bobby Hall seat tilt, which means it hasn't morphed all the way down (because the extended front struts ahead of the seat -- hidden by Rory's legs). It turns out that the extra height is a problem and make the bike a bit unstable in low-rider mode during high speed turns.

The Morph in high rider mode gets lots of attention. It's really great fun.
This shows rather dramatically how much higher Rory is in high rider mode on the Morph.
We don't have a Bobby Hall vs High Rider side view. This one is the NEH Handcycle (Blue) vs the Morph in High rider mode.

   
Click here to download:
A_Tale_of_Four_Handcycles_-_19.zip (672 KB)

     
Click here to download:
0A_Tale_of_Four_Handcycles_-_19.zip (4087 KB)

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May 30, 2009

Powerpoint Animations Exploring a Morphing Joint at the Knee in a Morphing Handcycle 2-4-08

(download)

This presentation from over a year ago looks at how we might have a morphing joint at or near the knee in a morphing handcycle. The nice thing about this is that you can bend the joint and have the foot stay in the same location in the footrest. Meanwhile, the wheelbase can be reduced, and you can move the pedals further away from the rider, making it easy to get in and out of the bike. This same joint might be used as a coupler, allowing removal of the front end so you can put the bike in the trunk of a car.
 
Given that John Baron and I had a recent discussion about the forward morphing joint on Morph II, I thought it would be good to post this exploration from over a year ago and see where it takes us.

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May 30, 2009

What a Difference a Tab Makes: Repairing our Morph II "Hubble" Without Zero Gravity 4-7-08

Get the Flash Playerto see this player.
(download)

 


Remember when they launched the Hubble Space Telescope and soon needed to correct the optics? New lenses, some as small as a nickel, did the trick, and the giant telescope began working flawlessly.

Well, soon after we started riding Morph II, we realized we had a problem also. The bike just didn't turn well in low rider mode. It just didn't want to turn. It wanted to go straight. Had a mind like a camel. It turned out that the problem was too much trail in the steering geometry.

Check out this video. You'll see how it has 8" of trail, and how we plan to get it down to two inches.

How to do it? A tab was designed by Graham Butler, who designed the original Morph II frame. Using Solidworks from his new location in New Mexico, he figured out that a 2" tab of metal between two attach points would drop the front fork by a couple inches and fix the trail problem. So, with this drawing from Graham, on April 7, 2008 I set out on Morph Mission STS-61 from Boston to Derry, NH to work with George Reynolds to carry out the modification.

 

This is the drawing Graham sent.

 

Morph II before modification.

 

 Almost 8" of trail. Very bad.

 

The tab we're adding will actually reduce trail in two ways. One is that it will change the head tube angle by dropping the front fork. We similate this by raising the rear frame and seeing what happens to the trail.

 

Raising the rear frame drops the trail by almost 2 inches. This is only the effect of the head tube angle change.

 

The two front forks join without the tab originally. We make use of this joint to add the tab.

 

Here, the tab is inserted, but not at its final angle. As George searched for suitable material, all he had in the right size was titanium. But it did seem fitting that the small corrective piece for our "Hubble" mission would a high tech material like titanium. (By the way, if you follow the Hubble link above, it turns out that in order to replace that nickle-sized optic, they replaced an entire subsystem that is the size of a telephone booth. Our mission, by contrast, was much simpler, and cheaper, and shows how much more efficient private enterprise is compared to government programs. :-)

 

Here is the finished modification.

 

And now our trail is about 2", just where we want it! And the vehicle rides like a dream, and turns beautifully.

 

Here, a photo taken one year later, on April 24 2009, shows Morph II in action, with the tab performing its work.

 

Rory McCarthy's big smile on April 24, 2009  is due to his first test ride on Morph III, which is made of aluminum and cuts a whopping 18 pounds off the weight of the vehicle, now 40 pounds. We made a bunch of changes to its geometry in the shop at the end of the process, and guess what? We have a problem with trail. This time, the trail is too low. Actually, its negative in both low rider and high rider.

STS-125 is in the planning stages now. This time, we plan to pull the front wheel back (shorten the fork), and also raise the lower fork to increase trail and match the great geometry of the modified Morph II.

With the Hubble now repaired for the last time by Shuttle Mission STS-125 we expect complete our STS-125 mission in the next few weeks. STS-125 cost about $1,000,000,000. We expect our mission to cost about $650, a savings of $999,999,350. 

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May 30, 2009

Solidworks "As-Built" Models of Morph II - You Can View These In 3D Using Free Viewer

While we have the original CAD Model of the Morph II design, many things have changed on the machine as it went from CAD to metal. Some changes were made for proper clearances, and later a change was made to drop the front fork and reduce trail. (An added tab that worked like a charm.)

As we compare our work on Morph II and Morph III, we've been finding that very small changes make for big differences in geometry, riding performance, and comfort. With that in mind, our Alan Ball, our Industrial Designer has begun creating "as-built" models by measuring the actual device and then modeling it in Solidworks, and then comparing predicted and actual dimensions and angles.

The first of these models shows Morph II in simplified form. No seat, no pedals (yet). As we proceed with "Next Morph", we'll use these as-built models to make sure we keep what's good in each of our two on-the-road prototypes as we design the next machine.

This post lets you download an e-Drawings version of the Solidworks model, and look for yourself. Perhaps later we'll also post the actual Solidworks model so you can make it morph for yourself (Here we offer 5 models in different morphing postitions)

The screen shot above shows the Morph II in low rider mode, but with the angle adjustment strut forcing the front of the seat up, so it tilts the seat back.




This three-image sequence shows the Morph II geometry exactly as the prototype is built. All three Solidworks models are available below.


Click here: http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ to download the viewer for Mac or PC. You'll need it to see the files below

Morph II As-Built Solidworks e-Drawings Files

Click here to download:
m2 assembly low.EASM (92 KB)

Morph II in Low Rider Mode
Click the file above to open in 3D using Solidworks e-Drawings free viewer. It's very cool and useful. You can turn elements on and off, and you can explode the parts and move them around.

Click here to download:
m2 assembly mid.EASM (93 KB)

Morph II in "Mid" Rider Mode

Click here to download:
m2 assembly high.EASM (93 KB)

Morph II in High Rider Mode

Click here to download:
m2 assembly high with shortened seat strut.EASM (93 KB)

Morph II in High Rider Mode with seat strut collapsed

Click here to download:
m2 assembly low with shortened seat strut.EASM (92 KB)

Morph II in Low Rider Mode with seat strut collapses







This 5-image sequence adds the collapsed struts at the beginning and the end so you can see what that does. You can see that in High Rider Mode, with the struts collapsed, the seat is tilted too far forward.

Some Cool Things You Can Do With Solidworks e-Drawings Viewer

There are some very useful tools within this viewer. Check it out:

Use the green "Next" button, and e-Drawings Viewer will animate between standard views.








Select components, make them transparent or hide them.

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May 27, 2009

Comparing the Morph II to the Bobby Hall Handcycle (Especially Seat Height and Back Angle)

This series of photos compares the Morph II in low rider with Bill Warner's Bobby Hall handcycle. In this first picture, you can see that the Morph II seat (in the back) is quite a bit higher than the Bobby Hall. This is significant in that the bike is less stable around turns. But also note that that the seat angle adjustment is not all the way down. When that is changed, the Morph II more closely (but not completely) matches the Bobby Hall handcycle. The geometry of the Bobby Hall was used as the "gold standard" for the low rider mode. But it turned out to be harder than we thought to match it exactly.

Same setup from the other side. That's me in photo position.

Here, John Baron is releasing the collar and removing the pins so the two struts will compress and will allow the Morph II to get to its lowest height. These struts and the forward hinge below the seat are part of the seat angle adjustment system that was part of Morph II. However, it turned out that these struts were under huge pressure, and riding shocks created even more force. This caused the locking pins to tear into the metal on the struts. Thus the collars had to be permanently locked. In this photo, John is releasing those locking collars.

Now we've lowered the struts in the front, and the Morph II seat is closer to that of the Bobby Hall. The Bobby Hall uses 26" wheels on front and back. The Morph II uses 700c (about 27") wheels on the rear, and 16" on the front.

Note the difference in the seat back angle. This is very significant. The Morph II in low rider mode isn't comfortable due to the very vertical seat back angle.

This closeup shows the seat angle differences. The camera used its flash, and you see the various reflective materials shining back.

This photo, from the other side (you can see me in the background) shows the dual struts in their compressed state.

Front angle of the two handcycles. Note that the Bobby Hall has 15 degrees of camber on the rear wheels. Camber isn't possible on the Morph because the axel rotates and the camber would be unusable only at one position.

Higher angle front view.

Even higher front view.

Note the difference in rear track width. The Morph looks much wider, but its not that big a difference when you measure at the ground. Note that the camber on the Bobby Hall is very hard on tires, and it seems to reduce rolling efficiency. Rory has changed his Bobby Hall to 9 degrees of camber.

Higher angle rear view.
 
At this point we have two handcycles on the road. Morph II, shown here, is made of steel and weighs 58 pounds. Morph III is made of aluminum and comes in at about 40 pounds. Morph II's geometry is better, and it positions the front wheel and pedals better. It turns beautifully in high rider mode, and in low rider mode. But the seat is uncomfortable and the seat back too steep in low rider mode. The seat angle adjustment system has problems and generally needs to be locked on one place. The result is comfort in high rider, and good performance in high rider, but mediocre comfort in low rider and the too high seating position that you see above.
 
Morph III (not shown here) by contrast has some geometry problems that we hope to fix. It has negative trail in upper and lower modes (not good). The seat angle adjustment is different, but has been problematic to use, and it too is fixed in one position. Ah, seat angle adjustment. We are 0 for 2. On the next morph, we are looking at an automatic mechanism that will correct for seat tilt as you morph.
 
But Morph III's riding position in low rider is much better. It is low to the ground, and more stable. Rory rode it 110 miles (!!) in two days at the World T.E.A.M Sports Face of America Ride with soldiers riding from Washington DC to Gettysburgh, PA this April.

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May 17, 2009

The Morphing Handcycle in Action: Rory Morphs for Lydia (Age 3)

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This is our favorite video of the Morph in action -- a classic!

Newburyport, MA  July 16, 2007

Rory and I did an early test ride of Morph II in Newburyport, MA. We parked in the public lot next to the library. As we were packing up to leave after the ride, this mother and daughter came by and were interested in the Morph. So I started shooting video and we did a little demonstration for Lydia, who’s three. We don’t know the Mom’s name. But thanks to both of you!

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May 6, 2009

Morph II vs Morph III - Side View Orthographic Photos; Rear Wheel in Same Postion

This is Rory in high rider mode on Morph II. Notice that his seat back is almost exactly in the center of the rear wheel.

Rear wheel in exactly the same position. Morph III, stopped part way down.

Morph III in low rider.

Morph II in low rider. Note how much higher it is.

         
Click here to download:
Morph_II_vs_Morph_III_-_Side_V.zip (2183 KB)

This sequence shows the comparison between both bikes in upright mode.

         
Click here to download:
0Morph_II_vs_Morph_III_-_Side_V.zip (1766 KB)

This sequence starts with Morph III and goes to Morph II. You can see how much higher the Morph II is.

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