Motorcycles

[trash]

Picked up another new toy today if you missed the other thread.
BCG style motorcycle (Ducati) with robot rider. very cool.
will have pics in about 4-5 days. cost about $100, might consider getting another if somebody is interested.
👿

[micro_Amps]

Do they actually run on 2 wheels, or do they have 2 extra wheels underneith as well.??
:)uA

[merc-blue]

lol i have seen one of these vefore there really sweet thing of the 1/32 bikes u see with all the wizz bang crap these r the same but 1/64

[trash]

that actually run on two wheels, and they take a bit of time to learn to drive. I was playing with it last night. They do come with training wheels that you can put on in one of two settings.
Down for learning, up for intermediate or off for advanced. I gave it whirl without the training wheels on first and found that I could manage a straight line with a few wobbles, but turning definately takes some practise. Keeping one on a race track will take a bit of time. I’m sure that the young punks will manage that in about 15 minutes.
The weird thing is the front wheel is free floating, it’s not fixed and there is no steering servo, it’s just allowed to wander freely and let gyroscopic forces keep it straight. The rider weight shifts to steer. This isn’t exactly the correct way to ride a bike. It’s usually done by counter-steering.
The scale is bigger than BCG, the rider’s helmet
would be twice the height of a BCG car, and the length overall is about the same. I’ve tried searching for a picture of them on the net, but even the company that makes them hasn’t got mention of them yet. doh !

[trash]

Ok… pictures of the bikes are up.
check my members gallery.
I’ve done a lot more playing with them today.
They are much easier to learn to use if you have a large space to practise. 2 minutes and anybody
should be able to drive one of these little bikes and keep it upright. There really is not need for the training wheels provided.
I’ve tried mine on several surfaces now and concrete is best. But they are very intollerant of dirt on the track. The smallest pebbles will
give your robot rider death wobbles.
Large fast turns are easy, but slow narrow turns take a little bit of time to master.
Overall you can expect the performance of these bikes to match that of stock standard mini-Z.
Their charge time is good, you’ll tire of doing laps before the batteries do.
I give them an 8-1/2 out of 10, and hope that more powerful motors are availble for them soon.

[Racer9]

Try them in a large gym!

[Racer9]

BTW where did you get them?

[jamiekulhanek]

OKAY i love these to bits already but…….

For 100 bucks, i’d want something good.

-Do they have proportional throttle??

-Have you opened them up? If so what is the running gear?

-Do they turn at low speed without tipping over?

-What style is the Tx?

-Is it worth it?

-do they lean right over when turning??

-Is the tyre traction any good??

Thanks man.

[trash]

Yes, It was suggested today that I try run them on something like an indoor basketball court.
I’m keen to try it, just have to find a somewhere near to do it.
To answer your questions…

Yes, the throttle is proportional. You have a smaller turning circle at lower speeds.

No, I haven’t opened them up. I have been having too much find driving them and trying to race them with friends. I’d love to see a more powerful motor in them.

Yes, they turn at low speed, and it is even possible to stop them without falling completely over. It came to rest on a footpeg. Of course I haven’t been able to do it again.

The Txer is a gun grip wheel style, but the wheel is on the back rather than the side.

The tyre traction is good, they have rubber tyres with tread on them just like real bikes. If the motor had more torque in the low end, they’d pop some cool little minga’s.

Yes, I reckon they’re worth it. So do my friends who of course all want one now. I’m a cheap skate,
the thought of paying $40 for a BCG horrifies me.
(reckon they’re worth about $8).
Personally I reckon they’re worth about $60 and if shops sold them at that price every kid would have one for xmas this year. The ones I got cost me $80 and I bought them from company’s factory shop. You can buy them on the web for about that price, the postage will bring you up to about $100. They’re made in Malaysia, not China, so the quality is pretty good.

[trash]

Update …
I was just fooling around with a micro car I picked up today at Big W. A holden ute with a pistol grip 27mhz txer. I turned it on and was going to test drive it on the floor. Throttle on
and the ducati 749 kicked off on the other side of the room. The controler circuit is the same.

[micro_Amps]

They sound (and look) like they would be fun.
Love to get one modded, torquier motor, mosfet powered, multi cell (3.7v Li-Poly cell?)
Hehehe 👿 love the bikes

:)uA

[micro_Amps]

Looks like Nikko make a Honda as well

I did a bit of searching, there is 4 of them, Honda CBR-XX, Repsol Honda, and the 2 Dukes

Cool. I do like the Duke 999 though, I think I might have to get me one of these.
:DuA

Edited by – micro_Amps on 01 October 2003 23:52:50

[Racer9]

Cool!

[jamiekulhanek]

I want that honda!!

[trash]

very cool !!! I haven’t seen the honda’s yet and I got mine from Nikko in Malaysia at the factory outlet shop. They have lots of other stuff, but prices in Malaysia on average are double what they cost here. The iRiders were the only thing that was good value.
What frequency do the honda’s work on ?
It’s their only real downfall. You can’t run two
of the same colour bikes together.

[micro_Amps]

The pics came from Nikkos website, and I *think* they are only in 27 and 40MHz, not 100% sure tho.

Gonna get me one of these and mod it so it rocks, now where did I put the extra big bag of mosfets 😯
:D:D:DuA

Edited by – micro_Amps on 02 October 2003 18:33:09

[micro_Amps]

This baby is on the way to microAmps’ house
Come to papa baby, :evil::smiley2::D

:)uA
P.S. There is one on Ebay too (in Germany), search for “Nikko I-rider”, it would cost about the same as Trash’s price by the time you get it here. Euro prices are usually a bit high, so I would expect the price of these to come down in a while. Although they are a new idea, so it might be a longish while
:)uA

[trash]

that is soooo funny, I’m holding your bike in the box in my hands right now and it is 110% identical to that picture. 😀

[Racer9]

Me want bikes!

[micro_Amps]

Well, Trash, dont just stand there looking at it, put it in the post. :smiley2:
Cant wait to get ridin’.:approve:
:)uA

[trash]

hehe, can’t do that at 9pm at night.
Just put it in the post 5 minutes ago…
it’s on da way.

[micro_Amps]

Thanks man,
I’m gonna go outside now and wait for the posty.
:DuA

[trash]

I had a friend over tonight and we were running them around the garage trying to race them.
They seem really hard to run on a track.. you just can’t get them to do what you want. But change it to just a flat open surface and all of a sudden, you can drive them with such precission
you can knock another bike over, (It is really difficult to make two bikes collide.) and I can now manage to do a 180 deg turn in less than 30cm. And still I can’t seem to keep it on a simple M shaped track.
The best way to run one is to stand in the center of a circular track and run the bike around you like a control line plane and you can watch the bike in close detail.
I also realised tonight that the footpegs actually have little wheels on them.
I thought they were only washers for the riders feet but the bike can land on the footpegs if it is moving slow enough. At first it was really hard to get the bike to stop upright, I can now do it with some sort of regularity. Starting off from this position I can get it runnning by giving it throttle and shaking the rider. If you don’t shake the rider, the wheel doesn’t have enough pressure on the ground to get traction.
(You’re going to love the authentic looking wheel tread.)
I also had problems with carpet fluff in the front wheel bearing today… it gives the bike a bad case of death wobbles. Low battery also causes wobbles, but I find I can get a good 20min
run time when the bike is fully charged.

I’m itching to see what discovers you make.

[Racer9]

Cool I want!

[Racer9]

What does that little picture down in the right show?

BTW Here is a cheap site for these things where I may buy from!

http://myahead.com/go/look/product.show_product?v_id=4338

:p

[micro_Amps]

I think it shows the three different settings for learner, intermediate and expert, and the settings for the ‘trainer’ wheels.

30 pounds will still be pricey once you convert and pay for postage. Let us know what it comes to.
:)uA

[trash]

Did yours arrive today uA ??
I’m thinking of going up the road and hiring a squash court to run them in. Despite sweeping my garage floor, there always seems to be some dirt or something rough on the floor that trips them up. Latest crazy amoung my friends is demolition bike rally, last bike running is winner.

[micro_Amps]

ARE THESE THINGS EXCELLENT OR WHAT!!!!:D:D:D
These things are bloody tops. Really good quality little bike, ‘robot’ rider leans over bike is stable in corners, love it, love it, love it.
Been practicing figure 8s in the dining room, but I need a basket ball court.
Going to an indoor court complex this Saturday night and I’m going to bring it along and give it a run for its money.
Thanks Trash, you are a legend.
I’m not going to get into it (mod it) just yet, I want to master it so I can tell if the mods are in improvement or not. It has 2 speeds, 5.5km/h and 7 km/h, so its no slouch even as standard. It looks to have 2 cells in it, in parrallel. It runs for ages with a double charge, 10 – 15 minutes. Printing on the side says 1.2v, so I think a little re-routing of circuitry will see this little baby running 2.4v for the first mod, then fets. It has good rubber tyres with tread, they stick well to the floor.
Great stuff, if you are into bikes at all and love r/c, get yourself one of these, you wont be dissapointed.:approve:
:):DuA

[trash]

Excellent !!!
I’m actually keen to get my hands on more of them myself, especially different models with different frequencies.
Despite having 2 I’m still not keen to open them up either, they’re just way too much fun.
How’d you measure the speeds ? I got the feeling from driving them, that there was about 4 speeds, but this might just be my imagination. Most of the time I’m backed off from high speed else I end up in the wall. (I need more space)
But I also seem to be able to rider slower,
but more prone to death wobbles, and really slow
I can do U turns in about 30cm, and sometimes stop on the footpegs. Taking off from the footpegs is funny, shake the rider and the rear wheel grabs and away you go.
I’d REALLY like to get some video footage of it from a vehicle traveling alongside, or running it on something like a treadmill if that was possible. Would be really cool.

2.4V … Mmmmmm… the thought of more speed is sooo tempting. Little minga’s would be awesome.
Evil Kenivel style jumps etc.

[micro_Amps]

Trash I have a Tamiya speed checker and another speed checker that I made. I just wack it on that and read the speeds. Only 2 speeds Im afraid, but good control (with a little practice).
The ‘death wobbles’ are funny, mine ‘high sided’ the rider and flipped the whole bike end over end.
(Memories of this actually happening to me 1:1 size)
The handling is tops, very much like the real thing.
Maybe a little more speed needed, but that comes later.
:)uA

[trash]

Yes, I’ve done the same thing, high sided and gone bum over boobs. 🙂 I’m slowly learning how to recover from the death wobbles. The obvious one is a handfull of arseholes. But you can also
get the rider to knock the resonance out of the wobble if you’re quick or lucky.
1:1 scale, I haven’t been unlucky or silly enough to have that happen, except for a time a car turned across three lanes and I did a lovely inverted startfish through the air, bounced a few times and came to rest with my helmet almost against the front wheel of an ambulance.
First response to the ambo was.. “Wow, you got here quick !”
Lucky the little robot is wearing a helmet else he could really get hurt !

[micro_Amps]

Especially with his head being that big.
Makes it easy to pick him up tho.

:)uA

[leonli17]

So how much did u pay total for the bike uA?
And did u get it off a website?

[Racer9]

Do they wheelie if you floor it? 35 pounds including VAT is actually about 45-50 USD But shipping is sure to get it to 55-60 USD.

BTW what the heck is VAT?

[TallduDe]

VAT is value added tax

like GST goods and services tax in Oz

or sales tax in america

Do all the bikes go the same speed or does one go faster then the other?

[jamiekulhanek]

Fucken Hell i hafta get one now they look awesome, the Duke 999 is mine.

[micro_Amps]

LeonLi17, I got mine from Trash, payed the $100 because that seems to be the going price anywhere at the moment. Although, like everything, I am sure the price will come down as they become more popular. Rememer the first BCG Beetle on ebay sold for US$50, now they sell for 15.
It was well worth it IMO though. It has gone straight to the top of the list as my fave for now.
They dont wheelie when you floor it (maybe after a few mods tho) they take some skill to keep in control of it as it leans through the corners.
As I get better at controlling it I will consider some mods to make this thing rock.
BTW, today is the official release day of the little bikes.
:D:DuA

[trash]

Heheheh.. I got mine to do a small wheelie today… I ran it off a small ledge between the concrete slabs. Not much to talk about.. just for a fraction of a second before it hit the ground, death wobbled, then stabalised.
I still have a 749 that a friend hasn’t picked up yet. I’ve told him he has until friday night else somebody else may want it.
All the bikes go the same speed.

VAT … value added tax, but I still fail to see what value was added to something by taxing it ?
Sort of like taking drugs to make you smarter.
Drugs enhance many things, but intellect isn’t one of them.

[Racer9]

Yeah really!

How much is it?

I have experience with R/C motorcycles because I own a TYCO R/C Motocross racer. http://www.tycorc.com

One way that may help stabilize them is put a ring of thick coreless solder around the outside of the inside of the rim. A few loops might work well.

How fast do they re-stabilize after taking a corner and do you have to straighten them up or do they do it automatically.

BTW the site I found is selling them $59 USD but shipping takes it to like 65-75 USD.

[trash]

Nar, you have to high side them to get out of the corner. The wheels are really really small, just slightly bigger than a 5 cent piece, so sticking anything on the inside of them would be a challenge. If you’re at half speed, they take a second or two to stabalise and sometimes they don’t make it. Giving them a handfull of herbs they take about a second to stabalise, but it you don’t have a lot of space, you’ll be on the wall very quickly.

They’re made in Malaysia, so that will be the cheapest place to buy them followed by singapore.
You might like to search for hobby shops there.
I’ve got the address and phone number of a shop there that will ship them, give me a couple of days to look through my stuff and find the business card. If there are enough people interested, I’ll see if I can get a wholesale price for them. They cost $80-85 retail in Malaysia, and their hobby shops are twice as expensive as australia for most items.

[Racer9]

oh the lead solder idea would be like a gyro which would stabilize them up right away!

[micro_Amps]

They are designed for larger spaces, my kitchen which is great for BCGs just isnt big enough for the Ducati. Still it seems to right itself ok after turns. The wheels have metal rings in them (under the tyres) that act like a gyro, to stand the bike upright after a corner.
The wheels are tiny, but thats part of the appeal.
Take my advice, get one, you’ll love it.
:DuA

[trash]

hahah, I just had a look under the tyres.
I suffer from domestic blindness … It would have taken me another 6 months to discover that.
I was running one around the foyer at work today.
Every guy that passed by had to stop and check it out. Those that didn’t I now suspect are gay.
I have a very large flat space where I’m working tomorrow. They’re going to get a good workout.
😀

[Racer9]

Cool increasing weight of that will help with the death wobbles. I kinda figured there was some otherwise it wouldn’t be as stable as it sounds.

Building a track with cameras and stuff projecting the race up onto a big screen TV would be awesome!

Hows the range?

[micro_Amps]

Hehehe, Trash, you crack me up. lol.

:)uA

[trash]

At my work at oxford falls, we have a room with some serious floorspace. (about 2 tennis courts size) I filled a cardboard box up with mini-z’s, digiQ combat tanks and the nikko iriders and took them to work today. The guys I work are ashamed that their kids have less toys than I do.
5 minutes with the iriders, and they’re fighting over who’s turn it is next.
I put a few miniZ’s down on the floor and handed out the controlers. Instant traffic jam, legs, cars, bikes going everywhere.

[jamiekulhanek]

Quote:

Those that didn’t I now suspect are gay.
😀

Hahahahaha!!! Maybe if you paint it bright pink they might take notice.

A bloke aint a bloke unless he takes an interest.

[micro_Amps]

Trash sounds like you have an excellent ‘toy friendly’ workplace.
I used to have a similar situation, but I asked for a change about a year ago because I was getting bored. This was just before I got into micro r/c, (damn bad timing on my part) now Im so busy some days I dont even have time t scratch myself.
Oh well.
:)uA

[trash]

do what I do…
I told my boss that I was thinking of knocking him off, but I figured stress would kill him before I could get the chance.
He know figures if I become familiar with stress, I may learn how to use it as a weapon and turn it against him.

I wonder if the post office is hiring people ?

👿

[trash]

BTW, my friend I was holding a yellow (27Mhz) motorcycle looks like a no show, so if somebody would like to aquire it, I’ll be around only tomorrow (saterday) and won’t be back until next weekend. It’s new in the box, never been opened with the seal still in tact. I’m not too far from parramatta.

[micro_Amps]

There you go Jamie / Racer9, do yourself a favour, go for it.
:)uA

[Racer9]

How much is it including tax and shipping?

[jamiekulhanek]

Hmmm I am thinking about it, but im getting a Nokia N-GAGE, and some games.

So many desires, so little cash.

[jamiekulhanek]

Micro do you really think they are worth 100 bucks??

[micro_Amps]

Probably not, but because they are new, I dont think you will get them much cheaper at the moment. My guess is in 6 months they will be half the price.
But they are still heaps of fun. Very different to lean into corners, and it is such a tiny cycle.
Toys rule!
:)uA

[jamiekulhanek]

Well im gonna get my nokia N Gage and im gonna buy tomb raider and maybe moto GP for the phone. (helps to make up for not having a nikko i-bike)

[micro_Amps]

Sounds good, must check out the N-gage.
Then I’ll never get any work done.
:)uA

[jamiekulhanek]

Yeah the shape looks weird, and i thought “brick” when i saw it but its slim and feels much like a wallet in the pocket.

The games are exeptionally good, i played one the other day, awesome graphics!!

It also has an mp3 player, and an FM radio, and plays the MP3’s without the need of headphones.

[micro_Amps]

Cool :DuA

[jamiekulhanek]

Back to the bikes, what are some major downers??

[micro_Amps]

Hehe, price I suppose.
I havent pulled it apart yet to see if I can mod it, still having too much fun just driving it around.
:)uA

[Racer9]

What is the range like?

[micro_Amps]

I havent noticed it go out of range yet. I am probably running it at a 5 meter radius from me, so more than that at least.
:)uA

[trash]

I’ve run mine up to 15 metres away and it still ran fine, with an occasional death wobble, not sure if it was radio though.

[Racer9]

Radio glitch will cause it to shut down motor meaning death wobbles. What happens when you hit reverse.How much do you want for the bike?

[micro_Amps]

It doesnt have reverse R9, just 2 forward speeds.
Reverse would crash every time.
:)uA

[trash]

You’ll have to wait for the honda goldwing version if you want reverse. 😀

[Racer9]

lol! I figured it didn’t have reverse but it could have brakes. Tyco’s motorcycle has brakes that are good enough that it can stop it from full speed in less than 5 feet!

[trash]

now that you’ve found stop, let me know when you find the “feet down” control.
I’ve done this is real life.. stopped and couldn’t put my foot down. (cambre of the road into the gutter was sharp.) I stopped to answer my phone and fell over into the gutter. I ended up answering the call, laughing myself silly with my helmet still on lying in the gutter with the bike still between my legs. To make matters more interesting it happened right in front of a methadone clinic and three junkies came out and started trying to help.

[trash]

now that you’ve found stop, let me know when you find the “feet down” control.
I’ve done this is real life.. stopped and couldn’t put my foot down. (cambre of the road into the gutter was sharp.) I stopped to answer my phone and fell over into the gutter. I ended up answering the call, laughing myself silly with my helmet still on lying in the gutter with the bike still between my legs. To make matters more interesting it happened right in front of a methadone clinic and three junkies came out and started trying to help.

[Racer9]

lol! I was asking if it had brakes?

[Racer9]

lol! I was asking if it had brakes?

[micro_Amps]

No it doesnt R9, it runs on after you let the throttle go, but its fairly highly geared, and light, so it slows down for cornering, or stops, fairly quickly.
:)uA

[micro_Amps]

No it doesnt R9, it runs on after you let the throttle go, but its fairly highly geared, and light, so it slows down for cornering, or stops, fairly quickly.
:)uA

[Racer9]

I might get one for Christmas so how big of a racing area do you reccomend?

[micro_Amps]

You probably need an area of a few square meters to run the thing around on.
:)uA

[trash]

I can run mine is 2 car parking spaces easy, the shopping centre floor is best for them after hours.

[Racer9]

Thanks and have any of you been able to race on a track yet?

[Racer9]

Have you been able to race on a track yet?:question:

[trash]

no… though I haven’t played much with them lately. I haven’t done much of any RC work lately.
Busy with work and a few other things and weekends I’ve been flying while the weather is good. Not much rain this month.

Last time I ran them on a track as such, it was using some garden house as the barrier and the track was a W shape. I got a few laps in before hitting the barrier.

[Racer9]

Cool. Did anyone else see the video on http://www.nikko-rc.com? You have to click ont the motorcycle than click the See it on TV button and the video is pretty cool. The people are acting retarded but other wise it is very cool. They have some wheelie footage and some side by side racing action.

[Author]

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