Obligatory Hoverbike

Bryan K

Thanks liam and thanks for the suggestion, but that's kind of overkill for a bike. Think "kickstand."

Originally I didn't even want landing pads. The bottom edges of the pods were to be rubber and act as the landing pads. I tried it as a suggestion and then just kept them as a "placeholder." I'm still thinking of getting rid of them entirely and going back to a variation of my original idea.

However, since I'm not real happy with them, they will be last. I'm still working on the fairing/cowling. By working I mean visualizing.

In my designs, I'm trying to move away from the "brutalist" and heavily mechanical/military look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture

While I admire and appreciate the style, I really love sleek and flowing with a hint of mechanical, but I'm not that good with SketchUp yet to realize it. (see my previous posts of the colony ship and space naval cruiser)

liam887

Oh sorry I did not mean make them thick as in my example I merely meant make the offset to the centre of gravity to the bike so it is more stable. So rather than point exactly down they face forward maybe 30-40 degrees and slightly out to the side. If you land while you have nay forward momentum (as in if your not landing exactly 90 degrees) then it might just fall over. You could get over this by having wheels rather than pads. Does that make sense?

Bryan K

@liam887 said:

Oh sorry I did not mean make them thick as in my example I merely meant make the offset to the centre of gravity to the bike so it is more stable. So rather than point exactly down they face forward maybe 30-40 degrees and slightly out to the side. If you land while you have nay forward momentum (as in if your not landing exactly 90 degrees) then it might just fall over. You could get over this by having wheels rather than pads. Does that make sense?

Oh. Ah! Yes, that does makes sense. Funny you should also mention wheels...

Thanks for the follow up explanation. A whole better design just flashed though my head.

Thank you very much.

Bryan K

Yep. Need to tweak the fairing a little bit.

Bryan K

Couldn't wait.

This is better.

Bryan K

Almost there. I might fiddle with the fairing over the weekend, but it's really close. After that, I'll redo the landing pads and then add headlights.

Mike Amos

Cooking on gas, most definitely.

Bryan K

@mike amos said:

Cooking on gas, most definitely.

Thanks! I still don't like the fairing. Will definitely have to fiddle with it over the weekend. At least the hard part is over with trying to figure out how to make the curved edges in open space. Curviloft took care of the surface fill once the edges were created.

Bryan K

Ah. That's better. The others were too round for the overall design. On to the landing pads!

Bryan K

Dang it! I still don't like the fairing shape!

hellnbak

Looking good!

Needs mag wheels, but I suppose that would be difficult on a hoverbike

Bryan K

@hellnbak said:

Looking good!

Needs mag wheels, but I suppose that would be difficult on a hoverbike

Now this is a fairing I can live with.

Bryan K

Mirrors.

kaas

@bryan k said:

Mirrors.

maybe put info like mirrors (camera at the back) and all those indicators in a hud in the helmet? Those mirrors look a bit old skool motorbike to me.

Bryan K

@kaas said:

@bryan k said:

Mirrors.

maybe put info like mirrors (camera at the back) and all those indicators in a hud in the helmet? Those mirrors look a bit old skool motorbike to me.

Thanks kass, but I like old school. I also really like designs that manage to combine futuristic with old school. However I like many different styles from pure sci fi to pure retro and this mash-up is just the one I chose for this project.

Motorcycles have always been about the embodiment of raw and minimal. I'm one of those people who think big highway cruiser full dress bikes are an abomination. (please don't anyone take this personally)

The next bike I do will either be a current modern one, a retro one (think 1960s Honda) or a totally futuristic one.

To be quite honest, I wish I were done with this one, but other much more pressing priorities have taken over and this project has become my way of relaxing and forgetting about things for a while.

Cheers.

Bryan K

Headlights

Bryan K

Reworked landing gear.

Well this is it. I'm ready to move on to something else. I'll do some studio renders. I'm also going to try a very short animation.

I'll send the model to anyone else who wants to do renders as well. Just PM me.