Filed under: Concept Cars, Tokyo Motor Show, Suzuki, Motorcycles
Tokyo 2007 Preview: Suzuki Crosscage
click image to enlarge
Since we've already gone ahead and shown you the Biplane, one of Suzuki's two new concept bikes set to make their debut at the Tokyo Motor Show, we figured it would only be right to show you the other one. The Suzuki Crosscage has already been featured on AutoblogGreen for its use of a fuel cell from Intelligent Energy and its battery electric propulsion system, so we'll instead focus on the actual design of the bike here. From the looks of it, the hydrogen tank is carried right at the center of the bike, which should be a boon for safety considering that the hydrogen would be stored at very high pressures. One of the most striking features of this bike has got to be the front fork. Single-sided swingarms are rather common these days on high-performance bikes, but single-sided forks have not yet hit the masses. To stiffen things up where the fork tubes meet, Suzuki appears to have added a strengthening linkage of some sort. While bicyclists may think of the Cannondale Lefty fork when gazing at this design, this fork is likely (and hopefully!) much more robust. While we're not expecting to see the Biplane make it to production status, the Crosscage as pictured here seems even less likely. Perhaps certain design elements will see the light of day on future production models, but as cool as this concept may be, hydrogen fueling stations around every corner are still a very long way off. Kudos to Suzuki though for being willing to look outside the box when designing these two concept machines.
[Source: Suzuki]
PRESS RELEASE (Translated):
Exhibition summary of 40th Tokyo motor show 2007
Suzuki Crosscage
It is the fuel cell car which can do optimum power control by combining the air cooled fuel cell system and the advanced accumulator of simple small size light weight. Starting which fuel economy efficiency is fast low, the intelligent energy corporation of feature (England) make adopted the thing to fuel cell unit, in addition it was safe in the accumulator and the lithium ion electric battery whose environmental load is low was adopted. Not only not applying load, being simple in terrestrial environment, from the fact that it is small size lightweight, it has contributed to also the actualization of the sporty style which the sea bass seems.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex 3:00PM (10/01/2007)
Single-sided fork? That's pretty cool, imo.
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SPG 3:40PM (10/01/2007)
Outside of the movie "Black Rain" I just am not a bike fan at all.
I can appreciate that this is a cool bike though.
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Menice 3:44PM (10/01/2007)
this may be a stupid question, but it seems like it would be a lot more weight to the left side...
is it possible for a bike to be real lop-sided like that?
great looking bike though
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Chaz 3:55PM (10/01/2007)
Sure the Lefty had a bunch of recalls, but none other than Cedric Gracia was using one for DS and 4X, and it does have super-low stiction and flex, especially compared to a SID or something. Would stay away from ELO though...
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Josh 4:32PM (10/01/2007)
Autoblog,
I enjoy the motorcycle entries. Keep them coming.
Thank you.
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Carlos 5:04PM (10/01/2007)
I wish that the companies would build these motorcycles instead of teasing with this amazing concepts. This one is simple but yet it would stand out in a crowd of bikes.
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mk 6:40PM (10/01/2007)
This looks to be a steerable strut front end. Think of the nose-wheel on an aircraft landing gear, and this is very similar, with a larger diameter wheel.
The normal fork stanchions are replaced entirely by a cast upright, on the left side. The upright is very close to the centerline to minimize imbalance. The gyroscopic forces of the wheels are more than enough to overcome a slight weight bias, and other parts of the bike might be shifted slightly right, to compensate, as well.
The suspension action is all above the wheel, in the headstock, with the shock and spring inside it. The accordion linkage is probably for an external steering sleeve, to link between the handlebar assembly and the solid upright, allowing that to turn around the outside of the damping and spring assembly, which is rigidly mounted to the frame headstock. The steering link has to flex to allow for the compression of the damping elements.
The Hossack design, which BMW calls Duolever, is actually simpler, lighter, and gives more consistent handling than this, from a technical standpoint. It does that by acting more like a car's double-wishbone suspension, and isolating all of the compression and damping forces completely from the headstock. That keeps the suspension geometry under more precise control under all circumstances, including braking, where telescoping units, even steerable-strut type, tend to get stiff under high loading, and lose precise compression and rebound control.
Hossack suspensions are non-telescoping solid uprights as well, but mounted on triangular conrol arms with an inboard common motorcycle-size coil-over shock mounted to the chassis. The upright could easily be single-sided like this, and some proof-of-concept prototypes were.
This steerable strut configuration has some of the packaging benefits of the hossack design, but not much of the handling benefits of it, and in that way, is more like a traditional fork. Not to mention the high-precision fabrication and limited options of engineering the damping unit into the center of the steering assembly.
The bike looks nice, but I wonder about batteries and high electric current and it's proximity to pavement. Motorcycles do tend to meet pavement the incorrect way from time to time. What are the risks for shock, or combustion, or even a hydrogen storage unit pressure explosion?
Most hydrogen has to be kept under pressure, and combusts very easily if released into an oxygen atmosphere.
Electrical systems used to drive vehicles require high-current in either AC or DC format. That current has to be carried around by wires, and usually grounded to something on the bike. What sort of electrical short-circuit risks are there?
Also, batteries that are small and light enough to be put on a motorcycle are probably going to be lithium based. Lithium-Ion, or even Lithium Polymer. If the battery gets ruptured, Lithum burns almost as easily as hydrogen, as they are in the same periodic column, and are both very sympathetic to oxygen. Lithium batteries can burn VERY hot and very fast. Tearing one of those open in a motorcycle accident could cause much more damage than even a fuel spill.
Nice bike, but a lot of questions to have answered before I'd buy one.
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Doogie Fullhouser 12:17PM (10/02/2007)
That's an interesting frame setup, I bet an electric bike would be really interesting to ride.
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