Of course the obvious solution ( /s ) is a two-wheeled self-balancing double-decker bus. What a magnificent beast it would be.
ETA: Now I am imaging a world where all vehicles are this way. RVs, semi-trucks… That would be some absurd imagery.
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Yeah I was thinking this thing could be replaced by a motorcycle and a raincoat. But it’s still pretty cool, even if it sounds wheezy and whiny.
Isn’t that Twitter?
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The closest thing we ever got to that was probably the gyro monorail.
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Don’t be silly. The obvious solution is specially bred, genetically modified passenger whales. Everybody knows that.
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Well now I want a land whale. Sorry seamonky’s , you have been replaced.
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Whales’ ancestors used to be on land. I’m assuming this is a scientific illustration of what they used to look like in the Victorian times.
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Absolutely. Highly detailed and extremely rigorous. Also, the whale’s name is Alphonse, and his passenger is, of course, Hatshepsut, well-known Victorian lady and champion of whale dressage.
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Peraves vehicles are not self-balancing, they have side wheels for low speeds
but there is always somebody out there trying to build a gyro-cycle
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I see your gyro car and raise you a gyro train:
http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/brennan/brennan.htm
BTW The Museum of Retrotechnology is one of the greatest time sinks ever created.
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Damn - beat me to it!
Came here for this link - leaving satisfied!
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The best is the pure early gadgetbahn pamflet about the tracks above the multi-storey building of the existing cities. Complete with how to use the pillars as staircases in new houses, planning the movement of the passengers in the vaporware stations &c. &c.
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Best retro landspeeder cosplay ever!
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You’re misunderstanding how these work. The gyros are gimbaled. Think of it like adding counterweights to a heavy object on a lever. They make the object easier to move even though you’ve added weight. Gimbaled gyros do this for stability. You can bank over as though you have no mass, and then it takes no effort to maintain that bank, and no effort to right yourself again.
Not saying that gyro-vehicles are a good idea, but they aren’t as bad as you’re imagining. It’s a really neat effect, but is definitely a solution looking for a problem unless your vehicle is a spaceship.
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Hmm, I’m also a bit confused then. In @smulder 's second video above, the engineer says the gyro bike is “virtually untippable” and that you would need a “baby elephant” to knock it over. Leaving aside the odd choice of units (does a baby elephant produce more or less force than an SUV hitting you from the side?), it does make it seem like it resists banking, not that it allows easier banking.
Or is it that when you bank, you’re actually mechanically rotating the gyro casing to the desired angle, such that the gyro remains on its plane while you shift position around it?
I recommend reading up on them, starting with the Wikipedia page that @Brainspore provided above. The gyro rail cars were favored specifically because they excel at banking and thus make for a more comfortable passenger ride at higher speeds.
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Thank you for taking the time to respond to me.
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