Note: I don't have, use, or pilot an rc bike. I don't have any experience with rc bikes. Bear with me and my ignorance

Using an rc helicopter gyro for stabilization on something other than a helicopter is a somewhat popular practice with two wheel drive rc cars. A gyro between the receiver and steering servo auto corrects the steering and helps keep the car moving in the direction you want it to. So I thought "could a gyro be used to keep a bike stable"? If a non gyro corrected servo and a gyro connected servo connected to the front wheel through a mechanical mixer, I think it might be possible to make a bike balance itself. Of course, I don't pilot bikes, so I realize that learning to balance might be most of the fun, but to me it would be a lot of fun if I could just steer it. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to hook up the system so it would still turn. Input please.

You can't say you are ignorant if as you say, you have NO experience with bikes. And you are showing no signs of being ignorant, because you have asked about something of which you profess to know nothing about to further your knowledge.
The gyro idea is a good one! However, you've been beaten to the idea as they are used in off road bikes to keep stability over jerky, rough terrain. A video shows this effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLlZsiYEps. The gyro is fitted in the rear wheel where it gathers energy from it's forward rotation then stores that energy when you slow down as demonstrated in the video.
Road bikes are a different matter. They do not have a gyro. They maintain their balance through the laws of cycle dynamics. ( as to a lesser extent the off road bikes do.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_dynamicsIf you wish to avoid horrible mathematic equations like me, then another video might help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM27f...eature=channel
Best thing to do of course is simply to buy one and have a real giggle learning to brake, turn in, then balance the throttle on the way out of corners and the satisfaction of getting it right
Hope this has helped!

I meant ignorant as in I hardly know the first thing about bikes, though I suspected learning to actually pilot the bike was most of the fun! I forgot to mention that gyros are also used by beginning drifters by starting out with a lot of gain (correction from the gyro) and slowly reducing it until they're making the corrections themselves, so you could install a gyro in a bike and tone it down as you gained experience. I think using a gyro would help a lot with slow speed riding, kinda like when you're riding your bike really slowly and jerking the front wheel around to stay up straight. I think you could also you a heli gyro in an off road bike to enable much quicker acceleration, since it would negate the need for an actual gyroscope in the rear wheel. I read that wiki article a few years ago, and did some other research on bike dynamics. Right now, I'm not sure if it would work best to put the gyro on the vertical or longitudinal (front and back) axis. Anyway, thanks for yer input! It did help.

Just to confuse/help matters, if you check the Nuremberg toy fair thread and click on the link. there is a picture of the new Anderson road bike. This is as far as i am aware, the only road bike of any scale with a gyro. Verdict is out on it's usefulness until there has been a few in the public's sweaty palms The 1/5 and 1/8 on road bikes really can crawl at slow speed with no real wobble issues.
Your idea about the off road is more interesting though. I can only suggest you have two bikes, one with the vertical gyro and the other horizontal. You can then test back to back for comparison. To add another point, some have taken to lightening gyros to get better acceleration but at the expense of off road stability.
Don't get too deep into an idea with the bikes until you have one and are proficient ( something your heli flying will help with) Start at a base you know and go from there. Then you can feel sure when you take a positive/negative step in your developments on a bike.
And if you can get the heli gyro to be a success, there's quite a few with $$$ ready to put your way. Just find out from the bike guys like Chris Nicastro from Venom why they don't already do it, There are a number of 'flyers' in the bike game who probably already know the answer.
Hope all goes well.

I think we're talking about two different types of gyros. A heli gyro isn't an actual spinning gyroscope, its a sensor between the servo and reciever that sends a modified signal to the servo to correct unwanted movement. I hope that can clear some things up.

It has been tried before. If you do a search over on the other motorcycle forum (been reprimanded here before for naming it) you'll find that the subject has come up several times and has been tested by a few people. I believe both standard rate gyros and head holding gyros have been tried. I played with one for a while before moving on to another idea...

They can be effective when running straight, but end up causing problems for turning...

Dave

That's what I was thinking would give you trouble. If you could somehow get an HH gyro to hold a positon (stick steering wheel position meant tilt angle), I think it would work great. Right now I'm thinking a gyro on the vertical axis, It would only care about turn rate, and might initiate a really quick turn in. Still trying to figure things out.

Bikes don't need a gyro to balance them,once they're moving they balance themselves,they will only turn if they are unbalanced in the direction you want them to turn in,which is in the opposite direction to the way the front wheel is pointing.

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A correctly assembled and setup bike only needs to accelerate to go in a straight line and be stable. Granted you have it pointed where you want when you start to accelerate.

I think the HH gyro would be good if you could teach it ( program it) to only control the steering servo only at the most extreme lean angles. To control the steering input when the bars start to touch down. As this is the most challenging aspect of RC-Bikes. Getting full lean from the bike without dragging the crash bar. This is especially true if you are running on a track with a big fast sweeper and some high speed direction changes and then several slow tight turns. Because you have to set your steering to respond quickly at high speed. This tends to make the bike (twitchy) or respond very quickly at low speed. It is a very fine line between steering input and throttle input to keep the bars off the ground and the bike at full lean thru every turn on a track. This is where a gyro might be helpful. But if it were helpful then that would probably be illegal in racing.

This is true for on road bikes. They are designed with enough trail that they do a very good job of balancing themselves once moving. An electronic gyro might make it easier for beginners to learn, but if the bike is set up correctly it's not necessary.

Off road bikes, however, are completely different and would benefit from some sort of balance assistance. Setup with loose steering like an on road bike, each tiny bump in the path of the bike will deflect the front end to one side or the other. Same as running an on road bike on a messy parking lot, but worse...

The current solution of a spinning flywheel in the rear wheel works well for keeping the bike upright over very rough terrain. However, it also causes steering problems as steering input has to fight the gyro to turn... It also adds weight, and limits the amount of attitude control in the air because the gyro effect can't be stopped by braking...


I still think there are better ways to do this... (working on two right now)


sheik480, good luck on your project. It sounds simple at first, but you'll likely find that isn't the case. Not sure how many hours I have in it already...

Dave