Michelin has come up with a device that will help in reversing motorcycles and has gone on to patent its design as well.
The French firm seems to have concentrated on one thing that haunts owners of heavy bikes to this day, which is moving them about at slow speeds, especially when reversing.
For every bike that belies its weight and makes it easy to move it backwards and out of a parking space, there are several examples that are hell-bent to make life difficult and give one a workout every time they are moved.
Manufacturers have come up with solutions for this, like BMW offering a reverse gear on its R18 for instance. But those are bespoke solutions and not something that can be universally retrofitted.
Which is why the Michelin reversing device is interesting. It essentially is a small gadget that features rollers inside a casing that mounts to a bike’s rear-end.
Powered by a Lithium-ion battery, the motors in the device, reportedly 3.6 V units, produce between 2 and 4 Nm, which is said to be enough to allow the device to move even the heaviest of motorcycles at a slow speed.
While the Michelin reversing device looks exactly like a number plate holder, it looks like owners have to extend the arm so as to detach it from the rear wheel when it is not in use.
But the most logical solution would be to allow the rollers to free-wheel when the motorcycle is moving forward and only help in reversing it, rather than making riders grab a spanner every time they want to move their bike backwards.
Source – Visordown.com