Motorbike Simulator - Good or Bad idea?

Excellent point.
I've already thought about integrating a belt tensioning system for the lean. A harness around the lower torso which pulls the user down to the bike. And pulls harder on larger angles. Obviously the G force will never be able to be simulated accurately but if we do enough to stop falling off, it'll help. I think the harness idea might just work pretty well.

Software - the commercial sims use software to integrate to real bike frames and quite specific forces. In my opinion, simtools is a more accurate, faster and more flexible tool. We already have a moto gp plugin thanks to the plugin programming guys. So with that, I think combined with a few fabrication skills we can build a faster and more accurate simulator than anything on the market.

I need to test springs and a couple of ideas I have for the leaning but I think I can make it feel pretty good and return the bike to center pretty well.

Can I ask how you get the 2 pots for steering to amalgamate outputs? Thought about this myself for GPBikes/MXBikes but these games currently only take either desired lean angle or Direct steering (counter steering).

I'll be honest, I need to get my old circuits out and play around with them.
I'll try and put it in simple terms for my own benefit here to keep it simple to explain.

Lets ignore real world bike steering a little but still have a basic principle or 2 in place. On a real pushbike or motorbike if i lean to the right a little i turn right a little, if I lean AND turn the handle bars a little bit each, I turn sharper than just the lean, or the handlebar steering on it's own.

Take an analogue joystick, it's got a single input figure (resistance) for horizontal angle.
My plan was to create a secondary resistance figure from the angle of the steering and connect it in series to the input of the analogue stick (lean angle). So 100 ohms from the controller and 15 ohms from the handlebars for example

Tell me if this sounds mental. It makes sense in my head.

This would allow one major advantage and that's an artificially increased lean angle going from the controller (bike) to the PC meaning that you could simulate steering with a lean angle of 45 degree and something like a 10% more angle being added from the handlebars without having to topple off the simulator.

hi there, I am thinking of using an arcade motorcycle setup, like that all the hardware is safe and already done. Do you think it will work with x-simulation software? thank you

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I think it will work, depending how the bike pivot is located.

The hardware is done but it's not done with a motion sim in mind. Yes the spring and return mechanism is done but it tends to be quite a crude design made to last so there's not much control there. The brakes and throttle would be handy though. And the weighted base would probably be a good start too.

Ok, got it, it's a good base, but would need improvement to be a motion one. Thai you I will keep that in mind

Interesting idea. I'm trying to imagine sitting on your rig and after hitting the lean limit thinking about how it would feel to then turn the handle bars, I'm assuming you'll have the bars pivot as real ones do and not on a vertical axis like the bike?

Yes they'd turn like real handlebars.
As great as it would be to try and get a real life lean angle on a sim, it's not going to happen without g force which we can't simulate on a normal sim. This is part of a compromise which we have to incorporate. The big thing here is not trying to go too far as it would simply get too complicated. Keep things fun and simple and easy to build and work on.

Yea it's all a compromise, especially with these. This is where i'm at, but always interested in getting new ideas for improvements and with what I hope will be a new era with VR, which removes the monitor requirement, gives me more options for placement and usage of a larger rig/s



I'm waiting to see how this feels with VR before making changes, as requirements for reaching satisfactory immersion may change soon

That is *really* cool. What type of bearings are you using to interlock the assembly together?

great job...gud luck bro.... i think 3DOF also relevant to create it..firstly must have a strong knowledge about it..gud luck sir..

Cheers. It's just 2 bar pivots, more pics here http://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/motorcycle-controller.8231/

Here in the states, we call 'em ucfl pillow block (flange) bearings, and from the pics in the link you provided, they are some mighty durable ones. Looks awesome!!!

I there I am building one right now and I am using an original sega bike. I already got it to work perfectly on every game but no real motion, any help on the type of actuators needed? Thank you

Check out this motion bike simulator

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153543101775811&id=265283315810

This is another nice bike simulator; the guy shares the arduino code on the site linked ... this should be posted in the FAQ IMHO

This is the real deal guys
Add some vibration or even longitudinal forces to feel the acceleration and breaking and there you go...

Has anyone though of using an Oculus and just control the tracking camera with a servo so it rolls the vision when you enter a corner - don't forget you are just trying to 'trick' your senses and I think this may be more realistic as you are not then physically leaning the sim 'bike' and creating unrealistic forces on your body. You could control this with the handle bars + sensors in your seat. With the immersion of VR, this may just work . Really simple and cheap. If you wanted to spend more money you could add real motors to simulate heave etc and have a quite realistic Bike sim! Actually looking at the video above, as the game rolls the vision when you enter a corner anyway, maybe all you need is VR - will have to try it one day.