The 1972 Bi-Car Saturn Model claims to be the product of eight years of development. Regardless of the odd choice of name, the concept of a two wheeled car with retractable training wheels was anything bu new, having been “invented” numerous times.
Here’s a few of the more memorable ones:
I’m not sure it was the first, but probably the most ambitious and memorable one was the 11908 Scripps-Booth Autogo. Among its other unique features, it had the first V8 built in Detroit, and those handsome curved copper cooling pipes that looked a bit like exhaust pipes from a tiny V36 or so. Just one was built, and it’s in the Detroit Historical Society.
The Morgan Monotrace was not an effort by the British firm to remove one more wheel from their venerable three-wheeler. This was built by the French company Monotrace, between 1924 and 1930. Or perhaps Morgan was taking a look at it and considering it, because all the rest of these are just called Monotrace.
Here’s one at speed in a sporting event.
And it was hardly original, being heavily based on the 1923 German Einspurauto.
The reality is that there were dozens of two-wheeled cars built, either as one-offs or in small numbers. This is the Douglas. Great Britain seems to have hosted an outsized share of them. Maybe it’s something to do with their narrow lanes. Maybe not.
Note that so far whe have just touched on conventional two-wheeled “cars”. There’s an important subcategory, the Gyrocar, which employs one or more gyroscopes to assist in its stability They still had lowering side wheels for stopping and parking, but were quickly raised once it was under way and the gyros were spinning.
The granddaddy of the genre is The Shilovski Gyrocar, was commissioned in 1912 by the Russian Count Pyotr Shilovsky, a lawyer and member of the Russian royal family. It was manufactured to his design by the Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company in England in 1914 and demonstrated in London the same year.[ The gyrocar was powered by a modified Wolseley C5 engine of 16–20 hp, with a bore of 90 mm and a stroke of 121 mm. It was mounted ahead of the radiator, driving the rear wheel through a conventional clutch and gear box. A transmission brake was fitted after the gearbox – there were no brakes on the wheels themselves. The weight of the vehicle was 2.75 tons and it had a very large turning radius.
The same basic approach was used for Ford’s Gyron concept, and there has been a stream of others ever since. It’s an enduring idea, apparently.
I don’t know anything more about the Bi-Car except what’s in these ads. The name is of course a bit unfortunate, and it’s not like “bi” was not a common term at the time. “Traditionalists may flinch”.
Does anyone else see a resemblance between gentleman driving the Bi-Car and Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor? More power!! 😉
The Douglas: Well we’ve got this old canoe lying around that no one uses anymore . . .
Am I the only one who thought of Ace and Gary when they read the name of this vehicle?
As someone who currently owns a 2011 Harley-Davdson Electra Glide Ultra Classic, and has previously owned a last generation Honda Gold Wing and a first generation Yamaha Venture Royale before that, the entire concept of a two wheeled “automobile” puts my jaw on the floor. Why? An “automobile” by it’s very mission statement exists to provide a safe, stable transportation platform with a modicum of weather protection for the occupants.
A motorcycle (which, as far as I’m concerned is what all two-wheeled powered vehicles are) gives up the weather protection and a certain amount of stability in the interest of sportiness, light weight (usually, or at least relatively), and the general experience of piloting the vehicle.
Since the motorcycle industry has long built two wheeled luxury barges with weights up to the 900 pound class, meaning it’s virtually impossible to pick up by one individual should it fall over (the Gold Wing being the only exception, thanks to incredibly intelligent Honda design), and riding on wet roads in a driving rainstorm is possible, and relatively safe . . . . after you’ve taken the time to learn the skills necessary, an evolutionary maximum of size and weight has been reached. (Tell me about it, having just returned from a six day trip on the Glide that had me in rain gear for five of them.)
The entire concept of a two-wheeled car is mind boggling: Take the inherent instability of the motorcycle, subtract the handling prowess they usually offer, add in even more weight, complicate with additional bodywork that’ll happily show even more damage is the vehicle falls over (no, I don’t trust the outrigger wheels worth a damn), and top it off with a steering wheel which is nowhere near as sensitive as are handlebars. You’ve gone past that practical top end in size and weight for no perceptible purpose,
This is an answer to the question that no sane person would be asking.
As to the probably inevitable question of, “Why are you riding big hulking motorcycles like that, given their negatives?”, it’s because I still enjoy long-distance motorcycle touring more than doing the same trip in an automobile. And, at my age (71), my previous standard, 900cc Triumph sport tourers with a triple hard bag setup, just isn’t comfortable enough for a 15-16 hour, 800-900 mile riding day. I’m not thrilled with full dressers, but if it’s what it takes to keep me on the road, so be it.
It’s really saying something when even the wackiest entrepenuer won’t touch this concept. It’s fraught with unsafe aspects, one of the biggest being support while stationary. Then there’s just the fact that it looks a lot like a motorcycle with training wheels.
OTOH, with today’s advances in electronics, I could see outriggers that automatically (and quickly) deploy below a certain speed. Likewise, stability would seem to be easily controlled by electronic gyroscopes.
Still, an enclosed three wheel ‘car’ of some sort makes quite a bit more sense. I think I’d even rather have a motorcycle with a sidecar. Seems like it would be a whole lot easier to enclose one of those against the weather.
I’ve seen said automatic outriggers on a Goldwing already in the Senior Motorcyclist group on Facebook. Of course, that’s the market where you’re going to have the most success initially. Goldwing riders, if they have any biases at all, are biased towards high odometer figures. And not much else.
Here’s a link to an outrigger maker:
https://www.landingear.com/home.php
Interesting concept but pricey ($3500).
I think in Britain it was more the tax structure, 4 wheeled vehicles paid more road tax, hence the Reliant Robin and these experiments.
I remember seeing a concept for a two wheeled car and the author going on about how it’s 27% as wide as a car, so you only need 27% of the lane to drive it and we can fit so many more vehicles on the road! As if the two wheeled vehicle driver was 73% more disciplined in maintaining a straight line!
I think the ad photo for the Bi-Car was taken during the 1/125th of a second that the driver wasn’t laughing 🙂
Dual-mode machines like this are never practical.
Everyone keeps asking why flying cars haven’t been invented yet. They were invented and perfected in the 1930s, but there has never been a REASON to use them. Amphicars and bike-cars have the same problem. Nobody needs or wants the mixture.
Motocyles are inherently dangerous, big or small .
I’d never trust those balancing wheels, what makes them deploy as you come to a stop ? .
As I age out and have ever more injuries I find riding smaller Motocycles to be better .
Also well balanced Motos like old BMW air cooled ones .
The big Harley can be lifted by a short and light person, it’s all in how you do it .
There used to be a CHP training video with the smallest female Chip I’ve ever seen lifting up her Harley .
All these look cute but I imagine were bought and used briefly before being discarded .
Reliants, Bonds and the rest of the three wheeled Motocycles with passenger bodies, were _not_ experimental .
-Nate
I have to doubt there’s a way, probably not unlike the Goldwing method (if the bike’s going to fall over TRY to get it to fall on the right side, pull out the kickstand, fat away with your back to the bike, left hand on the grip and pull on the brake, right hand on the rear crash bar, walk yourself backward pushing with the legs as you push the bike upright).
The problem is that Honda designed the Goldwing high enough that you’ve got the leverage and the space to push against. It works, I’ve done it. Once, and that was enough. The one time I tried it on the Glide, the low seating position and general shape of the bike works against you and I could not get the force against the body to rock it upwards.
Guess I’ve got to go looking for some Harley specific videos on the subject.
Bottom line: I’m more comfortable on my Triumph Sprint in bad weather, because I know I can get it back up.
I meant to say “no doubt”, not “to doubt”. My proofreading abilities occasionally fail me.
I can dig it Syke ;
Long long ago I was able to lift my 820# Pan Head by he backing up to it method, age and pain means I ride an old BMW r Honda Tiddler these days .
Just make sure there isn’t a pot hole where the “landing” gear is going to set when you stop.
A friend of mine had the bad habit of flicking out his kickstand (jiffy stand) on his Harley dresser and then rolling over on the stand and hopping off. Well, we were stopping at a road side bar during the Sturgis rally to cool off and he didn’t notice the low spot and over the beast goes, luckily it was grass and the bike was undamaged.
I had a similar experience years ago with my Moto Guzzi V7 Sport. The Sport did not have a side stand, only a center stand. Some what a pain to use and fairly narrow so soft pavement or non-paved surfaces needed to avoided unless you had a board with you. When the T-3 model came out it had a side stand. Bolts right on the V7 Sport. Side stand is spring loaded so lift the weight of the bike and up it comes. Wonderful.
Fast forward a few years and I’m wheeling into the local SA station about 2:00 AM after work. Flip out the side stand and drop the bike over. You need to keep your foot on the stand until the weight of the bike settles on it. Lift your foot off to soon and the stand snaps back up. Well what I didn’t know was somewhere between work and the gas station the pivot bolt fell out. So as soon as the weight of the bike bore down on the stand the stand collapsed and me and the bike tumbled into the gas pump. Luckily at 2:00AM back in the late 70’s there wasn’t anyone around to see my struggles. I’m sure if the attendant’s saw this they figured it was another drunk biker.
@XR& :
Oh, yeah most of us who’ve been riding a long time had embarrassing moments .
When I was 18 or so Billy Badass & I rolled into the Mohawk filling station, I was astride my beautiful glossy black lacquered Harley Pan Head, there was an MG roadster top down with two lovely ladies in it giving me the eye, I roared up to the pumps and sey my foot down into an unseen puddle of spilled gasoline, my foot shot out from underneath and the bike and I slowly rolled over onto it’s side, the girls nearly died laughing and drove away merrily .
Most of my off road riding friends did endos or other crashed right in front of their peers or women they were hoping to impress .
As you get older, some of us realize who cares what others think and so don’t preen / show off anymore .
Fall down a lot less too =8-) .
I don’t like the self retracting side stands .
-Nate
Something I learned decades ago with my first M/C:
When the colors go on, the showing off stops. You don’t make a fool of yourself with that patch on your back.
Syke ;
I currently don’t wear my patch because way too many here in the land of fruits nuts and flakes do indeed become raging childish assholes the *instant* they are astride a Harley Davidson product….
Just to – day SWMBO and I were out running errands around South Central Los Angeles and a few idiots on big shiny Harleys rode like madmen, running red lights, making noise and so on ~ total “HEY LOOK AT ME ME ME ! OVER HERE !!” .
A sad thing to be sure, many moons ago I was so proud of my ink .
-Nate
2.75 tons really you can build a whole four wheeled car for less material than that without the need for gyroscopes to keep it upright and handlebars are much more suited for a two wheeled vehicle, all these concepts and production models seem to answer a question nobody was asking as they all failed where it counts, with the customer.
The perfect ending to this discussion:
This evening I settle down to see what my DVR has recorded for me, and it’s Season 17, Episode 5 of “Chasing Classic Cars” what has been for years my favorite car show (restorations, not resto-rods!). Tonight’s episode is “Back to the Futura” about the restoration of an incredible 60’s one-off from a design done by Kaiser Aluminum in the early 60’s as a promotional effort, and built out of three Corvairs. Probably as close as Wayne will ever get to competing with “Bitchin Rides”, but a fascinating sort-of restoration.
And in the last ten minutes of the show, the car is sold to a car museum in Nashville that also houses Alex Tremulis’ Gyro-X – a two wheeled car that actually works (under proper conditions), once you’ve let the car sit for fifteen minutes after you’ve started it to let the gyroscope spool up. And it was being driven for the cameras!
Definitely an episode worth watching, if only because it’s completely out in left field compared to the usual CCC episode.
Honda’s self balancing motorcycle is pretty cool. Of course one must know how to balance a motorcycle before being given the keys. Maybe it could lead to advanced motorcycle safety systems and likely enhanced performance around the track. The two wheeled car is about as dumb as it gets in my book.
Seriously?
Well, some Swiss made the whole thing work (and make sense, kind of). I heard of it years ago and was actually hoping to find it in this post. Apparently it is still being made and developed, since 1984, and morphed into an EV nowadays, no less.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecomobile
Well, I’m the gal that was sitting in the back of the Bi-car in that photo. The gent in front of me is Ed Bell, the inventor, and a former employee of Bell Helicopters.
No, we could never get this vehicle off the ground, so to speak. Ed had planned to keep it upright with a gyroscope, but that didn’t work out as planned, so he added the support wheels, which were supposed to come down (automatically?) when cornering. We took it to several auto shows, and it was even advertised in a motorcycle magazine, at the time, but nothing came of it. It is a shame that Ed Bell chose to start with this model because he also planned to develop a tri-car, which would have been much more stable and, I think, would have generated a lot more interest.
My ex-husband (now deceased) was Ed Bell’s partner and financial backer, so he received the prototype when the company was dissolved. I do not know the history of the prototype after that, but no others were built.
Judy, thanks so much for chiming in! Fascinating to hear your firsthand account.