Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Corporation

Keisuke Terada

Keizo Araki

Shota Kubo

Toshifumi Uchiyama

Kazuhisa Takano

Yosuke Hirayama

Nobuhiko Hirakawa

Takayuki Sano

Kotaro Ogura

Hiroyuki Morita

A leaning vehicle including a vehicle body, a steerable front wheel set swivelable around an axis extending in an up-down direction, a rear wheel set, a turn operation input device that receives a turn operation and transmits the turn operation non-mechanically, a leaning device including a lean actuator that leans the vehicle body, the steerable front wheel set and the rear wheel set to a leftward or rightward direction, and a centripetal force generator including a centripetal force generation actuator, which outputs a controllable torque to thereby generate an additional centripetal force that acts on the steerable front wheel set and the rear wheel set during a turn of the leaning vehicle. The controller controls the torque while controlling the lean actuator in accordance with the received turn operation, to thereby control a leaning condition of the vehicle body during the turn and to control generation of the additional centripetal force.

Leaning vehicle with a steerable front wheel

A leaning vehicle, including a vehicle body, one steerable front wheel and two rear wheels, or two steerable front wheels and one or two rear wheels, a suspension mechanism, a steering mechanism, a steering controller, and an up-down direction acceleration detector attached to the vehicle body or the suspension mechanism. The two steerable front wheels or the two rear wheels are arranged side by side to form a left-right pair of wheels. The up-down direction acceleration detector detects an acceleration in an up-down direction of the leaning vehicle or the vehicle body, generated as one wheel in the left-right pair of wheels passes a bump or a pothole in a road. The steering controller so controls the one or two steerable front wheels that the one or two steerable front wheels are in a free-steering state, so as to swivel around a steering axis freely, based on the detected acceleration.

Leaning vehicle with a left-right pair of wheels

A left suspension unit supports a left wheel. A right suspension unit supports a right wheel. A steering actuator imparts a force causing the left suspension unit and the right suspension unit to turn about a left steering axis and a right steering axis respectively to a steering force transmission mechanism. A leaning actuator imparts a force causing a body frame to lean leftward or rightward of a leaning vehicle to a link mechanism. A control unit is capable of selecting a first mode wherein both of the steering actuator and the leaning actuator are employed, and a second mode wherein the steering actuator is employed without employing the leaning actuator, in order to control a leaning angle of the body frame in cooperation with a steering mechanism.

Leaning vehicle

A load transmission includes a left foot placement surface on which a left foot of a driver riding the vehicle is to be placed and a right foot placement surface on which a right foot of the driver is to be placed. The load transmission transmits a load to a left portion of a linkage by way of the left foot placement surface, and transmits a load to a right portion of the linkage by way of the right foot placement surface.

Vehicle

A vehicle includes a steering force transmission including a steering force input, a steering shaft that is connected to the steering force input and which is supported by a first shaft support so as to turn about a rear steering axis, a connector that is connected to the steering shaft and displaced as the steering shaft turns, and a relay shaft that is connected to the connector to turn about a front steering axis as the connector is displaced, which is supported by a second shaft support that is provided ahead of the first shaft support to turn a right front wheel and a left front wheel as the second shaft support turns. The first shaft support is fixed to a portion of a body frame that extends to the rear from the link support so that the rear steering axis of the steering shaft is disposed behind a movable range of a rear cross element of a linkage in relation to a front-and-rear direction of a middle upper axis.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Keisuke Terada