Mystery of 'ghost motorcycle' has been solved

[UM-Bot]

A puzzled motorist recently recorded footage of a riderless motorcycle cruising along a French motorway.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/308451/mystery-of-ghost-motorcycle-has-been-solved

[TripGun]

I would speed a few miles ahead of it and build a ramp.

[+DanL]

He had a lock throttle on his bike. I had one on my bike way back when so that I could turn loose of the handle bars and slide back against my sissy bar so I could stretch my legs out on long trips. It was an early form of motorcycle cruse control.

[paperdyer]

Regardless of the throttle, for the motorcycle to stay balanced that long after the rider feel of is amazing!

[qxcontinuum]

100% impossible. 

[+DanL]

Actually those spinning wheels work like a powerful gyroscope and do an amazing job of keeping the bike up and gong straight. When you are on a bike you actually have to overcome that force to make the bike turn. 50 years on bikes. I've actually seen things like this on tracks when someone gets tossed. If you fall off a bike when it is laid out it will often straighten up and go a long way and that is without the throttle still being open. Once a bike is up to speed it is pretty much self balancing. 

[freetoroam]

On 6/15/2017 at 5:36 AM, qxcontinuum said:

100% impossible. 

Eh? not according to the article....:

Quote

As it turns out however, the motorcycle did have a rider when it started out, but ended up careening along the road on its own after the man was knocked off in a collision with another vehicle. - See more at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/308451/mystery-of-ghost-motorcycle-has-been-solved#sthash.cLE6CJib.dpuf

 

 

[seeder]

On 15/06/2017 at 5:36 AM, qxcontinuum said:

100% impossible. 

 

Really?  More on youtube

 

[qxcontinuum]

yeah but how long a bike can go without the rider. Those who saw the bike in uk would have seen the rider somewhere a few hundred meters away without assuming to be ghosted.

[toast]

On 15.6.2017 at 6:36 AM, qxcontinuum said:

100% impossible. 

100% wrong.

Gyroscopic forces of the spinning wheels stabilise a bike in the direction of driving up to a certain speed (around 5km/h or so). in addition there is a  lateral force active around the vertical axis of the bike, called precession, this force let the bike oscillate with very low amplitudes in the direction of driving, they center the bike in that direction. The higher the speed, the better the stabilisation in driving dircetion.

Maybe you might think that the directional stability of a bike gets managed by the driver by holding the bars, buts thats wrong. If you try to drive a bike with locked bars, you will crash within 1 meter of distance. Changes in direction dont require the driver to "spin" the bars because these actions are done by weight transfer (left/right) by the driver. And thats the reason why SuperSport bikes always have a relativ high seating position. Thats because the leverage forces of the drivers weight (left/right) related to the bike`s centre of gravity (vertical axis) are bigger, resulting into higher possible cornering speed and better agility.

[seeder]

5 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

yeah but how long a bike can go without the rider. Those who saw the bike in uk would have seen the rider somewhere a few hundred meters away without assuming to be ghosted.

 

this one doesn't even need a rider

 

[+DanL]

My granddaughter has a little 2 wheeled motorcycle toy that will run all over without a rider. It is the same thing as that bike. Once you spin it up it will run straight until it slows enough for the gyroscopic effect to lessen and let it fall over. If a Bike has the throttle locked down the bike will run until it hits something usually at the first curve in the road but I would love to see just how far one could go someplace like the salt flats where there is nothing to hit. Miles and miles easily.