Identifying the FFs in the FortNine FF video (May 2022)
This is a lengthy series of comments and identifications regarding RyanF9's (Ryan Kluftinger's) video on FFs on the FortNine YouTube channel: 'Feet Forward Motorcycles are Technically Better' which was uploaded on 16th April 2022. This one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2ou5gt_94
I’ve watched RyanF9’s FF video a few times now, and there really is a lot of good stuff in it. Amazingly, it was viewed more than a *million* times in just four weeks and 4,607 people had commented on it!
My chief beef, as I said in my first (of several!) comments on the vid, is that he doesn’t credit any of his sources, apart from Tig Cross’s Electrom, from which he presents the whole item. It’s also occurred to me that I must be the only person on the planet who’s actually ridden at least one example of every FF shown in the video, and in some cases, many examples of the breed, including the actual FF that appears in the video.
Anyway, I’ve done my best to identify all the FFs that appear, and all the FF-relevant video sources, which I’ve described and listed below in order of appearance; all further info gratefully received.
So, in order of appearance, we see:
1/ The video starts with a few seconds clipped from a BBC West news item about the Voyager, with Royce driving the white demo machine (now blue, and owned by Graham Robb), with his wife Ingrid in the back. It must be from late 1989, at a guess. You can watch the whole original 3min item here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_jFWjEcOE
2/ As mentioned above, RyanF9 presents the whole video from Tig Cross’s Electrom FF on Vancouver Island, with some great action footage throughout. Tig has made plenty of great videos of his own, most of which have been posted in this group; just go here to view them: www.electrom.ca
3/ 0.44-56” is snipped from my own 10 minute Top Gear FF item originally broadcast in April 1988; RyanF9 shows the original TG prog intro with William Woollard sitting in the late, fire-destroyed NMM Quasar at the National Motorcycle Museum, plus several seconds of FF action from Wroughton where we had over a dozen machines in action together. In order of appearance, we see the Fryer FFelocette, the VF750 Quasar, the Flying Banana, the Crowson white Quasar, the LC350 Phasar, Monty’s V50 Phasar, the VT500 Phasar, the Difazio White Eleffant, and Tim Brown riding his Tait-steered Gold Wing Phasar.
You can see the whole item, including the Intro, the UK FFs, the original Peraves Oekomobil in Switzerland, and the outro here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw-G50fjNXQ
There are over 40 still photos from that Top Gear item on bikeweb here: https://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/102
4/ At 3.33” RyanF9 addresses the much-ignored issue of aerodynamics. He juxtaposes the 0.3 drag factor of a Tesla with the poor aerodynamics of a motorcycle, using a dummy sitting upright to illustrate the point. However, he quotes the figure of ‘only 0.4’ for a motorcycle which, as I’ve pointed out in one of my comments on the video, is ludicrously optimistic; 1.0 would be more accurate! Suzuki’s relatively slippery Hayabusa is only 0.56, whereas the original Peraves CH Monotracer was measured at 0.18. The open cockpit Monoliner was tested at 0.21, as you can see elsewhere on bikeweb, here: https://bikeweb.com/node/2952.
5/ At 4’20” RyanF9 actually shows a few seconds from the PeravesCZ promo for the new electric Monoracer. Unfortunately it’s spoilt because he’s chosen a bit in which the training wheels for learners were fitted, even though Peraves founder Arnold Wagner himself is driving it. However, a caption shows: ‘CdA 0.19; range 400kms’, and Ryan also mentions those impressive stats in his commentary. There are actually 9 short promo videos for the PeravesCZ Monoracer to choose from here: https://www.youtube.com/.../UCs0pB5FLYgdg8Zb1LLw.../featured
6/ At 4’39” There is some ancient and very grainy footage of Malcolm Newell riding a red Quasar, both going around a corner and on-board, which I suspect was shot by a cosy passenger shooting over Malcolm’s shoulder. The original 3 minute film, entitled ‘Living Tomorrow’, was made for the Central Office of Information (COI) and features Quasar co-designer Ken Leaman in the workshop with Malcolm and a staged crashing of the Quasar into a ditch to avoid a car pulling out. The crash sequence riding was actually done by Royce Creasey. You can see the whole film on IK's YouTube site here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDlPruj3oQ
7/ At 4’46” we see a few seconds of Dan Gurney riding an Alligator up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2003. Ryan points out that “The Alligator made 230 [km/hr] from a single cylinder XR650 though!” I’m pretty sure the footage is from the official Goodwood video, but you can find it on IK’s YouTube site here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-huq32c_VQ.
Several of us had the pleasure of talking to Dan Gurney and his son Justin at the event. Several pix here: https://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/127
8/ At 5.00 a posse of six Ecomobiles appears over the hill, then in line through a chicane, plus a few seconds of Jeremy Clarkson in the back of one, being driven by Franziska Wagner, wife of its creator, Arnold. It’s all taken from the Swiss episode of Clarkson’s World, broadcast (IIRC) in1992; FWIW I provided a lot of the contacts and background information for the programme. This is the 3minute Ecomobile section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbdkZB9-Sd4
9/ The safety section of the video, which starts at 6.09, has some spectacular crash footage. The first is a horrendous real road accident in which a foolish guy rides straight into the back of a parked bike on the hard shoulder of a highway wearing only shorts, and his helmet comes off long before he hits the ground.
There’s footage of Honda’s innovative Gold Wing with an air bag going off and some ADAC footage of a dummy on a Suzuki crashing into the side of a BMW car. I liked RyanF9’s comment that “Putting airbags on riders is like putting lifejackets on cannonballs”. At 6’26” we see BMW’s roofed but not-quite-an-FF C1 scooter with a helmetless but seat-belted rider crashing spectacularly, with leg flailing. Ryan wisely comments, “Why not keep the rider in an engineered cocoon?”
At 6’31”we also see a shot of a bare C1 frame being pushed down by a massive weight, which is actually an illustration of one of the fundamental errors in the C1 design. BMW’s car engineers were convinced that the C1’s roof had to be strong enough to support the weight of a car on top of it whereas every motorcyclist knows that bikes don’t remain upright in a crash, so any roof on a motorcycle doesn’t have to support the weight of very much at all!
10/ At 6’33” we see the onboard footage of Ivan Diamond crashing his red Monotracer at Bedford Autodrome with EVO magazine journo John Barker in the passenger seat – and we hear Ivan saying “Oh fuck” as he turns it off while it’s lying on its side. The occasion was a demo ride organised by EVO magazine and I was standing on that very corner capturing the whole crash with my Canon EOS on motor drive as it happened – several of my photos were used in the subsequent article, along with my description of how to drive a Monotracer. I've put one of the crash photos up in the Peraves section here: https://www.bikeweb.com/node/3731
I also helped Ivan get his outriggers down after we’d picked the Monotracer back up. To his credit, Ivan not only finished the lap, despite tearing off one outrigger tyre, but he also gave someone else a ride around the track before driving home in the mildly scuffed machine. Three years later, I co-drove that Monotracer with Ivan from Istanbul to the Peraves HQ near Zurich. You can watch the 90 second crash video here, complete with several replies I made a year ago in answer to some of the ignorant comments made below it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es0y0y4cIrg
11/ Ryan says some strange things in the last minute of this FF video. At 6’47” he describes the FF seating position as “unthinkably weird” when he’s just spent five minutes demonstrating the precise opposite. Then he says “I don’t like it, but I don’t have to; the feet forward position implores itself.” Which, unless I’ve misheard him, makes no sense at all. Implores itself? Eh?
12/ At 6’55 we see a BMW C1 with a dummy rider on board and covered in test cables, crashing into the side of a car; it actually bounces off the car and remains on two wheels for the duration of the clip.
And that’s it! That’s the end of the video. No credits, no real conclusion, just music and the F9 logo!
No wonder several commentators have asked when RyanF9 is going to do a ‘Part 2’. In one of his replies he says that’s unlikely, and gives a few more thoughts about the pros and cons. I have commented on his reply, but I think this particular post is long enough already, so I may add that separately in due course. PNB
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Pt II...
FortNine's video editor, Luke McAdam, posts as "Zukez" at Reddit:
"We might visit this again in the future and definitely won't neglect Akira if we do. You may have notice the Akira shoutout in the recent CBR250RR video"
Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/u4zoqj/fortnine_feet_forward_motorcycles_are_technically/
No, I'm not holding my breath to see Pt II, but I'd still like to see it. The fashion first legacy media cowards sure won't do it - then again, considering their lazy authors and toxic commenters, that's probably a good thing.
Keep in mind that the YouTube "Community", like the Reddit and Facebook "Communities", are 99+% timewasters. Said 99+% are only interested in gossiping and/or talking to themselves, not in actually doing anything in the real world. I've frequently seen thousands of hits from those 3 sites: Not. One. Single. Contact.
Pt 11/2
Yeah, I'll second that. After forty years of attempting to communicate the facts about FFs, including driving one around with the address of this site on it I may have done slightly better than no contacts, maybe two.
Meanwhile an entirely imaginary movie FF contiunes to grip the imagination of thousands and an FF electric bicycle makes a million hits, none of whome have ever heard of Bikeweb or apparently thought at all about addressing the market failure of the motorised bicycle.
One can only look on in wonder.