30 Wednesday Oct 2013
HeliBars has been working diligently with Motus Motorcycles since March of 2012 to complete the handlebar portion of the new MST & MST-R motorcycles. We are so pleased to be the chosen manufacturer for this ground breaking motorcycle.
Check out the press release here:
https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/helibars-standard-equipment-motus-mst-mstr-motorcycles/
15 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in Other Engineering Projects
Tags
Recently a friend of the HeliBars family approached us about machining some custom parts for a school project. Now, this was not your typical baking soda and vinegar volcano or soda bottle rocket. Our friend Russ is an engineering student at Villanova University. His project: a race car to compete in the Formula SAE Collegiate Design Series. Russ and his teammates designed and built a whole new car from scratch for this years competition, and they did well. See the car and team on their Facebook page: Villanova FSAE Facebook.
For those that are not familiar with this competition here is a little background from the FSAE website:
The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules whose purpose is both to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving.
Formula SAE promotes careers and excellence in engineering as it encompasses all aspects of the automotive industry including research, design, manufacturing, testing, developing, marketing, management and finances. Formula SAE takes students out of the classroom and allows them to apply textbook theories to real work experiences.
The teams are judged on a design and cost report as well as performance in acceleration, autocross, skidpad and endurance categories. As students with little to no real world experience it can be difficult to generate a winning design on a tight budget. This team received a top 30 finish out of 123, with a budget about 3% (that’s three percent) of that of the top level teams, not bad at all.
To the VIllanova team: Congratulations on a great year and good luck in your future endeavors!
Villanova University FSAE Team
Oh, and almost forgot our contribution to the car. Front and rear suspension uprights, the part that connects the wheels to the suspension. Here are some pics:
Rear Upright
Rear Upright on car
Rear uprights on car
– Helibars Engineering
16 Thursday Feb 2012
Tags
adjustable handlebars, disabled motorcycle rider, disabled motorcyclist, handlebars, helibars, horizon, motorcycle, walker
On November 8, 2011 we received a phone call from a customer looking to buy parts of our Horizon Sport Touring multi-adjustable handlebars for the Kawasaki C14 so he could fabricate a set of handlebars for his walker. I didn’t answer the phone, but once I heard the question I had to talk to this gentleman. Turns out, he was an avid motorcyclist and even a previous Helibars customer. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and it eventually progressed to the point he could not ride a motorcycle anymore. Despite this fact he was not going to give up and started to concentrate on his other passion, photography. Nature is the primary focus of his photography and, being confined to a walker, getting the best shots was difficult at best. So, instead of giving in to the limitations of his walker he decided to make the walker fit his needs. After making many modifications he found the handlebars just were not as comfortable as he would like.
I am looking for a what I call a natural angle of my wrists. So looking from the top the wrists would angle out from the centre line and with a slight drop instead of the straight back it has now.
The old handlebars provided only height adjustment and offered little comfort
Looking for alternatives he found the market for walker handlebars to be non-existant, so he turned to the motorcycle market. From his days as a motorcycle rider he remembered Helibars as the most comfortable handlebars in the world. Surly Helibars would have something that met his need. That’s when he saw our Horizon multi-adjustable handlebars for the C14 on the front page of the website and decided to call.
After hearing the whole story I decided the best thing to do was not to sell him a selection of parts, but make a complete set of custom handlebars designed for his walker. The design borrowed elements from our Horizon ST multi-adjustable handlebars for the Honda ST1100 and also included a new tool-less adjustment. The Horizon ST multi-adjustable handlebars were a great basis for this project. The design was already set up for 7/8 handlebars and had roughly the right range of motion. The most import aspect of this design is safety. The Horizon design incorporates hard stops to limit rotation if a pinch bolt loosens or falls out. In such an event the pivots can not come apart and will only rotate as far as the stops allow. The safety of the design makes it the perfect choice for this application.
Using SolidEdge 3D CAD software I created the model you see below. Pictures of the design were sent to the customer for appoval.
CAD models allow engineers and customers to "see" the product before cutting metal.
He loved the new design, so I started on building the real thing. Final prototypes were machined from billet aluminum, just like the current Horizon motorcycle handlebars.
Using the latest CAD and CAM software we can produce fully functional prototypes very quickly.
We were able to ship the new multi-adjustable walker handlebars just before Christmas and got his response shortly after install:
I received the bars today. I don’t want to blow too much smoke up your kilt but what a difference they make. I have them on and they really make it easier on the hands and wrists, just as I had hoped.
The most comfortable walker handlebars in the world!
Success! We just created the most comfortable walker in the world!
-Helibars Engineering
