The ‘I’ Factor

Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of published version in Commercial Vehicle magazine

This is the era of the Global Indian. Numerous Multi National Corporations across the world are being headed by Indians. Non Resident and Resident Indian businessmen are buying up companies around the world and creating mega entities out of them. In the automotive sector, while Indian companies (read: Tatas) are gunning for brands like Jaguar and land Rover, global luxury brands like Lexus, Hummer and Cadillac are targeting the ever-increasingly rich Indian.

Have you noticed how India is suddenly a focal point in so many different spheres – retail, automotive, mobile telephony, fashion labels, watches, et al? It is the ‘I’ factor – ‘I’ as in Indian. Remember, in automobile circles, the latest model to hit the Indian roads is the i10 from Hyundai. Now, along comes another ‘I’ factor – from Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL), nonetheless!

To be unveiled at this year’s Auto Expo (even as you read this) is the ‘iBus’ – a concept people transport vehicle touted as Tomorrow’s City Shuttle. It all began a year ago when the Young Executives Forum (YEF), a two-year-old activity of ALL, was given a brief by the top management – Be as radical as you want, as wild as you can let your imagination run, as free as the spirit in you – but, come up with a unique concept in vehicular transport, that works.

A group of 25 under-thirty fives drawn from across all departments of ALL put their heads together and came up with Project Concept Bus. Under a structured hierarchy of 10 mentors (senior executives), 15 experts and top management personnel, the 25 go-getters met regularly for a couple of months and bounced around ideas – some wacky, some outrageous, some unthinkable, some radical. Eventually, they formed four core groups to put some direction to their thinking processes and ideas – Opportunity Assessment (for market research and feedback), Design & Integration (for concepts), Testing & Validation (to try out the concepts) and Production Engineering (liaising with suppliers).

CV met with three representatives of the YEF, as it would have been difficult to get all the 25 under one roof at one time, to learn more about the iBus, the Concept Bus which the Forum came up with.

The ‘I’dea:

What does the ‘i’ denote? Says Bharath Rajagopalan, Deputy Manager, Mission Summit, ALL and member of the Opportunity Assessment and Design & Integration core team, “The letter stands for Indian, Intelligent and Innovation, the three important criteria we set for developing the iBus.” Venkat Subramanian, Deputy Manager, Marketing, ALL and member of the Opportunity Assessment core team explains further, “When we thought Indian, the factors included that the bus should be ideally suited to all Indian road and user conditions. Therefore the features should be user friendly and robust without compromising on comfort. The first thing we decided was that it should be a semi low floor so that the chassis doesn’t become too costly.” Pitched in Vivek Upadhyay, Senior Engineer, Advanced Engineering, ALL and Design & Integration core team member, “The design, features and facilities had to be innovative to make the iBus different and user friendly. We decided to incorporate Passenger Information System (PIS). Telematics with the use of a GPS tracking system, LCD screens and driver information systems were introduced. The Intelligent factor came in with extensive use of electronics for both the innovation as well as in the running of the bus itself.” The PIS displays dynamic route information based on the GPS location data. You get to know Estimated Time of Departure and Arrival, vehicle speed, weather conditions, etc.

The frequent brainstorming sessions of the team had one common goal – the design should impact the life of an emerging Indian. Says Bharath, “We wanted to design a city bus ideally meant for mass transportation needs. We sent out e-mails to almost 500 to 600 people to do a survey and found that the average requirement of most bus commuters was how to avoid sweating while traveling, beat traffic congestion and avoid delays. We also found that most commuters wanted to spend the long travel time constructively. So, when we thought of the iBus, we had to address all these factors.”

The ‘I’ design:

To start with, the iBus is built on semi low floor 635 mm chassis. For the first time a 152 KW, fuel-efficient common rail ‘eCORE’ engine, which is BS3 compliant, is installed as the power train. Along with power steering, a fatigue-free driver friendly unique feature being introduced for the first time is a no-clutch operation. Called an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), the system is ideal for frequent start/stop intra city transportation. It combines the luxury of a fully automatic transmission with an ‘Indian’ cost. While the gear changes automatically, the driver has the option to shift to a required gear with the use of a joystick. Consequently, there are only brake and accelerator pedals on the floor.

An ‘intelligent’ electronic architecture is the heart of the iBus. The Central Body Control Unit interacts with all the on-board Electronic Control Units and provides diagnostic information to the driver. Additional features of the iBus include ABS, disc brakes, infrared camera and ultrasonic sensors mounted at the rear, which provides visual and audible alerts.

The front-end structure of the iBus is designed to be pedestrian-safe. The body structure is indigenously designed to absorb energy during impact. It is designed to meet European roll over safety standards (Indian Bus Body Code - AIS-031). The seating capacity is for 42 passengers.

For the passenger, the iBus has compartmentalized interiors. For the first time, you can choose between traveling Executive or Economy class in the same bus. There will be Internet on the move, airconditioning, reading lights and audio speakers.

“While conceiving the overall design of the iBus, we kept in mind four basic needs of the passenger – safety, comfort, economics and ecology. With this design, the first two aspects were taken care of for the passenger. For the vehicle operator, the economics would be better in comparison to normal buses because of the fuel-efficient engine, smoother drive and ergonomic design. The operator also has a revenue model in the LCD display which can be used for commercial displays,” says Vivek Upadhayay.

An ‘I’ to the future:

Now that the iBus has been exposed to the public gaze at the Auto Expo, it is left to the powers that be at Ashok Leyland to take it up for production for the larger benefit of the Indian passenger and his needs. The success of the concept and design is the result of a team effort and the encouragement given by a forward thinking management at Ashok Leyland, to the vast talent pool available within their young work force.

END

Two-wheel drive wonder

Story: Nikhil Raghavan

In the book ‘The True History of Rokon Motorcycles’ author Bob Gallagher writes: “The history of the Trail-Breaker two-wheel-drive motorcycle can be traced back to around 1958 when Charles Fehn of Thousand Oaks, California began work on his invention, a "Motorcycle for slow cross-country travel over obstructions and in mountainous regions, and over snow and soft ground". Long-winded, yes, but it was the birth of the Trail-Breaker. Charlie Fehn applied for his first patent for this beast on April 13, 1959. His second application, abandoned like the first, came on August 31, 1962. It wasn't until his third patent attempt, now titled ‘Motorcycle having two driven wheels’, filed August 20, 1963, that Charlie would finally get his patent. By the date of the third filing, the bike was in full-fledged production and it would be August 23, 1966 before the patent would be granted.”

Yamaha's 2 Wheel Drive Bike

Much later Yamaha displayed a prototype, the Deinonychus at 'The Art of Engineering' at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show. It leveraged in-wheel motors and offered a completely new type of two-wheel-drive Electric Vehicle. The bike included 'Stretch & Shrink' functions in the vertical and horizontal directions allowing the rider to adjust the riding position and also the silhouette of the chassis to fit the rider's body size, riding environment, road surface conditions and personal preference.

After Yamaha with this 2-wheel drive WRF450 motorcycle, Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM got ready with their version of an all-wheel drive motorcycle.

Many major companies specializing in producing off-road motorcycles have experimented with various designs and methods of transferring power to the front wheel, the most common being the hydraulic drive. Some have tried using cable drive, but all these are still in the development stage and not in regular production. This is mainly due to the many flaws inherent.

Hydraulic drive is convenient due to the hoses being flexible, but the problem is with weight, fluid leaks and losses due to low efficiency of pump and motor. Cable drive was also good theoretically, but the losses due to friction, especially because of the more acute angles while turning, made it phenomenally inefficient.

The technology

Unlike a car, where it is easy and efficient to fit a mechanical drive from the side of the wheel hub, a motorcycle is essentially two-dimensional and requires complicated mechanical transmission to drive the front wheel, necessitating overly complex and awkwardly styled front suspension members and frame elements.

For two-wheeled vehicles such as motorcycles and bicycles, the term 2x2 is used to describe vehicles which can power the front as well as the back wheel. The term 2x2 is also used, to denote two total wheels with both being driven. 2x2 vehicles are typically either mechanically driven via chain or shaft or are hydraulic driven. This scheme greatly improves offroad performance, but is quite complicated and requires more power to operate, thus most 2WD machines are either "exotic" bikes for enthusiasts or created with special uses in mind.

Manufacturers who have one in production include Rokon. Manufacturers who are working or have worked on a prototype include ZID, Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda. Drysdale Motorcycle Co. is developing a chain drive 2WD that will be a 'bolt-on' conversion. It is inspired by the original 70 year old FN design but will be more sophisticated. It uses 2 chains and a custom "banana gearbox" to drive the front wheel; conventional front forks are retained. It is currently being developed on a Honda 750 Africa Twin and will then be fitted to KTM 620 single. The design is suited to all chain drive bikes with narrow motors - so singles and V twins.

On home turf

While all this was going on in the world of mobikes, a student quartet from Madras-based Hindustan College of Engineering (HCE), undertook an unusual project for their final year – a two-wheel drive motorcycle!

BIKE India caught up with the foursome at a nearby rough terrain where they were putting their machine through the paces, amply demonstrating the prowess of the bike.

Four years ago when the fresh batch of students from various parts of the country converged on HCE, four like-minded guys became friends. Rachit Aggarwal from Delhi, Arpit Tandon from Muradabad, UP, Pawan J B Rana from Nepal and Lakshman Sreedhar from Chennai dreamed of becoming outstanding automobile engineers when they graduate from HCE.

Today, four years hence, the foursome has passed out of the college and is realizing their dream, partly. Pawan wants to go to Germany and become an automobile mechanic. Arpit wants to start working immediately, while Rachit was desperately trying to get into Cranfield University, UK to do his masters in automobile engineering. Sadly, he did not get selected and instead is going to City University, London.

Project two-wheel drive

When the foursome started working on the two wheel drive bike, they found themselves up against numerous hurdles. Not much data was available on mechanical transmissions for such bikes. The ones already done used hydraulics. But, they were determined to make it mechanical to cut down on costs.

“We designed and developed a unique system to transmit power to the front wheel even during extreme wheel travel and turning, using a combination of shaft and chain drive. This ensures minimal losses, the ability to select single wheel drive or two wheel drive as per conditions and adequate turning radius and continuous drive irrespective of wheel position,” says Rachit.

Some serious homework resulted in a decision to use Jeep transmission parts. Fortunately, some Jeep_Thrills enthusiasts came to their rescue and introduced them to the ‘Jeep spares’ market from where they were able to pick up the transmission case and mechanicals.

Then came the designing part. The toughest was not of applying the drive to the front wheel, but how to make it work while at the same time steering it. “As our base bike we used a Kawasaki Bajaj 100 RTZ. On this we modified the nut securing the driving sprocket in order to fix a selector mechanism obtained from a Jeep’s transfer case,” says Arpit.

“We chose Jeep parts due to the unavailability of any other transfer case for our selector mechanism. The process used here is a dog clutch that pulls and pushes the selector on a splined shaft. This selector engages or disengages the connection between the two shafts,” explains Pawan.

This is then used to drive a propeller shaft with two integrated ‘Birfield type’ CV joints. The gear on the end of this shaft gives power to another mounted on a bearing and along the turning axis of the steering mechanism of the bike. “We used a Maruti half axle shaft as it was the lightest available and the most suited to our application as it had the necessary CV joints,” says Rachit. This was selected because it has two Constant Velocity joints in-built thereby reducing the problem of fixing two CV joints on two separate shafts and aligning them to transfer power smoothly.

After numerous attempts of different sorts and a lot of brainstorming, the foursome decided to fix the transfer case shaft onto the gear output shaft by first cutting the shaft to shorten it, then welding the securing nut of the driving sprocket onto the shaft. After this, the Maruti 800 half axle shaft was mounted longitudinally along the axis of the bike.

“On one end we had a differential sun gear welded on, which meshes with the planet gear. On the other end the shaft had to be extended in order to reach the full length. We did this by welding another shaft to the end of the half axle. On the end of this shaft another planet gear was welded.

In order to accommodate the mechanism without disturbing the steering mechanism we mounted another sun gear onto the axis of the steering mechanism. This is basically an idler gear mounted on the steering axis on a bearing to let the steering handle turn smoothly without being disturbed by the power transmission. We did this by mounting a bearing onto the frame on the underside of the triple clamp mounting and fixing the gear onto this. We could now take the drive from the other side without disturbing the steering. This was secured using a single bolt in the centre which had to be fabricated to suit our purpose,” says Arpit. This is one of the most important aspects of their designs as it allows the drive to be transferred to the other side, essentially the driving sprocket for the front wheel, without interfering with the steering mechanism.

“In order to provide the final drive without disturbing a lot of the existing mechanism, we decided to use a chain drive. To obtain power for this, we had to weld a driving sprocket onto a planet gear. This was secured onto a bracket and takes drive from the sun gear mounted between the triple clamps. This sprocket drives the chain which then drives the front wheel sprocket which has been bolted onto the wheel hub,” explains Pawan. But, they had a problem getting the chain to drive the sprocket, as it would slacken under situations like turning and shock absorber action. “We could not rectify this in time so we decided to cease the suspension action,” says Rachit. (The reader must remember that the quartet was undertaking this job as part of their final year assignment and therefore, had limited time and money.)

“Finally we have been able to successfully drive the front wheel of the Kawasaki Bajaj KB 100 with hundred percent mechanical linkages. The steering works properly while running the front wheel. Our idea of having a two wheel drive motorcycle for the pure purpose of off-roading has been successfully transformed into a practically working model with some scope for improvement,” choruses the foursome.

The design they worked on incorporating chain and shaft drive gave them a system that is selective and can therefore be efficient. If refined properly the entire assembly won’t have to be heavy or rough at all. The system devised also ensures minimal losses in terms of friction. “Given a chance, a lot of improvement can be made to make it lighter and ready for road and off-road use. It’ll surely make life easier for people living in extreme weather conditions,” says Rachit.

How it benefits

Here is an example of how two wheel drive utilizes traction better than single wheel drive. Each of the two tyres on a vehicle has traction (the friction between rubber and ground). Let’s assume that each tyre on dry surface has a traction value of 100; hence, a total of 200. In a single wheel drive, only the traction of one tyre is used (100) to create a forward movement. The torque of the engine is using the resistance (traction) of two tyres to get you moving. Let’s say a torque value of 60 is needed to move the vehicle. The traction value 100 is used up by 60 torque units. A margin of safety of 40 units remains.

Let’s say due to slippery ground the traction value drops to 50 per tyre. That gives you only 50 usable units on the one tyre. But with 60 torque units your traction account is overdrawn by 10. This results in spinning tyres and you cant get the vehicle moving.

In a two wheel drive system the engines power is not sent to one tyre; the power is sent to both the tyres. Therefore on a dry surface with 200 traction value and 60 torque withdrawal, a safety margin of 140 units remains. On slippery ground with a traction of 100 and torque of 60, a safety margin of 40 remains. The tyre do not spin and forward movement is guaranteed. As you see, in a two wheel drive, the traction account is twice as high as in a single wheel drive.

The foursome feels that there is great scope in the development of two-wheel drive motorcycles not only for off-roading and motorsports but also for regular commuters. “As was proved by Yamaha using their 2-trac system in a road bike on a race track, it was demonstrated that the bike had better grip and traction under wet conditions and didn’t lose traction. Our design is therefore viable provided the infrastructure for fabrication and production is proper. We have done the best we could, and honestly, owing to limitations of time and finance, this is not the best possible two-wheel drive,” admits the four of them. Nevertheless, a great achievement from four just-passed graduates.

END

The fabulous Fantabulus

Story: Nikhil Raghavan

If there ever was an ugly duckling from the Royal Enfield stable, it was the Fantabulus. When the contraption was unleashed on the unsuspecting public in the late 60’s, scooterists and motorcyclists alike did double and triple takes, scratched their heads and wondered – is it a bike? Is it a scooter? Close your eyes and it sounded like a bike. Open you eyes and…well…it looked like a steel trunk on two wheels!

A couple of years ago, I was dead keen on tracking one of these machines. Not much info was available on the Net (strangely) on the Fantabulus. Folks at Enfield had no clue either.

Then, out of the blue I got this call from a Sarangan, a bike collector (especially of 350 cc bikes – more of him in later issues), informing me that he had just procured a 1970 (1971 registered) model Fantabulus. So, off I went to his house to check out the contraption, which many moons ago I had struggled to ride – and, I’ll tell you why.

The Fantabulus is built like a scooter, but uses a Villiers 2 stroke, single cylinder, fan cooled engine. Being from the Enfield household, the gears are on the wrong side…er…I mean, on the right side er…never mind. Therefore, the floor board-cum-foot rest had two pedals protruding from it. For engaging the first gear, you stomped the forward pedal down. For the remaining three gears, the rear pedal was stomped down in sequence. The brake pedal was on the left foot – another pedal to stomp down! The clutch was on the left handle and the front brake on the right, thank god! Atleast here, the norm was maintained.

The 1970 model came with a kick starter on the right hand side and did not have an ignition switch. If you wanted to start the engine, just kick start. There was an engine kill switch, though.

The 175cc scooter was chain driven and its suspension consisted of a dual link, pivoted fork with hydraulic dampers in front (very similar to the Rajdoot bikes) and a single swing arm pivoted fork with large hydraulic damper at the back. The exhaust had twin pipes emanating from the silencer box. The ignition was through a Villiers Magneto with built-in ignition coil – no points! The 15.2cm dia headlamp with visor fitted is a 6V direct lighting system. The manual says that fuel consumption was 38.5 km/litre approx! The fuel tank had a capacity of 8 litres with another 1 litre plus in reserve.

The Fantabulus at hand was originally owned by Shamrao Baparao Jadhav in Kolhapur. Now 68 years old, Shamrao had maintained the scooter in almost mint condition. Almost everything was in original condition – he had even repainted the body in the original white – a tad pale, though.

The RC book showed that Shamrao had paid an annual tax of Rs. 48 in 1971. He had given Sarangan a photograph of himself with his 4-year-old son standing on the scooter, taken in 1975. Today, the son has a daughter of the same age!

Says Sarangan on how he spotted the scooter and managed to buy it. “I came to know through certain sources which I can’t disclose, about the Fantabulus at Kolhapur. I managed to track the owner after a lot of effort and started my subdued badgering. Shamrao was quite reluctant to sell it to a stranger. He probably wanted the company, Enfield, to buy it back so that they could preserve it for posterity, or to a museum. Considering that he had taken so much care and had not even allowed his son to ride it all these years, I knew it would be difficult to persuade him. But, fortunately, neither the company nor any museum was forthcoming to his expectations; this solved half my problems.

I then had to convince him that I was indeed a bike collector and that I had seven Enfield bikes at hand. I had to impress upon him that I was not out to make money out of the transaction. After six months of telephonic conversations (I must have blown close to 5Kon telephone bills!), I got a slight nod from him – he would consider….! The next thing I did was to hop, skip and jump to Kolhapur and land on his doorstep.

A surprised Shamrao still hummed and hawed and was not yet convinced why he should sell it in the first place. I told him, ‘listen, if I was not that crazy about old bikes and scooters (this is my first scooter), why would I spend time, money and energy to be in Kolhapur? He eased a bit, allowed me to inspect and ride the scooter and go through the documents. Imagine, he had the original RC, the receipt for an installment he paid, the original maintenance manual….et al.

The speedometer was not tampered at all and read 51000 kms. Shamrao, a building contractor, had done extensive riding on the Fantabulus. He remembered a trip he made from Kolhapur to Goa when he did an average of 70 kmph, without a murmur from the scooter.”

Transaction done, papers exchanged and formalities completed, Sarangan did not stay a day longer at Kolhapur, lest Shamrao changed his mind. The Fantabulus was lovingly packed and transported by train all the way to Chennai. It now sits proudly parked amidst his collection of Bullets, Fury 175, Jawa 350, Thunderbird and Yamaha RD 350.

Sarangan, an aviation maintenance engineer dabbles in hi-tech aircraft during his official working hours and when he is not taking care of airplanes, finds himself comfortable astride his stable of powerful bikes.

Amidst the several 350cc bikes he owns, Sarangan considers the Fantabulus his prized catch, for he firmly believes that there are only a very few around in the country.

END