At the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Honda has showcased something very unique and interesting – Riding Assist. As its name suggests, this technology will assist (specially new) riders in riding motorcycles.
But How?
It uses Honda’s Balance Control Technology to keep the motorcycle straight and self-balanced. In simple terms, if you are a newbie or a shorter rider (or you prefer motorcycles with terribly high saddle heights) at a traffic signal waiting for the light to go green, the motorcycle will balance itself and will not tip over even if your feet are not touching the ground, like this pic…
Interestingly, it doesn’t use gyroscopes since Honda says it increases the weight of the motorcycle. They have achieved this self-balancing mechanism by raking out the motorcycle’s front forks and then moving the front wheel back and forth (watch the video to know how it works). There is another ‘follow the rider‘ feature wherein the motorcycle literally follows you – we have a question “BUT WHY?”!
Honda Riding Assist Video
The concept motorcycle which uses the tech appears to be an off-shoot of the production Honda NC750 adventure motorcycle, which may hint at the possibility of Honda considering introducing Riding Assist on adventure motorcycles first.
This is one very innovative piece of engineering and we have to give it to Honda to work on such a clever riding aid. However, how and when will Riding Assist go into production motorcycles is not known at the moment.
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