Ariel Atom crash!

4 lug vs 5 lug wheels?

Keith, the reports I've seen of people having problems with the HD fly by wire throttle all seem to be experienced riders. I think one crash was a motorcycle cop. Others have managed to kill the bike before anything bad happened and some have pulled the clutch in, etc. I think there's a problem with their code but they don't want to admit it. This is the first year on the fly by wire for them. The MoCo these days seems to be having some issues addressing QC. In the mid 80's, post AMF, any issue was immediately jumped on and corrected, even if it wasn't that much of a problem. Like redesigning the lifters in 87 to be just a little better than the old ones from 86, which were really fine but showed wear. Now, they point fingers and update the next model year and offer to sell a kit for the previous year. My 1986 80" bike will run with a new 88", no problem. Probably outrun most of them similarly equipped. I dunno about the 103" or 110" though. There's no replacement for displacement.

As for the Lexus, there's no telling what Toyota programmed for the throttle. It could be programmed to maximize efficiency or avoid wiggling geezer feet or anything else. I just find that it doesn't react like a wire throttle for me and I have to remember to push slow on the pedal. Of course, everything else with 4 wheels I drive has half the cylinders.

It's in Belgium :) Thus it's an Ariel car.

As for the location of the helper springs, I'll bet that has to do with whoever assembles them. There's no functional difference. Well, maybe you could count them as unsprung weight if they're on the moving side of the shock.

Drive-by-wire is like everything else. It can be done well or done badly. Sounds like Harley decided to go with the latter. BMW put a goofy valve in the clutch system on the 540i that makes every driver look like a rank beginner, so who knows what Lexus did to make the car feel different. Sharp tip-in response (which can easily be done using a non-proportional throttle wheel on a cable, hello GM) is a choice they made, probably to make the car feel more powerful.

I have had a throttle stick wide open on me once. I was in college, driving home from a day testing/setting-up an FSAE car. The old Civic I was driving had a lot of corrosion on everything. I put my foot in it to get around corner before the traffic light turned red and the accelerator pedel stayed on the floor and the car kept accelerating.

If this had happened any other day I might have paniced. But after all the seat time in the ultra quick, responsive FSAE car, the Civic felt like it was running in slow motion. My thought was, "Oh.. The thottle is stuck." I reached down and turned the key off to kill the engine, back on the keep the steering from locking and looked for a place to pull off the road. The linkage and throttle cable were dry an rusty. I few shots of penetrating oil and and some grease and the car was good to go again. I was, and still am, grateful that the throttle stuck in my slow street car and not the formula car. That would have been scary.

On a side note, I just stole that guys avatar

Yep. The helper springs. But you might be right. Whoever assembles the car that day probably chooses.

Two words: Clutch Pedal.

.

No kidding. I thought that would have been the first move. I don't want to pretend to know what was happening as people in my line of business tend to love their armchair quarterbacking when they can't feel the adrenaline and fear going through your mind when a mishap is underway (pilots).

Could it have been an auto, I can only make out 2 pedals?

Keith wrote: Story according to the driver

I'd have disengaged the clutch and let the engine kill itself. A Honda K20A is much cheaper than an Ariel Atom chassis.

I know a guy who was running twin webers on a Daihatsu Charade IIRC, and the throttle jammed open...he used the brakes to force it to a stop. The brakes and clutch were toast.

Also I had a 38/38D weber I was considering putting on my AE92 (gas was much cheaper back then) and until I lubricated the throttle shaft, it had a tendency to stay open for a fraction of a second before closing.

Dr. Hess wrote: The new Harleys are Fly By Wire for the throttle.

Electronics in a Harley!?!? Has hell frozen over!?!?!?

Harley's have had an electronic ignition since 1978. Fuel injection came in about 10 years ago on some bikes. The electronic throttle is new. I think I prefer the two throttle cables: Pull open and pull closed. When I Megasquirted the Sportster, I used a Buell throttle body with the two cables.

Honda has used push-pull cables on their 250 and up off road four strokes for many years. Supposedly engine vacuum can, under certain conditions, pull the throttle slide against the carb bore and thus keep the throttle from returning to idle. We always called the extra cable the 'lawyer cable'.

[non electronics trusting old fart] Having seen the stupid stuff RC cars can do when battery voltage drops, I get the heebie jeebies about drive by wire. [/non electronics trusting old fart]

confuZion3 wrote: Trivia question: How can you easily tell that this vehicle is an Ariel Motors car and not an American Bramma Motorsports car?

The Brammo cars were labelled Ariel as well.