Many famous companies produce off-road motorcycles - these include cross-bikes, as well as enduros, which differ from the first in their large size and suitability for long trips. However, even they cannot be called full-fledged two-wheeled SUVs, since the slippery ground that falls under driving wheel, can cause slippage and bogging down. To move through the swamp you need all-wheel drive motorcycle, which would allow the use of traction on front wheel to continue moving in the most difficult situations. Despite the seeming unreality of such a vehicle, it can be purchased without spending a lot of time. We will tell you about the most successful models mass-produced all-wheel drive motorcycles.

Pioneer

Back in 1960, the American company Rokon introduced the world's first all-wheel drive motorcycle, which became a real sensation known throughout the world. The engineers involved in its development did not apply complex technical solutions Instead, they used two chains to drive the front wheel. A small gearbox was in - it allowed to increase the torque and change the direction of movement of the drive mechanism. The chain drive was simple enough, but the motorcycle required maintenance after each off-road ride - pieces of dirt stuck to the mechanism, which threatened it with serious damage.

An interesting approach was chosen by the creators of such a vehicle to solve the problem of vertical movement of the wheel. When the suspension was compressed, the chain would instantly disengage from the sprocket, so the shock absorbers and springs ... were simply removed as elements that interfere with the main task of the technique. But a motorcycle with all-wheel drive did not become less comfortable from this - on it with low pressure, which completely took over the functions of the running gear. Their advantage is also a large width, which reduces the specific pressure on the ground - due to this, all-wheel drive vehicles can move through a swamp or marshy soil without bogging down.

Many motorcyclists will be curious to know that Rokon engineers have even found use for the cavities inside rims. They contain a reserve supply of water and fuel, which will help the driver get out of the most difficult situation, even in extreme circumstances. Rokon buys engines - the company has entered into a cooperation agreement with Japanese manufacturer Honda and the American industrial concern Kohler. More power and any remarkable dynamic parameters would not be a big advantage for a motorcycle capable of moving through a swamp, so a two-cylinder power unit and a three-speed transmission were chosen as the basis.

Interestingly, Rokon uses four-wheel drive on their motorcycles for more than 50 years, without changing the layout of the transmission and chassis. Only relatively recently, a small batch of motorcycles adapted for private owners was released - they differed from the option described above in the presence of a lever front wheel and a drive based on two cardan shafts missed inside the fork. Modifications without front suspension are supplied to the armies of ten countries, among which are the United States and Israel.

mechanical drive

Around the beginning of the 90s, Christini all-wheel drive bicycles were born, which were produced by a small company from the United States. The owner of the enterprise, Steve Christini, came up with a system mechanical drive for the front wheel and patented it. After some time, it occurred to him to adapt such a drive for motorcycles, which he successfully did, spending about a year and a half on finalizing the mechanism.

The 2x2 motorcycle from Christini uses a long telescopic shaft to drive the front wheel, stretched between two angular gears located on the hub and in the fork. The transmission of torque to the second transmission element is carried out using a small cardan. This arrangement turned out to be more successful than the chain mechanism, since the shaft does not get dirty even when driving through severe off-road conditions. However, its disadvantage was the high cost, which limited the number of buyers.

In the beginning, Christini produced only special conversion kits for Honda and KTM motorcycles - you could install them yourself, or seek professional installation services at the company's main assembly shop. However, since the mid-2000s, the production of motorcycles has begun. own design. They became interested in various US intelligence agencies - from rescuers to the army and medical centers in remote mountainous areas. Now the company produces about 1,000 motorcycles a year and still produces custom conversion kits for other brands.

The idea of ​​an all-wheel drive motorcycle haunted domestic manufacturers as well - back in the 70s, the first off-road Ural was tested, which was deprived of the front suspension, which was removed for the installation of gearboxes in combination with cardan shaft. However, this design was too expensive and difficult to maintain, so it was decided to abandon it. Nevertheless, there were many enthusiasts who equipped domestic motorcycles all-wheel drive transmission- they used a similar scheme with a cardan shaft and no front suspension.

However, things did not go beyond single experiments. Due to the high cost of all-wheel drive Vehicle completely different off-road motorcycles went into the series. They were equipped with a non-removable stroller, under which passed drive shaft, rotating additional wheel. In fact, this vehicle was a tricycle with an offset front wheel - this arrangement provided increased cross-country ability and greater reliability compared to all-wheel drive models. produced by the Irbit plant "Ural" and the Kyiv "Dnepr".

Modern analogues

A significant disadvantage of all the schemes described above was that they did not allow you to choose the proportion of torque transmitted to the front wheel. As a result, such motorcycles were difficult to manage and not very economical, since transmission losses reached very large values. Suggested an alternative arrangement Yamaha, which released the WR450F 2-Trac model in the late 90s, based on a racing prototype. Her main feature there was a complete absence of mechanical drive components, which made it possible to make such a system reliable and easy to use.

Having wondered how to make a modern-style all-wheel drive motorcycle, Yamaha engineers came up with one simple solution- the front wheel should not rotate the shaft and not the chain, in a compact hydraulic motor that can be easily built into the hub. In turn, the oil came to him through the line, which is a high-strength reinforced hose that can withstand very heavy loads. The oil pressure in the motorcycle's four-wheel drive system was created by a small pump located next to the gearbox - it was driven by a separate chain. This arrangement made it possible to automate the change in the distribution of torque between the wheels. If the rear wheel is turning at normal speed, the hydraulic motor is idle and the motorcycle remains rear wheel drive, however, at the slightest sign of slippage, the pump kicks in to deliver 15% of the torque to the front.

Went the alternative way Honda- in its prototype, a compact collector electric motor was used, which was also located in the front wheel hub. To drive such an additional unit, an increased power generator was used, which made it possible to power a 5-kilowatt unit using an electric main wire. The layout was quite successful, since even a slight slack in the wire left freedom for the vertical movement of the wheel. However, the manufacturer was forced to abandon it, since the electric motor overheated for a long time - it had to be cooled for 10 minutes every half hour. Therefore, all-wheel drive Honda motorcycle we did not see - the company focused on the production of heavy enduro and cross bikes, which became for it one of the most important areas for further work.

Is it possible to buy an all-wheel drive motorcycle?

If we are talking about the American Rokon and Christini, then they are available for purchase all over the world, but the high cost casts doubt on the feasibility of such a purchase. If we take into account tax and customs fees, then the cost of the first will be 25 thousand dollars, and its more modern counterpart - 30 thousand. A much more realistic option is to purchase the Japanese Yamaha WR450F 2-Trac, which is estimated at about 800 thousand rubles. You can buy a used motorcycle, but you have to pay close attention to technical condition its hydraulic drive. Also in Russia, you can buy a home-made all-wheel drive motorcycle, but in this case you will not receive any guarantees of quality and reliability of equipment.

SUVs

Two-wheeled all-terrain vehicle(SUV) is, in fact, a motorcycle equipped with an unpretentious, powerful engine, automatic transmission and wide off-road tires with aggressive tread. An all-terrain motorcycle is a compact, easy-to-operate, inexpensive, but reliable vehicle that is designed to move over rough terrain with sections of complete off-road.

Forest trails, ravines, mud, shallow snow, sand, wetlands and shallow water - all these off-road areas, due to their qualities, are easily overcome by two-wheeled ATVs, and therefore hunters, fishermen and extreme tourists usually seek to buy an ATV, who deservedly managed to evaluate this mode of transport. Tracked motorcycles can also be attributed to off-road vehicles, but their non-separable design is much more complicated and less practical.

Big wheels with wide rubber with developed lugs, or tracks provide an off-road motorcycle confident grip With various types surfaces in summer and winter seasons, allowing the tracked, two-wheeled, or three-wheeled ATV to ignore bumps in its path. SUVs include light caterpillar motorcycle A-tech and snowmobile motorcycles with skis instead of the front wheel and a caterpillar in place of the rear.

The compactness of wheeled off-road vehicles is another significant advantage of this type of motor vehicles. small dimensions and, relatively, low weight, allow the off-road motorcycle to move and effectively maneuver through trees, as well as on narrow winding paths. The collapsible lightweight design of the two-wheeled ATV allows it to be transported in medium-sized vehicles.

The most famous two-wheeled all-terrain vehicles in Russia are the American Rokon off-road motorcycles, as well as the famous Russian developments Ataman, Kunitsa and the already mentioned A-Tech caterpillar off-road vehicle. For example, the creators of the Ataman all-terrain vehicles went further and released the three-wheeled all-terrain vehicle Ataman Trike, which has greater stability and load capacity.

In addition to hunting, fishing and tourism, two-wheeled all-terrain vehicles can be used in household plots to perform some agricultural work. This motorcycle equipment is reliable and easy to maintain, it is popular and has long received favorable reviews from the owners. But still, she sometimes needs repairs, which, due to the simplicity of the device, can be carried out in unprepared and even in the field.

In the current 2004, Yamaha is introducing a 2-wheel drive motorcycle to the market. Although this is not the first such device in history, new car will become an event. After all, it will be the first model that fully reveals the advantages of such a scheme, both in terms of off-road patency and in terms of the safety of high-speed driving on asphalt.

In January 2004, another Paris-Dakar rally ended. In the motorcycle class with a volume of 450 "cubes", the Frenchman David Fretigne won on a Yamaha WR450F 2-Trac motorcycle.

The rider overtook many rivals on motorcycles with much larger displacement, winning three stages and finishing seventh in the overall motorcycle standings.

This event is notable for the fact that the aforementioned motorcycle is one of the few in the world with two-wheel drive. Plus, it will be available on the market soon!

However, before we go into more detail about Japanese novelty- a bit of history.

The earliest experiments on the creation of all-wheel drive motorcycles (we do not consider motorcycles with an "active" sidecar here) date back to 1924-1937.

Then several inventors at once converted ordinary motorcycles into all-wheel drive in a makeshift way. It didn't turn out very well.

Mechanical transmission with shafts and chains was unreliable. It was difficult to get it to work properly with the front wheel, which turned and “jumped” up and down.

One of the first all-wheel drive motorcycles: 1934, chain drive on the front wheel, the author is a Bertold Ericsson (photo from markvanderkwaak.com).

The company was in no hurry. She generally did not advertise her research for several years. Only in 1998, the Japanese showed a prototype of an exotic two-wheeled vehicle at the exhibition, continuing to experiment with the design.

In 1999-2002, all-wheel drive Yamahas performed well in rallies. And each time these were machines built on the basis of various production models firms.

And just recently followed the triumph of Fretine and the announcement that the design of the four-wheel drive for a motorcycle has been polished enough that it is ready to become a serial product.

It must be said that in the 1980s, Yamaha tried several options mechanical transmission and found that they are too heavy, complex and capricious, requiring a large alteration of the entire motorcycle structure.

Compared to them hydraulic system turned out to be relatively simple, light, compact and, so to speak, discrete, which was convenient for layout reasons.

Yamaha WR450F 2-Trac in all its glory. Pay attention to the hoses going to the front hub (photo from gizmo.com.au).

That's why new system 2-Trac uses hydraulic pump located above the gearbox and driven by a chain.

The pump is connected by flexible hoses to a hydraulic motor located in the front wheel hub.

The power transmitted to the front wheel is proportional to the speed rear wheel: the more the rear wheel slips and loses traction, the more the hydraulic system increases the traction in the front wheel. It can transfer up to 15% of the power of a motorcycle engine to it.

And vice versa - restoring traction of the rear wheel smoothly (so that skidding and yaw does not occur) reduces the power given forward.

Diagram of the front wheel hydraulic drive on the new Yamaha (illustration from gizmo.com.au).

Riders who have tried the new product claim that a motorcycle with an automatic traction redistribution system easily passes where its classic counterpart burrows - with the same tires and the same engine.

And on mud, sand or wet clay, the novelty also differs better handling. “You don’t have to fight with this motorcycle,” the athletes said.

Although the first motorcycle with this system offered for general sale is a converted production WR450F Enduro, the company intends to continue to put 2-Trac on its scooters and even powerful superbikes.

Drive unit oil pump from the gearbox and an almost imperceptible hydraulic motor on the front wheel - a highlight Yamaha motorcycle WR450F 2-Trac (photo from gizmo.com.au).

New automatics and all-wheel drive should provide increased safety sports motorcycles- this is a new direction for the application of the 2x2 scheme - Yamaha's trump card.

In particular, tests of a one-liter R1 with such a system showed its superiority over the standard version in stability and controllability on high speeds and on wet pavement.

In the rain racing track this unit brought its serial twin R1 five seconds per lap.

Interestingly, the price of the 2-Trac "set" has not yet been announced, but the firm claims that the difference compared to conventional cars won't be too big.

Off-road motorcycle - a two-wheeled or three-wheeled, usually all-wheel drive motorcycle on tires low pressure or tires with off-road tread. In fact, this is an all-terrain motorcycle designed for movement, primarily on the road. Its element is narrow forest paths and clearings, mud and sand, ice and shallow snow, and in some cases the water surface of reservoirs (like a karakat).

Off-road motorcycles, less often scooters (the latter, as a rule, Russian craftsmen remake with their own hands from ordinary scooters), are very popular among lovers of hunting and fishing. Low speed, but excellent traction created by the drive wheels, allows a compact off-road vehicle to maneuver among trees and stones, not get stuck in mud and snowdrifts.

Rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive off-road motorcycles, in most cases, are equipped with gasoline engines, the same as those installed on walk-behind tractors and motorized towing vehicles. The most famous domestic off-road vehicles are Ataman all-terrain vehicles manufactured by Lebedev Garage. Usually, they are equipped with four-stroke power units power from 6.5 to 15 hp

Russian all-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles Vasyugan also involve the installation of similar motor engines, but the manufacturer prefers motors from ATVs. These SUVs, unlike Lebedev's Atamans, are fully assembled to order, taking into account any wishes of their future owners. Therefore, the price of "Vasyuganov" is somewhat higher and almost always individual.

TO domestic developments motorized off-road vehicles include the Soviet Tula motorcycle with an engine from a scooter. Buy off-road motorcycle in those days it was not easy, but their tuning is very popular in our country to this day. Let's not forget about the all-terrain vehicles Kunitsa (analogous to "Ataman"), which appeared on the Russian market in the middle of the "zero" years, Arkhar, Barkhan, etc.

American two-wheeled off-road motorcycles Rokon, produced in civilian and military versions and having unique system drive to both wheels. Rocon SUV wheels are made of aluminum, in the form of sealed containers that are designed to transport fuel, water or other liquids.

This type of motor vehicles will also be of interest to residents of Russian villages located far from comfortable highways and well-equipped country roads. At top speed up to 50-60 km / h, the SUV confidently overcomes off-road sections, where it would be very problematic to drive a regular motorcycle or even an ATV. However, the price of such a vehicle is lower than the cost of ATVs.

The category "Motor SUVs" can also include karakats - pneumatic ducts. These are light all-terrain vehicles with large car or tractor chambers instead of wheels, which contain a sufficient amount of air. Thanks to such tires, the karakat has positive buoyancy. The pneumatic hoist can move freely through swamps and water, over any snow and ice.