Tamiya Dancing Rider Project

Page 1: Assembly

Here's the box. Nothing fancy, but it does a good job of displaying the quirkiness of this model. I was able to easily build the model in a day with another day for painting and finishing.

Despite the relative simplicity of the model, it does have a real gearbox. We start with a plastic gear differential and some plastic bushings. The rear axle housing contains the gearbox, the motor, and a spring cartridge for the rear suspension. The preload can be changed to adjust ride height. This part of the model does not lean but always stays square to the ground.

Here is the main body. This shell has no mechanical parts but it houses the battery and will connect to the rear axle, the front fork, and will hold the steering servo.

The front fork telescopes with small springs for suspension but has no damping. There is no power to the front fork, instead the caster angle keeps it straight when going forward. When turning, the inertial forces balance against the caster to give you a perfect turn. The steering servo directly controls the lean by connecting to the rear axle housing. I used the cheapest servo possible and it still has plenty of power. It all works remarkably well.

With the limited space available behind the driver, a standard 2 channel receiver looks huge. The usual TEU-105BK Tamiya ESC wouldn't fit, so I opted for a very small Hobbywing 1625 which fit perfectly. I used the binding terminals on the receiver to power the LED headlights.

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