Piaggio Patents Leaning Four-Wheeler

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The Piaggio four-wheeler patents show how the vehicle uses elements from its MyMoover trike and other models to create this urban-delivery vehicle. (Piaggio/)

The Piaggio MP3 has been in production since 2006, and essentially created its own market for leaning three-wheeled scooters, putting 50 percent more rubber on the road at the front, and adding stability to help attract riders who might be cautious about using conventional two-wheeled vehicles.

Now, the firm has filed a patent application showing an evolution of the idea that expands the wheel count again to create a four-wheeled machine, which still corners like a motorcycle and takes up the bare minimum of space on the road.

Although Piaggio already has the MP3 in its range, that’s not what this bike is based on. Instead it’s derived from another tilting trike, the MyMoover, that reverses the MP3′s layout. Instead of having two front wheels and one at the rear, the MyMoover has one at the front and two at the back. Rather like Honda’s long-running Gyro scooter, which is popular with inner-city delivery riders in Japan, the MyMoover pivots in the center. The rear two wheels, the engine, and transmission all remain upright all the time, while the front end tilts. Like the Gyro, MyMoover is intended for urban delivery purposes.

This illustration shows how the rear remains upright, while the front end leans. (Piaggio/)

For the new patent, Piaggio has taken the entire rear end of the MyMoover, including its 125cc four-stroke engine and the two-wheeled transmission that pivots on the swingarm, but added a new front end with two wheels. It’s not the MP3′s front end, though. Where that machine has vertical struts running up to a parallelogram-style tilting system mounted above the wheels, this bike has a simpler, lighter, and cheaper design. The parallelogram setup is between the wheels, and when you move the bars the whole front-end setup turns, rather than using a linkage connected to each front wheel like the MP3 does.

This detailed look at the front end, shows how the design varies compared to the MP3. (Piaggio/)

The suspension at the front isn’t illustrated in detail but appears to be a variation on the Watts linkage system that Piaggio patented earlier this year. It should approximately mimic the linear movement of a telescopic fork, rather than the arc of a leading or trailing linkage system, while giving the chance to incorporate pro- or anti-dive geometry. Impressively, the whole system is packaged inside the inner diameter of the front wheel rims, allowing them to be mounted closer together, although that will inevitably limit the total suspension travel available.

Side view of the design. (Piaggio/)

As we’ve often seen from Piaggio, the patent drawings are extremely detailed, giving the impression that there’s probably at least one real prototype in existence that formed the basis of them. Whether this four-wheeled scooter ever reaches production is likely to depend on the success of such a prototype and on whether the bike, with more complex front suspension and an additional wheel, can be made cheaply enough to be a marketable proposition.

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[manxie49]

Isn't there something like this already on the market? .... Called a mobility scooter