Halfling on a motorcycle: SM and Skill

[Lovewyrm]

There just have to be shops willing to do this, maybe not your average mass consumer shop, but shops run by regular folks, they'd probably be 100% down with it.

A halfling is basically just a 'little person', and those riding on choppers and the like is just cool.
If I had the skills for it, and even got paid on top of it? Then I'd be 100% down simply because it's 'cool'.

So I don't know if the halfling has to suffer through regular equipment for long.
Someone out there with the tools and the personality for it will do this.

Like this wolf truck:
https://imgur.com/gallery/fehbT54

[DemiBenson]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

An option would be a racetrack motorbike: they are generally designed for short riders (most profesional MotoGP pilots are around 1,55m) and you can get even shorter since smaller categories (125—250cc) can be fitted for Kids. Additionally "minimotos" were quite popular in the '90, that design can be used stock without a problem. And a last choice could be a scooter/vespa, growing up in Italy i saw things...

Racing bikes are still sized for SM0 humans, and they have the downside that all available space has already been trimmed, so there’s no room for customization to make the important distances smaller.

A mini moto might work, though.

But any custom vehicle that puts the user’s eyes much below the expected range will mean the rider will have problems riding and navigating in modern SM0 human traffic - their eyes are too low to see through car windows and other drivers won’t notice them. I foresee a lot of “accidentally rear-ended or run-over by trucks”.

[Dalillama]

I'd recommend a "pocket rocket" style minibike, some of those have quite decent performance I understand. If the PC isn't the only halfling in the game world, probably there's a significant market for such things aimed at halflings already.

[Lovewyrm]

Perhaps some hydraulics?
Getting down on the ground is mostly for standing still after all.

It's why regular bike seats should be kept high, high enough to pedal efficiently, but that usually puts the rider at a height where it's not easy to stay seated while standing still, and has to scoot forward over the frame to touch the ground.
But that's fine cause it's a bike for riding, not parking.

Thus, the hobbike...I mean halfbike could perhaps have some lowrider like suspension to keep it elevated during driving and thus off curbs and other bumps.
While being able to go low when waiting at the lights.

I bet this can be automated with engineering too.
Like a reverse truck brake for attachments (the things that go PSHHH) That get recharged while driving.
But since I lack any real knowledge about this, I don't know if it's feasible.

[Stormcrow]

I don't have any great wisdom about motorcycles to offer. I simply wanted to chime in with this: whatever penalty you might assign for the awkwardness of a halfling riding a human-sized motorcycle, you should also permit the halfling to acquire a technique to buy off the penalty.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

Perhaps some hydraulics?

You can do a lot of stuff with custom builds.

As far as parking goes, some of the big BMW touring bikes have automated systems for it. In part because they're aoubt 3 times as heavy as a more conventional MC while also having a relatively high centre of gravity. It would be reasonable to think that you could fit a similar system on a smaller bike if the training wheels aren't enough.

You could even do a custom built bike from scratch to fit someone at SM -2, it's just a matter of figuring out how to make things fit while ensuring everything is within reach. And it's almost certainly going to be more expensive than a stock bike of the same calibre. Savings on materials are going to be slim while the amount of hours worked both on design and assembly will be quite a bit higher. At least if you want something of a reasonably safe quality for the road.

But if there are a lot of SM -2 people in the world that want to ride bikes, the time investment on the design and assembly become less of a factor.

[Donny Brook]

The Shriners have what halfling bikers need.
https://jleibovitch.tripod.com/63434160.jpg

[Pursuivant]

Given that it's fantasy, a Halfling might have customized stilts and "waldoes" to give them the same reach and mobility as a Human. With practice those aids could possibly negate Size penalties.

Alternately, a Halfling could commission a man-sized magical exoskeleton which would be a more elegant way of getting the same effect.

Enchantments could also be used to adapt large equipment to small users. A variant enchantment based on the Manipulate spell seems appropriate.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Originally Posted by JulianLW

Halflings got to be free! They need the open rooooad!

Borrrn, to be wild! -- Steppenwolf

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by DemiBenson

However, if they are already customizing a motorcycle, then one option is “landing gear” - a pair of small stability wheels that deploy to the sides when below certain speeds. That means the moto slows down, the landing gear deploy, and as the moto comes to a stop, it leans into the landing gear on one side or the other, and then when accelerating again (with practice it is safe to accelerate while leaned over, and straighten up with a little speed), the landing gear retract.

That sounds like a solid option. My personal inclination would lean more toward them opting for reverse trikes, but that might just be a result of me really liking those in Death Stranding.

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

Like this wolf truck

I mean, there's precedence for halflings opting for riding dogs, so a dog-themed motorcycle is an option for custom work. Sorta reminiscent of the horse-themed (well, unicorn-themed, arguably, given the spike on the head) motorcycle from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's second DLC package.

Originally Posted by DemiBenson

That is, either a custom-built one that is proportional in size (but would not have enough engine to be highway-legal)

This appears to presume one or more halflings suddenly showing up in the modern day. In a setting where halflings have been known for a while, and have integrated into the larger society, things would be a bit different - I'd expect the laws would be more about having some minimum acceleration/maximum velocity (or power-to-weight ratio) rather than a minimum engine power to be on the highway.

Originally Posted by DemiBenson

But any custom vehicle that puts the user’s eyes much below the expected range will mean the rider will have problems riding and navigating in modern SM0 human traffic - their eyes are too low to see through car windows and other drivers won’t notice them. I foresee a lot of “accidentally rear-ended or run-over by trucks”.

For the first bit, honestly that's not much different from someone in a small car (or I assume on a motorcycle, I've never ridden one myself) in an area where everyone drives trucks; it's not pleasant, but it's doable. They'd probably want to avoid night-driving, however, as the lights of the SM+0 scaled vehicles will be at just the right height to blind them (either from a vehicle coming from the other direction, or from reflecting off their rearview mirrors; I personally try to avoid night-driving for this reason, since many people in my area drive obnoxiously-large trucks and/or think having their brights on when behind somebody is perfectly acceptable). For the latter bit (people not seeing them), one option might be reflectors or similar on elevated mounts so they're harder to miss seeing.

That said, an option that lets them sit roughly eye-level with the SM+0 drivers on the road is going to be better.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Given that it's fantasy, a Halfling might have customized stilts and "waldoes" to give them the same reach and mobility as a Human. With practice those aids could possibly negate Size penalties.

Looking things up online, it's suggested for people with prosthetic legs - which stilts would function similarly to - to customize their motorcycle to move all the foot controls to the handlebars (or have them on the side where their remaining leg is, if they're only missing one). So a halfling opting for "riding stilts" would want to do the same.

Stilts seem like something that would be of good use to halflings living in an SM+0 area, although some might see them as demeaning as they imply halflings aren't good enough and need to change themselves to match us bumbling cloud-scrapers (said halflings probably don't take kindly to being called halflings, either - "I'm not half anything!"). Ditto the man-mecha.