Honda Riding Assist Self-Balancing Motorcycle That Reimagines Freedom and Safety
24th October 2025, Kathmandu
The allure of the motorcycle lies in its promise of overwhelming freedom, the sensation of becoming one with the machine on the open road.
Honda Riding Assist Self-Balancing Motorcycle
However, this freedom comes with the inherent challenge of balance on two wheels, a skill that can deter new riders or cause concern for those on large machines. Honda’s ambitious answer to this dilemma is the Honda Riding Assist technology.
Born from the desire for a motorcycle that anyone can enjoy riding with ease and with virtually no risk of falling, Honda Riding Assist is a groundbreaking system that applies sophisticated balance control technologies, initially developed for the humanoid robot ASIMO, to a two-wheeled vehicle.
The Robotics Foundation: From ASIMO to Riding Assist
The core of Riding Assist lies in the principle of inverted pendulum control, a concept essential for keeping the bipedal ASIMO upright. An inverted pendulum, where the center of gravity is above the fulcrum, is an inherently unstable system, like balancing an umbrella on your palm.
ASIMO’s Balance: The robot maintains balance by moving its ankle to shift the ground contact point (fulcrum) and its trunk to shift the center of gravity.
Motorcycle Analogy: A stationary motorcycle, like a rider turning the front wheel and shifting their body, uses the same principle to maintain equilibrium.
Recognizing this common dynamic, Honda’s R&D team saw an opportunity to integrate ASIMO’s proven balance control know-how into the world of motorcycling, aiming to overcome the fear of falling at low speeds or when stopped, a major barrier for potential riders.
Generation 1 (CES 2017): Achieving the “Self-Standing Motorcycle”
The first-generation concept, unveiled at CES 2017, demonstrated the revolutionary capability of the motorcycle to remain upright even when stationary, with or without a rider. This was achieved through:
Front Wheel Steering Control: An actuator assists the front wheel in making minute, automatic steering corrections.
Variable Trail Technology: A second actuator changes the front fork angle to adjust the trail length (the distance between the front wheel’s contact point and the steering axis intersection with the road).
At normal speeds, it maintains a positive trail for conventional stability.
At low speeds or when stationary, it switches to a negative trail (steering axis behind the contact point) to maximize the effectiveness of steering corrections in maintaining balance.
This system successfully achieved the ‘self-standing’ capability by generating restorative balance forces from steering, lateral acceleration, centrifugal force, and calculated mass point movement.
Generation 2 (2021): Harmonizing with the Rider
Despite the success of Generation 1, a significant issue remained: the autonomous control often contradicted the rider’s intentions, for instance, attempting to straighten the motorcycle even when the rider was leaning into a turn. The experience felt unnatural.
Honda addressed this with the second-generation system, shifting its focus to rider-machine cooperative control that prioritizes the rider’s steering intention.
New Balance Mechanism: The variable trail length mechanism (a source of rider discomfort) was replaced with a new four-link trapezoidal oscillating mechanism placed between the frame and the rear wheel.
Mass Point Movement Control: This new mechanism, driven by an actuator, allows the frame and rear wheel to oscillate, effectively shifting the rear wheel’s ground contact load point.
This creates a mass point movement effect equivalent to the Generation 1’s negative trail, but without interfering with the handlebars or causing rider discomfort.
Cooperative Control: The system now utilizes a risk of falling over index, a Honda-proprietary metric, to determine when to intervene.
By applying the restoring force from the oscillating mechanism only when the risk of falling is high (during low-speed maneuvers or when stationary), it respects the rider’s freedom to lean and steer while acting as a seamless safety net.
This evolution successfully delivered a motorcycle that not only reduces the risk of falling but also “harmonizes with the rider’s steering intention.”
The Future Vision: A Synergy with Advanced Rider Assistance
The current state of Honda Riding Assist is just the first step toward the ultimate goal of a motorcycle that anyone can enjoy with ease and safety across all riding conditions. Honda’s future development strategy is set on two key directions:
Full-Speed Range Coverage: Expanding the balance assistance to cover all speeds, including high-speed cruising, integrating functions akin to the Honda SENSING advanced rider assistance system, and potentially leading to autonomous riding technologies.
Deeper Rider Understanding: Evolving the cooperative control to be in full alignment with the rider’s intentions.
This will require the technology to move beyond sensing physical inputs and to anticipate the rider’s state of mind, determining whether a vehicle tilt is an intentional turn or a response to an external disturbance.
By deepening its understanding of riders and leveraging its vast experience in robotics and safety systems, Honda aims to make the overwhelming sense of freedom that motorcycling offers more accessible and safer than ever before.
While Honda Riding Assist is still a technology under development with no mass-production date set, its trajectory promises a revolutionary shift in the motorcycling experience.
For more: Honda Riding Assist Self-Balancing Motorcycle
