Inventory of Bicycle Motion for the Design of a Bicycle Simulator

Inventory of Bicycle Motion for the Design of a Bicycle Simulator

Van den Ouden, J.H.

Schwab, A.L. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Precision and Microsystems Engineering

2011-02-09

In the Netherlands most people have mastered riding a bicycle. Usually at the age of 4 a child learns to ride a bicycle. Few people however know how a bicycle actually works. A bicycle is a dynamic system that is more complex than one would expect. For example in order to go through a left curve on a bicycle one first has to steer right for a short period of time in order to make the bicycle lean to the left. This effect is called: "countersteering". While going through the left curve one needs to apply torque to the handlebars but not in the direction of the curve. The torque that is applied to the handlebars is to the right and it prevents the handlebars from rotating even further. The bicycle as a dynamical system is described in the article "Linearized dynamics equations for the balance and steer of a bicycle: a benchmark and review" [1] written by J. P. Meijaard, Jim M. Papadopoulos, Andy Ruina and A. L. Schwab in 2007.

Bicycle
Bicycle Motion
Bicycle Simulator

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ec31182d-8063-41a3-89ec-799be901cb6e

2011-02-24

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Van den Ouden, J.H.