Validation of a novel bicycle simulator with realistic lateral and roll motion

Bicycle simulators have been the subject of considerable research, however, few of these attempts have integrated direct balance control and realistic freedom of motion to deliver a real-world dynamic cycling experience. This study presents the BIKE (Bicycle Intrinsic Kinematics Emulator) system, a kinematic bicycle simulator, developed with...

Rider control identification in cycling taking into account steering torque feedback and sensory delays

Experiments and human rider models were used to investigate bicycle balance and steering using visuo/vestibular motion and proprioceptive feedback taking into account sensory delays. An instrumented steer-by-wire bicycle designed and built at the TU Delft bicycle laboratory was used to investigate rider responses with and with reduced...

State-of-the-art and challenges of railway and road vehicle dynamics with multibody dynamics approaches

A review of the current use of multibody dynamics methods in the analysis of the dynamics of vehicles is given. Railway vehicle dynamics as well as road vehicle dynamics are considered, where for the latter the dynamics of cars and trucks and the dynamics of single-track vehicles, in particular motorcycles and bicycles, are reviewed....

The dynamic response of the bicycle rider’s body to vertical, fore-and-aft, and lateral perturbations

The objective of this study was to identify the dynamic response of the bicycle rider’s body during translational perturbations, in an effort to improve two-wheeler safety and comfort. A bicycle mock-up was equipped with sensors measuring three-dimensional seat and trunk accelerations and rider’s force responses at the seat, handlebars, and...

Some effects of crosswind on the lateral dynamics of a bicycle

The bicycle, being unstable at low speed and marginally stable at high speed, is sensitive to lateral perturbations. One of the major lateral perturbations is crosswind, which can lead to accidents and fatalities. Here we investigate the effect of crosswind on the lateral dynamics and control of the bicycle in a wide range of forward speeds and...

Determining the necessary width of a bicycle lane by means of simulations on a bicycle-rider model.

It can be observed that there is a wide variety in the width of bicycle lanes. It can range from wide to very narrow, see figure 1. Several guidelines disagree on the desired width of a bicycle lane [1, 2]. These guidelines are mainly based on observations and best practices. Instead of such an evolutionary approach<br/>we propose to determine...

Description of a model based bicycle simulator

Recent years have seen an increase in cycling as a transport mode in urban centers. This has spurred an interest in the use of bicycle simulators to study cyclist behavior [1, 2, 3, 4]. However, few implement a model based approach that couples the bicycle roll and steer in a realistic manner [5]. Balancing is a key task in cycling and we aimed...

Balance and control of a rear-wheel steered speed-record recumbent bicycle

The goal of the Human Power Team from the TU Delft and the Free University of Amsterdam is to break the world speed record in unpaced cycling (Sam Whittingham, 133.28 km/h). The design of such a faired recumbent bicycle is a challenge. The Delft design, called VeloX (Human Power Team (2013)), is a fully-faired monocoque front-driven recumbent...

Statistics of bicycle rider motion

An overview of bicycle and rider kinematic motions from a series of experimental treadmill tests is presented. The full kinematics of bicycles and riders were measured with an active motion capture system. Motion across speeds are compared graphically with box and whiskers plots. Trends and ranges in amplitude are shown to characterize the...

Dynamics of flexible multibody systems: Small vibrations superimposed on a general rigid body motion