Inventory of Bicycle Motion for the Design of a Bicycle Simulator
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Abstract
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.