The bicycle has been around in one form or another for more than 150 years, but you might be surprised that researchers are still studying how we can ride one without it falling over.
Actually, I thought Albert Einstein had it right when he said:
“Life is like riding a bicycling. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
Maybe that explains more about life than it does about bicycling.
There's a lot more to it than that, as a three-day symposium — Bicycle and Motorcycle Dynamics 2010 — is scheduled for this fall (should I say autumn) at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Participants will hear about bicycles, motorcycles, unicycles, modelling, kinematics and dynamics, control, human control, handling qualities, tires, experiments, simulators, nonholonomic dynamics, robot riders, and path following.
Magic formula
I always thought invisible gremlins knocked me off my bicycle when I was first learning to ride. Later when I fell as an adult, I'd just chalk it up to stupidity.
Once again, there's a lot more to it than that. Here's the formula for staying upright on a bicycle as compiled by researchers in the US, the UK and Holland:
“Inertia forces + gyroscopic forces + the effects of gravity and centrifugal forces = the leaning of the body and the torque applied to the handlebars of a bike.”
And don't touch wheels with the guy in front of you.
Useful information
Actually, the researchers told the Telegraph (UK) that the formula and research published at the upcoming Bicycle and Motorcycle Dynamics symposium will help to bicycle designers.
“This equation is aimed at enabling a bike designer to change certain features and to see the overall finished effect on the bike, without having to actually manufacture it first.
“For instance if you are designing a folding bike with smaller wheels or one with a shorter wheel base this equation allows you to interpret how design changes will affect the stability and behaviour of the bike.”
How to ride
A lot of the research is examined and explained at a Cornell University Bicycle Dynamics website. Scroll down the page, and you'll find ideas on teaching kids how to ride bicycles: Start with a scooter, then move on to a bicycle with the pedals removed and the seat lowered so the feet touch the ground. When these have been mastered, reattach the pedals and raise the seat of the bike. Never use training wheels.
Now, maybe researchers can turn their attention to two other mysteries of bicycling:
1. Why do pedestrians on a path always move in front of you when you shout “on your left”;
2. Why do one of your bicycle tires always experience a flat when you tell someone you haven't had a flat in XX miles?
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