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- Jun 30, 2012
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Simon Crafar is very good in his knowledge of motorcycle setup. In the discussion about the effects of increasing trail on a motorcycle. If I think of it as a static system, I would believe that more trail would give more stability, however the system which steers a motorcycle is dynamic. One of the largest forces is the gyroscopic effect of the front wheel. If you hold a pushbike wheel by the ends of its axle and rotate as if it was the front wheel of a motorcycle, when you push the right hand end of the axle, the wheel will immediately lay over to the left. The force vector caused by the rotation goes from your right to the left.
When a motorcycle is accelerating there are inertia and gyroscopic forces acting on the front wheel contact patch and the resultant forces are found by adding the force vectors, the direction of the one which represents the gyroscopic effect also determines which way the bike will turn, when it is added to the other force vectors, such as the force vector of the trail, which changes as the bike brakes and accelerates. Finding resultant forces by adding vectors is sometimes taught in third year university level physics' classes.
I don't know whether the link I post will work. Dorna place restrictions.
When a motorcycle is accelerating there are inertia and gyroscopic forces acting on the front wheel contact patch and the resultant forces are found by adding the force vectors, the direction of the one which represents the gyroscopic effect also determines which way the bike will turn, when it is added to the other force vectors, such as the force vector of the trail, which changes as the bike brakes and accelerates. Finding resultant forces by adding vectors is sometimes taught in third year university level physics' classes.
I don't know whether the link I post will work. Dorna place restrictions.