Why bicycles are so stable?

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RE: Why bicycles are so stable?

About a year ago there was a program on one of the Science or History channels that covered this topic.

A team of researchers experimented on a bicycle and determined that while the human rider did offer some control in keeping the bike upright, the wheels acted as gyroscopes. To demonstrate this, they had a rider take a short. As expected, the rider encountered no problems with the bike.

The team then mounted weights beside the front and rear wheels. The weights were circular and spun like flywheels. The weight of these "flywheels" were equal to the weight of the bike's tires.

When the flywheels were spun in the same direction as the bikes tires, the rider was able to keep the bike upright at slower speeds, and encountered difficulty when attempting to lean the bike to one side of the other.

When the flywheels were spun in the opposite direction of the bikes tires, the rider was unable to keep the bike upright and failed to get it traveling in a controlled manner.

Posted by: ShoreLeave   Posted on: 09/22/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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