Modeling and Validation of a Bicycle Model

Cycling is a viable transportation option for almost everyone and contributes to the health, equity, and quality of life.  Cycling contributes to society by reducing fuel consumption, traffic congestion, and air and noise pollution.  In recent days, cycling is promoted as more emphasis is given to non-motorized mobility.  Many manuals and guides have been published providing safety tips to cyclists and motorists.  However, the influence of bicycle design parameters and lane features on bicycle stability is not well understood.  Design parameters such as speed, yaw, steer angle, trail, etc., and lane features like superelevation, grade, roughness, macrotexture, etc., affect the stability and dynamic behavior of a bicycle.  Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of such parameters on bicycle stability in order to rationally design bike lane features. Experimental research requires expensive equipment, manpower, and time to generate useful results.  Having access to high fidelity simulation models helps reducing the cost of investigation, developing robust and effective experimental programs, and evaluating product development and life-cycle performance for delivering implementation ready results.  The presentation covers the model development and validation with experimental data collected with an instrumented bicycle.