Instrumented Bicycle for Experimental Investigation of Braking Dynamics including Front Brake induced Rear Wheel Lift Up

Abstract

Cyclists are usually afraid of using the front brake of their bicycles aggressively. They fear the danger of falling over the handlebar, sustaining serious neck or head injuries. Preventing this pitch-over can be addressed using electronic brake assistance. But little work is found on the dynamics involved, especially of the early phase were mitigating the pitch-over is still possible by brake pressure reduction. To address this, an instrumented bicycle equipped with sensors measuring variables of motion including absolute over ground velocity and attitude is presented. The need for a novel instrumented bicycle capable of capturing pitch-over dynamics and detecting when ground contact is lost, is pointed out. Needed sensors and their calibration is worked out, and the instrumented bicycle is built and tested. The capturing capabilities are shown, and robust jet precise methods of ground contact loss detection are presented.