We could nick the old hydrolastic suspension out of a Morrie Minor eh? Or if we wanted some french speed would could go for the Citroen version...(americans - use Google to work out what the hell I'm talking about)
suspension guys-traction??
- Thread starter dhkid
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Got to watch out for those corks-on-a-string though.. that'll put them right off, aye Bruce?
rule number 1, no poofters
etc etc
The mountain flys at mt buller were nasty. By the time you finished a swat they would have come back and landed again, probably on a pimple or the sweatiest bit of exposed skin.
I asked an Aussie how they could stand them.
He told me after you were there a while they stopped landing on you- while 6 or so crawled around his face! (thats traction)
I asked an Aussie how they could stand them.
He told me after you were there a while they stopped landing on you- while 6 or so crawled around his face! (thats traction)
I'm an American and I know what the hell you're talking about (although I was born in England......) but I'm not sure you guys from NZ are making much sense! Fly brains controlling bikes....
lol....Moulton bikes use hydrolastic suspension (not quite in the sense you're talking about) but that would make sense since he invented it.
Soooo.... have we efffectively answered the original question to any degree?
Lahar, I'd be curious to know your thoughts on floating BB designs- Mongoose, Maverick, etc.
Apart from the unsprung mass considerations fl BB's can work real well. The hybrid systems with (bb on lower rocker and GTs over complex and overweight i-drive) are possibly the best way to make a susp bike with chain bb-axle. Chain extension is drasticly reduced for good antisquat, unsprung mass only affected a little and pivots can go up towards where they should be.I'm an American and I know what the hell you're talking about (although I was born in England......) but I'm not sure you guys from NZ are making much sense! Fly brains controlling bikes....
Moulton bikes use hydrolastic suspension (not quite in the sense you're talking about) but that would make sense since he invented it.
Soooo.... have we efffectively answered the original question to any degree?
Lahar, I'd be curious to know your thoughts on floating BB designs- Mongoose, Maverick, etc.
If we superglued our flies to microswitches on wands infront of our wheels they would react to the bumps coming towards them and the data could raise and lower the suspension accordingly. Given the short lifespan of flies you'd need a simulator to train a supply of fresh flies.
In college I worked with a ME professor to create a computer program that attempted to solve vibration equations to find optimal damping coefficients for a 4 wheeled lunar buggy. It was a sound set of assumptions and equations and program, but basically it never reached a solution.
All that aside, its a pretty complicated subject matter lmuch ike fluid dynamics and lots and lots of assumptions have to made to reach any analytical solutions.
But I think most of the traction equation is solved by any good quality damper. The final 10-15% that makes the real difference is rider input.
All that aside, its a pretty complicated subject matter lmuch ike fluid dynamics and lots and lots of assumptions have to made to reach any analytical solutions.
But I think most of the traction equation is solved by any good quality damper. The final 10-15% that makes the real difference is rider input.
ok - how about a transducer on the bb that looks down to the ground below. That would give a better 'read' of the ground profile than the forks.
Make it a binary system at first - if it picks up some huge spike threshold it zaps the damper to open the floodgates.... then once that works, refine in incremental stages.
Make it a binary system at first - if it picks up some huge spike threshold it zaps the damper to open the floodgates.... then once that works, refine in incremental stages.
Definately sounds doable and promising. On the fly quantum computing could instantly solve the problems that conventional linear algorithms find so difficult however. An N bit quantum computer can solve an N variable simultaneous equation in one operation.
I'm seeing bike shops competing to breed and train the best flys for local tracks. They'd be a great moneyspinner.
That's pretty much what I've been thinking for some time now...... I might just have to weld one up. I don't think it's the greatest DH design ever but on my rides I have to pedal up the hills.
I do have a couple of DH designs but one of them is just sooooo crazy different- I still have a few things to work out on it.
The problem with those is that to move the suspension, it also has to move the front triangle relative to the rider mass (even if only the lower legs), which will mean either pushing the front triangle forwards, pulling the rider backwards, or a combination of the two. The rearwards-looking axle path starts to become irrelevant because it's not actually very rearwards compared to the centre of mass, and in the end that's the critical measure of just how rearwards an axle path is. In the end they're effectively much the same as a normal fixed-BB bike.
Thanks for your input- this is why I brought it up. I haven't ridden any of the newer floating BB designs but I have built a couple of URT frames that have the pivot about 9" directly above the BB and they work pretty well as a XC bike. Everything changes as the travel gets longer though.......