Steering in bicycles and motorcycles Berkeley（方向盘在自行车和摩托车）.PDFVIP

Steering in bicycles and motorcycles J. Fajansa) Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-7300 Received 12 April 1999; accepted 12 November 1999 Steering a motorcycle or bicycle is counterintuitive; to turn right, you must steer left initially, and vice versa. You can execute this initially counter-directed turn by turning the handlebars explicitly called counter-steering or by throwing your hips to the side. Contrary to common belief, gyroscopic forces play only a limited role in balancing and steering D. E. H. Jones, Phys. Today 23 4, 34–40 1970. © 2000 American Association of Physics Teachers. Centrifugal forces will throw your bike over on its side if the wheel steering angle decreases. Note that the lean you steer the handlebars in the direction of a desired turn continues to increase because the bike is still turning without first leaning the bike into the turn. Indeed, bicycle left. crashes are often caused by road obstacles like railroad e As the bike has now acquired substantial leaning ve- tracks or sewer grates turning the front wheel and handlebars locity, the lean increase cannot end instantly. Driven by abruptly. Leaning the bike into the turn allows gravitational the still increasing lean, the wheel steering angle passes forces to balance the centrifugal forces, leading to a con- smoothly through zero and then points right. The cen- trolled and stable turn. Thus steering a bike involves a com- trifugal torques reverse direction, eventually halting the plicated interaction between centrifugal and gravitational lean increase and balancing the gravitational torques. forces, an