Directly connected suspension was first tried and tested on a motocrosser to combat the menace of ‘square-edged’ bumps, which react to throw the rider over the handlebars. The mathematical calculations prior to testing this new design gave a 25-30% reduction in chassis pitch. Only, these calculations did not take into account the fact directly connected suspension upon reducing chassis pitch puts greater emphasis on the shock absorbers to perform more efficiently for any given settings and any given dynamic condition thereby further reducing chassis rotation. A superior linkage front suspension, other than the one first tried on the motocrosser, then had to be devised and developed if directly connected suspension was to become successful. In recent times, a three structural component one-sided design was tried and tested where around 40 advantages over conventional telescopic fork and (unconnected) single shock absorber rear suspension design were achieved. Only, the single-sided nature of such a design was not appropriate for strength and stiffness in relation to component weight nor was it appropriate to achieve equal degrees of lateral flex from either side of the bicycle/motorcycle. There was also restricted steering lock. Given all this, the lower ball joint was repositioned from inside the front hub to above the front tire where the same basic design was retained. This is the most successful design tested to date. It was imperative rider feel was retained at a level comparative to, or above, that of telescopic forks where both these three structural component linkage front suspension designs have the handlebars move slightly with suspension travel amplifying feel for the rider. Simplicity was the final consideration — three structural components, two ball joints and two sets of rotational bearings is all that these front suspension designs utilize, which could be considered as basic as telescopic forks are. (Author/publisher) For this poster, other posters and the papers presented at this Symposium see http://bicycle.tudelft.nl/bmd2010/
Samenvatting