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American Journal of Physics -- December 1982 -- Volume 50, Issue 12, pp. 1106

The stability of bicycles

J. Lowell1 and H. D. McKell2

1Department of Physics, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Sackville Street, Manchester 1, United Kingdom
2Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Sackville Street, Manchester 1, United Kingdom

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We review previous ideas on why a bicycle is stable and analyze a somewhat simplified model. We show that a bicycle is almost, though not quite, self‐stable; the most important parameter governing the stability is the ‘‘castor’’ of the front wheel, as was suggested by Jones [Phys. Today 23, 34 (1970)]. The almost stable behavior explains why a bicycle is so easy to ride at speed.

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

stability, bicycles, velocity, mechanics

PACS

  • 45.05.+x

    General theory of classical mechanics of discrete systems

History
Received Nov 1981
Accepted Feb 1982

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0002-9505 (print)  

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.12893

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