MACHINES
Experimental determination of the limit values of longitudinal accelerations of a motorcycle leading to loss of stability
Road experiments were conducted – when accelerating the motorcycle to the limit values of longitudinal geometric stability and the loss of contact of the front wheel with the road or reaching the “wheelie” phenomenon. From the theory of the motorcycle it follows that the critical accelerations depends on the height of the center of mass and its horizontal coordinate. In the presence of a passenger, the center of gravity is moved back and up, which leads to a decrease in the theoretical value of these accelerations. Therefore, the experiments were conducted on a motorcycle equipped with a suitcase and a passenger located on the back seat. The received information is recorded and visualized on a portable computer, and then processed in the Matlab and Excel environment. The results obtained from the experiments and the accumulation of databases can be used to create models for determining the influence of the driver’s behavior, the passenger’s influence, models for determining the behavior of the motorcycle and the comfort of the trip. During the measurements, the change in position of the driver and passenger is not taken into account.