DESIGN OF FLOATING HANDLEBAR SUSPENSION

Sandesh Bhaskar, Vishnu Padmanaban

Abstract: An alternative to the conventional telescopic fork type front suspension used in bicycles is the Floating handle bar suspension which replaces the two springs that are used in the Telescopic forks by a single open coiled spring of a greater wire diameter and stiffness thereby eliminating the need of telescopic forks. In our study we determine the spring that is to be used to produce the required suspension effect. The newly designed spring was integrated to the bicycle and the model was validated by a working prototype which was ridden to check for any failures. The bicycle model used for checking the effectiveness of floating handlebar suspension was a Hercules Terminator V2. One major problem that we faced was the maneuverability of the bicycle during hard turns. This was due to the increase in weight of the front suspension.

Keywords: Bobbing, MR Fluids, Suspension, Telescopic Forks

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0305093