Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Dedicated cyclists spend hundreds of hours each year on their bikes. The need for lightweight and high-performance bikes is justified, as is the desire for comfort. Vibrations generated by defects in the road surface are a significant source of discomfort, fatigue and disincentive to ride, therefore the capability to filter these vibrations is paramount. Our research objective is to improve dynamic comfort, which we define as reducing the level of vibratory discomfort. Designing a road bike with comfort in mind is a major challenge, because contrary to other types of bicycles (i.e. mountain bikes), road bikes have no suspension system: isolation from vibrations therefore depends mainly on the dynamic behaviour of bike components. Stakeholders in the cycling industry have shown their interest in features that enhance comfort. Second to being lightweight, the capacity to filter vibrations is one of the most oft-mentioned desirable characteristics in a bike. The principal focus of this research project is to study and understand vibration behaviour in bikes, and develop design tools that will enable engineers to produce more comfortable bikes. The project will combine experimental approaches with numerical modeling techniques. Several new transducers, measurement techniques, experimental test benches and numerical models will be developed. We will also study the significant influence of the cyclist on the dynamic response of the bike. Comfort is fundamentally related to the cyclist's perceptions. Our project will thus examine the cognitive dimensions of the rider's own assessments of ""dynamic comfort"", which will involve quantification of thresholds and parameters that can influence the cyclist's ability to perceive and differentiate variations in vibration levels. Through the development of new knowledge, designs and numerical models, our industrial partnership with Vroomen-White Design will introduce innovative and comfortable bikes to a very competitive international market.