The truth is that motorcycles have evolved a lot in a relatively short time. Although you will tell me that this evolution is not very noticeable because they still have wheels, an engine and suspensions like a hundred years ago. What happens is that today, while preserving the essence of the same old motorcycles, we can enjoy many advances that allow us to drive motorcycles much safer than those of almost forty years ago. The video dates the experiments to 1975.
In the video that I bring you today you can see the tests conducted by Dunlop testers in Great Britain. In it we see how in the motorcycles of the time we found two types of undulations practically present in all. First we see how at low speed there was an oscillating movement due to the advance and the angle of the front fork. This effect is very well appreciated in the images of the wheel of a supermarket cart. This oscillation appeared between 30 and 40 km / h. According to what they say in the video, this oscillation is not very important because it supposes little energy and it corrects itself with increasing speed.
But if the speed increases too much, another more dangerous oscillation appears. According to the video over 130 km / h the motorcycles of the time began to oscillate. This oscillation could be reduced by increasing the weight of the pilot, the more weight the more difficult these oscillations are presented. It seems that the logical explanation is that the suspensions of the time were too soft and were not able to avoid this problem, we can also see that the condition of the tires has an influence. Although with the pilot flattening on the tank the oscillation stopped.
On the whole aerodynamics, weight, suspensions and tire condition can result in this dangerous wobble. It makes my hair stand on end seeing what the test pilots are capable of withstanding in the video. In the last part of the video they also warn us that the suitcases, top case, and their load affect the stability of any motorcycle.
As I said at the beginning, even without having radically changed the shape of motorcycles, today we have made great strides in safety thanks to the improvement of mechanical parts. And all this without talking about the electronics, which helps so much that normal riders can safely ride authentic street superbikes. But that's another matter to try another time.
