On Field Measurement of Forces and Deformations at the Rear Part of a Motorcycle and Structural Optimization

The present work is about the analysis of the asymmetric displacement behaviour of the rear part of a motorcycle. Stylistic reasons led to the design of a vehicle with only one suspension located at the left side. Some preliminary tests performed on a prototype emphasized that asymmetric design implies also an asymmetric performance: relative displacement between the frame and the fork is different on the two sides. Such performance is particularly evident when route obstacles are overcome and is shown in the scheme in Fig. 1. Differences between left and right side displacements of the fork and the frame are referenced as Δf and Δt. The object of this work was to estimate and minimize their sum Δ (= Δf + Δt).