I was proposing first a much simpler experiment: putting various weights on the seat and launching the python at various speeds riderless (i.e. control-less) (do I need to put a disclosure notice? You guessed it). This experiment works well with upright riderless bicycles, even without weight. From what we can see in the video that Vi posted, the python self-steers to the left with a left lean at small weights, which would, it seems, counteract the fall, but the opposite self-steering effect is seen at heavier weights (it steers to the right with a left lean). Is this latter behaviour the source for having to relearn how to ride with a Python?
Redistributing the weight more on the front wheel with a pole could be interesting too... However, this would also be quite different from putting weight directly on the front wheel (i.e. playing with new sitting positions as DirkS suggested!). It also depends very much if this weight is ahead of the wheel-road contact point or not.
Anybody went for a bicycle trip with loaded front wheel? Are you saying DirkS that this would be unridable? Why do you think the CoM should be as close as possible to "the front"?
In fact, a substantial redistribution of the weights is effected when riding uphill (rear weight) or downhill (front weight). Is one way more stable to ride (not speaking of fear of speed)?
One could also experiment unloading: attaching Helium balloons to various parts of python... :) A lot of fun and spectacle for the kids... pricey perhaps? Mh. Still less than the moon... (some may remember E.T...) A cheaper alternative would be to ride underwater :)
In any case, riderless behaviour is not strictly equal to rideability - we can ride upright bicycles at very low speed too, where we know they would fall without our skillful presence.
Pascal On Sat, 16 Apr 2011, dirk@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi, now that explains this forward pointing rod with an extra mass attached to it :-)
?? how would we do this in real life?
Sit in front of the front wheel, while still being attached to the rear wheel? Or have an extra mass greater than the drivers weight pointing forward? scary :-)
?? The only practical clue i can derive is that among other things one should have
more weight on the rear part than on the front and aim for a centre of mass as close to the front as possible.
?? Greetings,
?? ??DirkS
"Jürgen Mages" <jmages@xxxxxx> hat am 15. April 2011 um 13:32 geschrieben:Thanks Christian. The clue is: if the rear part's center of gravity is shifted far enough over the front part, then the negative trail bike is inherently stable. Cheers, Jürgen. On 15.04.2011 12:11, Christian Andersen wrote:Hi folks In Science there is an article about bikes, that could be interesting for those of you guys, who have sufficient knowledge (unlike me). Maybe it is worth to have a look at to improve the pythonconcept regarding stability. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6027/339.abstract Science 15 April 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6027 pp. 339-342 DOI: 10.1126/science.1201959 * Report A Bicycle Can Be Self-Stable Without Gyroscopic or Caster Effects 1. J. D. G. Kooijman1, 2. J. P. Meijaard2, 3. Jim M. Papadopoulos3, 4. Andy Ruina4,*, and 5. A. L. Schwab1 Abstract A riderless bicycle can automatically steer itself so as to recover from falls. The common view is that this self-steering is caused by gyroscopic precession of the front wheel, or by the wheel contact trailing like a caster behind the steer axis. We show that neither effect is necessary for self-stability. Using linearized stability calculations as a guide, we built a bicycle with extra counter-rotating wheels (canceling the wheel spin angular momentum) and with its front-wheel ground-contact forward of the steer axis (making the trailing distance negative). When laterally disturbed from rolling straight, this bicycle automatically recovers to upright travel. Our results show that various design variables, like the front mass location and the steer axis tilt, contribute to stability in complex interacting ways. greez, christian a wannabe pythonrider============================================================ This is the Python Mailinglist //www.freelists.org/list/python Listmaster: Jürgen Mages jmages@xxxxxx To unsubscribe send an empty mail to python-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field. ============================================================
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http://dirk.steuwer.de
