April 15, 2011 04:41 pm EDT

Scientists unlock the secrets of bike stability, make riders optional

We've peered back in time to the early days of the universe, just following the Big Bang, and unraveled the mysteries of the human genome -- yet we don't really know how a moving bicycle manages to stay upright without a meatbag manning the handlebars. Scientists have long thought that it had something to do with the gyroscopic effect created by the spinning wheels and the caster effect of having the front wheel trail the steering axis (don't worry, it's all explained in a video at the source link). Researchers at Cornell, however, have created a tiny bike that generates neither of those effects yet, thanks to carefully calibrated mass distribution, still stays vertical when moving over 5MPH. The insights learned here could lead to self-stabilizing rides for us and cooler wheels for our pedal-happy automatons to inherit. PR after the break.

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Scientists unlock the secrets of bike stability, make riders optional originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PermalinkPhysorg | Cornell Chronicle, Cornell University ||Comments

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