Improvement of Bicycle Riding Comfort by Reduction of Seat Vibration

Abstract

Bicycles are popular with the general public because of their low price and easy maintenance, and they will be an important vehicle in the future because of their low environmental load. Improving the comfort of the ride is one of the important factors that will lead to increased popularity. We attempted to increase comfort by reducing vibration, and evaluated the results with a subjective test. We determined that low frequency vibration of the seat greatly affected the comfort of the ride. We then performed a transfer path analysis (TPA) and a hammering test to investigate how the vibration characteristics of the bicycle affected the vibration of the seat. Through TPA, the rear of the bicycle frame was found to have a high influence on the seat vibration, and the vibration behavior was obtained by modal analysis. In order to reduce seat vibration, a spring was inserted in the front of the seat and, to increase the stiffness, a steel plate and bolts were attached to the rear of the frame. As a result, the seat vibration while riding was decreased by about 10 dB, and the comfort of the ride was greatly improved.

Dynamic stiffness identification methods: experimental study and validation

“…Transfer path analysis (TPA) methods refer to engineering methods, based on tests and/or simulations, that make it possible to study the transfer of vibroacoustic energy from active components through transfer paths, airborne or structureborne, to the connected passive substructures (DUBBAKA et al, 2003;DIEZ-IBARBIA et al, 2017). The purpose is to reduce certain types of unwanted noise/vibration to improve comfort, and the product lifecycle, guarantee the safety or even Frontiers in Acoustics frontiersin.org preserve stealth ( VAN DER AUWERAER et al, 2007;YOSHIDA et al, 2013). TPA is beneficial when the vibrating mechanisms are too complex to be modeled or directly characterized (De Sitter et al, 2010;Patil et al, 2015).…”