A Simple Investigation into the Stability of Lightweight Motorcycle

The objective of this study is to investigate the stability of lightweight motorcycle in straight path running test. The stability of three different tyre dimensions was measured using acceleration, angular velocity and vehicle speed signals from smartphone sensors. The signals were analyzed to determine whether standard configuration of tyres used in lightweight motorcycles in various developing countries are safe in terms of vehicle stability. In order to identify effects of tyre width on driving stability, forward speed, angular acceleration and rotational velocity were measured. These measurements are valuable empirical data in the understanding of motorcycle balance mechanism. Results of analysis show that for the range of tyre width 70 mm to 110 mm for the front and 80 mm to 120 mm for the rear wheel used in the test, motorcycle stability is not affected by the tyre width for the straight path run with maximum speed of 60 km/h