A new type of damper?
July 11, 2007 - David Bradford
This month's mag reviews 10 of the best steering dampers, but could pioneering science soon provide an all-new form of stability control? ... Scroll down for the full story
The August issue of SuperBike features a review of steering dampers – 10 of the best available to humankind. It includes an interview with motorcycle steering specialist, Dr Simos Evangelou, from Imperial College London. The good doctor explains that, although conventional dampers are reasonably effective, they are not perfect. He and a team of scientists have been working on an alternative to the conventional, linear damper, which they refer to as a 'steering compensator'. The theory behind this new type of damper is, to be frank, pretty in-depth and complex. But we've learnt over the years that many of you, dear readers, like to get as clued-up as possible on all the technical intricacies. So here, for your benefit, is the undiluted science.
http://www.control.eng.cam.ac.uk/Homepage//papers/cued_control_1012.pdf
If anyone understands it well enough to translate into plain English, please do so, send it in, and we'll give you a prize (possibly, a Nobel prize).
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