Bamboo Contribution in the Bicycle Design
Article review of Xavier, C. (2017), Contribution of Bamboo for Vibratory Comfort in Biomechanics in Cycling. The Open Mechanical Engineering Journal, 11, 44-54
Research problem and objective
The article focuses on the study of bamboo use in designing and making road bike frames. The survey is achieved by making a comparison of three dynamical properties of aluminum, carbon, and bamboo frames on three types of roads.
During the cycling process, comfort is greatly affected by the vibration phenomena produced by the friction resulting from pressure exerted by the cyclist’s muscle activity. With time, this can cause medical conditions such as back pain, pelvis inflammation, spine, and vascular diseases. Therefore, the research problem in this article is how the use of bamboo in designing a bicycle can reduce vibration.
One of the most important challenges for cycling manufacturers is to come up with an innovation that would improve the cyclist’s comfort. The vibrations during the cycling process that are produced by road irregularities can cause health complications and also affect a cyclist’s performance and comfort. Therefore, both manufacturers and researchers have been focusing on efforts of reducing vibrations.
Methodology
The article goes further by explaining the reasons for the choice of bamboo. Firstly, bamboo appears to have important properties. Bamboo being flexible and resistant to corrosion enables it to have an added advantage over plastics and conventional timbers. Also, its axial tensile Young Modulus ranges from 5-25 GPa while its strength can range from 100 to 800 MPa. During the experiments, manufacturers and researchers used two experiments to compare three bicycle frames. A male cyclist being aware of the survey volunteered to take part in the survey. Therefore, in the first instance, carbon, aluminum, and bamboo frames were used on a slightly grainy road with the rider cycling at three different speeds of 15, 25, and 35 km/hr. The next experiment, a vibrating platform was used to test the three frames. In these tests, the researchers measured their effective values on the four bicycle points namely; saddle, stay, fork, and stem. Later, they calculated the values for the vibration on the three frames in contact with the cyclist.
Results
The measured values at the four points were then listed in figure 1. The results depicted different values which were influenced by the type of frame used and the cycling speed. The article shows that there was a difference of 50% between bamboo (agro material) and other frames. The article also gave 41.7%,54.2%, and 37.5% for cycling speeds of 15,25, and 35% respectively.
Summary and Conclusion
The article analyses the vibration values. In this case, carbon records the lowest value followed by aluminum material and bamboo. Therefore, bamboo was considered to have met the expectation of the researchers. This result indicates that bamboo frames have better absorption rates than either carbon or aluminum materials. Finally, the article shows that although bamboo does not meet the 100% expectation point, it can produce excellent results which can minimize problems caused by vibrations. Therefore, the choice of frame’s material affects cyclist’s comfort. The contribution of bamboo will reduce the transfer function of vibration hence reducing the threat of contacting medical conditions such as spine and back pain
