Bicycle - An Engineering Marvel

A Quora Book

- Arjit Raj
www.quora.com/raj-arjit

Contents
How it all started?

A beautiful history of the bicycle (Part 1)

A beautiful history of the bicycle (Part 2)

Wheel - A beauty on its own!

Why does a rolling tire/wheel stop after some time? Rolling friction does no work.
What dissipates its kinetic energy?

Why are the spokes in a bicycle mostly tangential and not radial?

How do the spokes of a bicycle wheel work? How is a wheel able to be light weight and
take such high loads?

Short history of Bicycle tires.

Skeleton to support and hold

Frame of a Bicycle

Transmitting power from the legs

What are the different ways in which power from legs is transmitted to rear wheel in
bicycles?
A bicycle does not go reverse when we pedal it in the reverse direction. Why?

High torque gives low speed and low torque gives high speed. How does this happen?

Brakes - Let's slow down

Bicycle Brakes by Raj Arjit

Stability - How do bicycles balance?

Balancing of Bicycles

Miscellaneous

What makes a bicycle faster than a regular walking man?

When a wheel spins really fast, why does it appear like it is spinning in the opposite
direction?

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How it all started - I

Bicycle: An awesome machine with an equally awesome history.

It is hard to think of the so many transformation this machine has gone through.
The quest for human powered, stable, fast and energy efficient vehicle has taken
us a long way. Lets see how it all started!
1790s The beginning

The first reference to a two-wheeled vehicle driven by one rider was a toy like
simple machine, with just two wheels attached to a rigid wooden frame. The
rider would sit on the frame and drag using his feet, moving forward.

While it is not precisely known who invented this, Md de Sivrac, a French

Craftsman, is often credited to have first come up with this design.

There were a couple of strong issues with this tool. It lacked stability as the
moment the rider lifted both of his legs, it started falling over. Along with this,
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there was difficulty in turning. The rider had to lift the front wheel and drag it to
turn, many times this required, stepping out, turning and then using it.
Lack of ability to quickly steer resulted in difficulty in traversing even
moderately rough terrains.
1820s Velocifere

Before jumping in the invention, it is worthwhile to know of an important event

the volcanic eruption of Tambora in 1815. This caused a widespread crop
failure leading to starvation and death of horses in huge numbers.

A German civil servant Baron Karl von Drais, was looking for alternatives to
horses for a while. He then came up with modifications to the toy machine and
invented, which became famously known as the hobby horse or Draisene or
Velocifere. He was able to clock speed as high as 15 kmph with this.

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The important modification here was the addition of simple joints to make the
front wheel steerable. As the speed had increased, a backrest was also added for
the rider comfort.

Still the ride was quite bumpy. Also, we were still having the feet on the
ground.
1830s The first true bicycle
The credit for inventing the first true bicycle one which could be ridden with
both feet off the ground, is given to a Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrik
Macmillan.
Macmillan attached two levers on either side of the frame near the position of
legs. While one end was on the frame, the other end carried short lever (known
as treadle) which in turn carried pedals. The rider would simply oscillate pedals
and the complete mechanism would rotate the rocker fixed on the rear wheel.
This was given the name Velocipede.

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To understand the mechanism used see the figure below.

The link 4 (called rocker) oscillates while the link 2 (called crank) rotates
complete 360 degrees. Mechies, know the relative length of links required to
cause the oscillation and rotation of different links. :-)

Check the velocipede image carefully. You will notice the presence of small
black color pieces in the center, near the frame. These have threads attached and
goes up to the hand bars. Well, you can guess it. As the speed was increasing,
this was the first one to have brakes. Since dragging by feet, was not a good
thing to do.

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How it all started - II

In Part 1 we saw, how the sheer curiosity of humans led to the rise of
Velocifere, Velocepede and other primitive designs of Bicycles. Let's see
further.
Commercial Failure of Macmillan's Velocepede

Although Macmillan's Velocepede was the first true bicycle, which enabled the
user to traverse without putting his feet on the ground, it failed on commercial
grounds. Not a single product was sold. Probably because oscillating the feet
was much more troublesome than rotating it as in the designs that came later.

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1870s - Michaux s velocipede

For the next four decades, there wasn't much strong development and
innovation in the design. A French blacksmith Pierre Michaux is credited to
have come up with a new design which had, for the first-time pedals instead of
treadles. The pedal - crank, system were attached to the front wheel.

The working was much similar to the present day working of children's
tricycles. There was one more piece of innovation though. For the first time in
history of bicycle, "suspensions" were used. Look at the above pic carefully
and see the position of the seat. It is put on a seemingly straight steel bar. Well
that is a simple leaf spring in action. These leaf springs (though more complex
ones) are commonly used in railway carriages, SUVs, trucks and other heavy
vehicles.

Despite the use of suspension, the iron-rimmed wooden wheels offered enough
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shocks to the user, that very soon Michaux's Velocipede was nicknamed as
"Bone Shaker".

Okay, some theory before we jump on the next design.

The aim was to increase the speed of the bicycle.

Speed is simply given by distance travelled divided by time.

Distance travelled will depend on number of revolutions the front wheel

makes.

In one revolution, the distance travelled will be equal to the circumference of

the wheel, which in turn depends on the diameter of the wheel pedalled.

Okay, so the distance travelled can be increased in two ways - either

increase the number of revolutions per unit time or increase the diameter
of the wheel.

(It was difficult to do both as the weight of the wheel would increase too much).
Keep this piece of information in mind for a while.

While driving bicycle we don't just need longer distance, but also torque rotating force, which will give us the necessary traction to propel forward.

Let's do one experiment

Put your bicycle on the stand and try rotating the pedals using hands. Steadily
keep on increasing the speed. You will see that after a threshold RPM
(Revolutions per minute), the force which you are applying starts decreasing.
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This happens because after a certain RPM our hands (or legs) are not able to
deliver the same force at higher speed.

There occurs an optimum RPM at which the force applied is maximum. For
human legs, this comes around to be around 50 RPM.

Great! Now, at that time it was not justified to rotate (or pedal) the front wheel
at that high RPM since it resulted in very large shocks and made the ride highly
uncomfortable.

So we had only one option to increase the speed - increase the diameter!

The increased circumference of the wheel gave longer distance in one

revolution. This led to the increase in speed but yes some problems also came
up!
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1870s to 1900s was the era of these high wheelers. It was a commercial success.
It gave a normal speed of up to 20 miles per hour, which was way ahead of the
previous designs. The problems which came along with the higher speed was
due to its very own size. The center of gravity was very high and closer to the
front wheel. Powering as well as turning the front wheel led to decrease in
stability. Even a small pebble or sudden brakes could make the rider fly off and
fall on the ground facing downwards!

The above design also made it difficult for women and children to use it. It was
commonly used only by brave males and athletes.

Moving towards Modern Design

Englishman called Henry J. Lawson, removed a lot of problems and came with
a new design named as Bicyclette, which soon got famously called as "Safety
Bike".

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As you could see from the pic, the size of front wheel came down and instead of
direct power transmission, chains and sprockets were used. The ratio of
sprocket sizes enabled higher RPM possible.

Soon a series of further small but important changes came up. Both wheels
became equal in size, pneumatic tyres, bells, tangential spokes instead of radial
spokes and other features came, making the bicycle more stable and strong.

(Early Rover safety Bike - 1885 )

(Rover Safety bike 1889)

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The very important diamond shape frame introduced by Rover Safety bikes
became a standard which is still in use today!

If you would like to go through the complete history of Bicycle in just one
minute, I would strongly recommend you to watch this beautiful video.

Evolution of the Bicycle - By Thaalis Vestergaard

Pro tip - Keep your eyes on pedals as well as on the spokes. :-)
Sources
First Chain-Drive 'Safety' Bicycle
The Rover Safety Bicycle 1887 - Starley and Sutton, Coventry
1885: First Chain Driven Bicycle - "The Rover"
High wheeler
historicalcycleclub.com.au

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Wheel - A beauty on its own!

Why does a rolling tyre/wheel stop after some time? Rolling friction does no
work. What dissipates its kinetic energy?

Many people think they know but they don't!

The first thing to know is that Rolling resistance is different

than Rolling friction!
There are 4 different causes that dissipates the kinetic energy and causes
the tyre/wheel to stop.

1. Deformation at contact - Prominent in all rolling bodies.

2. Hysteresis Losses - Prominent in tyres.
3. Rolling Friction - This not necessarily opposes motion.
4. Slippage - At higher speeds or at watery/slippery surfaces.

Deformation at contact
This is the most prominent factor responsible for slowing down of bodies
like a steel ball/ring/sphere. To understand this, the first thing you have
to keep in mind is this - no body is perfectly rigid. Although we say,
the rolling bodies make a point contact at surface, it is not true in
practical sense. Rolling bodies make an area contact.

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Source: H.C. Verma's Foundations of Physics I

Now because of this area contact and irregular deformation, the Normal
force (the reaction of surface corresponding to its weight) doesn't pass
through center. Instead, it gets shifted slightly towards right and gives
counter-clockwise torque which causes net deceleration.
The magnified view of the contact area and the normal forces is shown
below. You can easily notice the normal forces are higher on the right
side than on the front.

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Hysteresis Losses
Hysteresis is derived from a Greek word meaning "Deficiency" or
"lagging behind."
It is simple to understand in this way: You pull a rubber band and make
it longer. You spend some amount of energy in doing this. Now when you
leave the rubber, the energy released is lesser than the energy spent.
Another way to understand is in terms of force. It is harder to deform by
loading than by unloading.

The above figure shows the Elastic hysteresis of an idealized rubber

band. The area in the centre of the hysteresis loop is the energy
dissipated due to internal friction. Pic source Hysteresis.

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Rolling Friction
This is the force analogous to friction in case of planar bodies. The value
of rolling friction coefficient is much less, varying from 0.01 to 0.001.
Slippage
Slippage occurs when the wheel rotates more but translates less. This
causes loss in power. This is more prominent in watery surfaces or at
very high speeds.

If you liked the articles so far, you may enjoy learning the Fundamentals of How a car works through my Udemy Course.

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Why are the spokes in a bicycle mostly tangential and not radial?

Short answer better transmission of torque at lower weight.

Detailed answer
Once, all bicycles had radial spokes. In fact, when the wheels were first
originated, they had no spokes at all a simple flat disc type wheel. Soon
it was realised that the wheels could be made lighter by connecting the
centre (hub) to the rim through straight rods. The wooden wheels used
6/8 spokes which were all radial. From no spokes, we went to radial
spokes then to tangential ones.

Now tangential spokes are not the exact technical term used in this field,
since no spoke is exactly tangent to the flange. The correct term is
crossed-spoking.
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The pattern of bicycle spokes is defined by the number of times each

spoke crosses adjacent spokes on its way from the hub to the rim.
Cross-zero refers to radial pattern the ones which go straight from
the hub to rim along the radius.
Cross-spokes are somewhat tangent to the hub (flange, to be precise)
and cross adjacent spokes on its way from the hub to the rim. The
maximum number of crosses can be obtained by dividing the number of
spokes by 9. (I dont know why!) For example, in 36 spokes maximum
crosses are 4 and for 32, the maximum is 3. Maximum occurs when the
spokes are closest to tangential to the flange.
There are also mixed patterns having both radial and crossed spokes as
shown below.

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So how does this crossing help, exactly?

Spoke crossing is much more important for the rear wheels, which have
to transmit the torque from the hub to the rim via spokes.
If radial spokes are used, then the hub will sort of pull each spoke with it,
making the pattern of spokes spiral. This results in excessive shear force
acting on the spokes. Because of this, stronger spokes are needed and the
strength of coupling at the hub has to be increased. Many times the
spoke nipples are reversed and fastened to the hub if radial spokes are
used.

The above problem gets eliminated to much extent in tangential or cross

spoked case, because the force gets transferred along the direction of the
spokes.
Try visualising any two spokes in the same line. Each supports each
other. This effect is not present in radially spoked wheels.

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How do the spokes of a bicycle wheel work? How is a wheel able to be light
weight and take such high loads?
Short Answer
The spokes in the wheel when unloaded, are in an elongated state.
On loading it gets compressed and the elongation decreases. The
decrease in elongation is lower than the original elongation provided to
the spokes while installing. This ensures that the spokes are always in a
"tensed" state.

Long Answer
To know the working of a bicycle wheel, we will have to know
the components, the various loads (static and dynamic) acting on it and
how failure occurs.
Components
The main components that take up the load in Bicycle wheels are :1. Hub
2. Spokes
3. Rim
4. Spoke Nipples

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Spoke Nipples are those parts (shown in color in figure below) that holds
the spokes to the rims. It is used for tightening of the spokes and
keeping it tensed.

Axles, bearings and tires are not that important from the structural
strength point of view.

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Working
Basics
Some materials, for example, concrete pillars support load in
compression. These will fail when applied stretched from both ends
(tensile loads). In a similar manner, there are materials that can support
load only in tension (when stretched and tight). Examples are ropes,
threads and Bicycle spokes! These materials will simply bend and twist
under compression.
But when I sit on a bicycle, its spokes gets compressed, so why it doesnt
fail?
Agreed the spokes are compressed, but even after compression it is in a
net tension. See the figure below to understand what happens to a
bicycle spoke - in 3 condition:-

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1. When it is not fitted in the rim Free state.

2. When it is fitted in the rim it is stretched and tension is applied
3. When a person sits and load is applied it gets compressed. But the
amount of compression is less than the amount of tension given in
step 2. This leads to net tension - always.
All the spokes work together and share the loads (not equally) and are
able to support high loads.

A common misconception
There is a prevailing misconception (or confusion) regarding whether
the hub hangs from the upper spokes or stands on the lower spokes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spo...
The correct answer is - the hub stands on the lower spokes.
Standing, in this case, means that the spokes at the bottom are the ones
that change stress; they are being shortened and respond structurally as
rigid columns. They are rigid as long as they remain tensioned.
We could have said that it hangs, had the stress changes in the upper
spokes been more than in the lower one. But exactly the opposite
happens. The increase in tension of the upper spokes is less than 4% of
the stress changes in the bottom spokes.

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Loads - Static and Dynamic

The spoke tension and tire pressures forms the major source of static
loads on the wheel, while the rider's weight, braking load, loads due
to surface irregularities, torsional loads from hub to rim via
spokes (during pedalling) forms the sources of dynamic loads.
Note - Rider's weight is dynamic and not static, because the revolution
of the wheel causes a periodic change of loads on different spokes
and regions of rim.

Failure
A common type of failure is due to the breaking of spokes and cracking
of rim. Although spoke failure appears instantaneous and the blame
is often put on the a particular event, like going through sudden
surface bumps (around which it failed), the reality is different.
Most of the time spokes failure is due to the fatigue. And also, it is
not the exact bump in the road that caused failure. The spokes break
(due to fatigue) after leaving a bump - while returing to its normal
tension and not while meeting the bumps.

Sources
1. Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke
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Short history of Bicycle tires

The first bicycle "tires" were iron bands on the wooden wheels of
velocipedes. One similar wheel (though, not of a bicycle is shown
below)

These were followed by solid rubber tires on penny-farthings. The

first patent for "rubberized wheels" was granted to Clment Ader in
1868. In an attempt to soften the ride, rubber tires with a hollow core
were also tried.

The first practical pneumatic tire was made by John Boyd

Dunlop in1887 for his son's bicycle, in an effort to prevent the
headaches his son had while riding on rough roads. (Dunlop's patent
was later declared invalid because of prior art by fellow Scot Robert
William Thomson.) Dunlop is credited with "realizing rubber could
withstand the wear and tear of being a tire while retaining its
resilience". This led to the founding of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd
in 1889. By 1890, it began adding a tough canvas layer to the rubber to
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reduce punctures. Racers quickly adopted the pneumatic tire for the
increase in speed it enabled.

Finally, the detachable tire was introduced in 1891 by douard

Michelin. It was held on the rim with clamps, instead of glue, and
could be removed to replace or patch the separate inner tube.

Source: Wikipedia - Bicycle tire

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Skeleton to support and hold

We will be discussing the commonly used Diamond Frames in Bicycle.

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Different Parts and Functions

Head Tube: This houses the handle bars and the fork, which holds
the front wheel.

Top tube: Acts as a connector from head tube to the top of seat tube.
In most cycles it is parallel to the ground, while in case of some racing
cycles it be sloped downwards to allow for more space while...

Down tube: This connects the head tube to the bottom joint. It also
possesses small attachments to allow for various cables (coming from
from handle bars) or a cage for holding small bottles.

Seat tube: This houses the seat post of the cycle. The seat post can be
inserted at varying degrees in the seat tube. This provides space for
adjusting the position of seat saddle at different heights.

Chain stays: It runs parallel to the chain and connects the bottom
joint to the rear end.

Seat Stays: Finally this connects the top of seat tube to the rear end

Why Triangular Shaped?

The diamond frame consists of two triangles ( the front half is not
precisely a triangle, though). There is a reason for the use of triangular
shapes.
Triangle is structurally the most rigid and strongest shape of all simple
geometries. Let's understand why without going much in mechanics.
Consider a rectangular shaped arrangement of links. Now, even if all the
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links are welded properly at joints, an uneven force can easily change the
angles (slightly) and convert it into the other shape.

This type of misalignment doesn't occur in case of triangles because for a

given set of 3 members, a unique triangle is possible with fixed angles.
Hence triangle forms the simplest rigid structure. A triangle cannot be
distorted to form another shape (keeping the members straight).
Now we can use various combination of triangles as per our need. The
various combination of triangles must follow a simple rule:
N=2J-3
where, N= Number of links and J = Number of Joints.
For a simple triangle N and J both are 3. Whereas for a diamond frame N
= 5 and J = 4.

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What we have discussed in last paragraphs falls in the domain of a

subject known as Truss. You can find many application, where triangles
are used in different combinations to provide strength. Examples include
various bridges and towers and monuments.

Sources:
Bicycle frame
Bike Frame Geometry

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Transmitting power from the legs

What are the different ways in which power from legs is transmitted
to rear wheel in bicycles?
There are many different ways in which power transmission is done.
Let's see how it is done in following types of bicycles :1. Single Speed Bicycles
2. Variable Speed Bicycles (Geared Bikes)
3. Fixed Gear Bicycles
4. Tandem Bicycles
5. Miscellaneous
Single Speed Bicycles
One large sprocket is connected to the pedals. A chain passes over it and
is connected with a smaller sprocket (this is connected with the rear
wheel).
In this a larger sprocket is rotated by pedaling, which in turn rotates the
smaller sprocket at the rear. One revolution of larger sprocket brings
multiple revolutions of the rear sprocket (and hence, the wheels). The
ratio of diameters of both determines how much revolution the rear
sprocket will make on one revs of front sprocket.

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It is called single speed, since, for any particular speed of pedaling, you
can have one and only one speed of rear wheel.
Variable Speed Bicycles
Here Derailleurs are used for achieving the variable speeds. The basic
theory is that you need to drive sprockets of variable diameters to
achieve different speed - torque combination.
See this answer for more info - High torque gives low speed and low
torque gives high speed. How does this happen?
The rear derailleur serves two functions. One of switching the chain from
one sprocket to another and also it keeps the chain tight.
The front derailleur just serves one main function of shifting chain from
larger ring to another.
Note: Derailleurs is originated from term De-rail. It derails the chain
and moves it to different cogs.

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A more close- up view of rear derailleur is shown.

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Fixed Gear Bicycles

These refers to those bicycles having drive train without a freewheel.
Freewheel are attached the rear wheel which helps in coasting (ride
without pedalling using forward momentum) and also prevents from
driving backward.
See this answer to know more about freewheel working:
A bicycle moves forward when we pedal it in the forward direction. But
why does it not go reverse when we pedal it in the reverse direction?
Such bicycles are simple, lighter but for many people tougher to handle
and control, especially during turnings. Fixed gear bicycles are also
commonly called Fixies.
In Fixies, the rear sprocket is threaded or bolted directly to the hub of
the back wheel, so that the rider cannot stop pedalling. When the rear
wheel turns, the pedals turn in the same direction. This allows a cyclist to
apply a braking force with the legs and body-weight, by resisting the
rotation of the cranks. It also makes it possible to ride backwards
although learning to do so is much more difficult than riding forward.

Tandem Bicycles
The tandem bicycle or twin is a form of bicycle designed to be ridden
by more than one person.

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There are two common configurations used :

Crossover rear drive: In this the forward crankset is connected by a

left-side timing chain to the rear crankset, which in turn is connected
by a right-side chain to the rear wheel. This requires both of the cranks
to be in tandem.

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Single side rear drive: The forward crankset is connected by a

right-side timing chain to the rear crankset, which in turn is connected
by a right-side chain to the rear wheel. This does not require both the
cranks to be in tandem.
Miscellaneous
There are many other different types of bicycles like Sociable, Pedibus,
Conference bike etc. (I wish someone comments the working of
transmission in these machines).
Sociable

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Party bike or Pedibus.

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A bicycle moves forward when we pedal it in the forward direction. But

why does it not go reverse when we pedal it in the reverse direction?
Welcome to the "Awesomeness of Mechanical engineering"!
The reason for this, is the presence of a simple but beautiful mechanism
called the Freewheel, which is attached to the rear wheel hub. To
understand the working, see the figure below.

A sprocket is fitted over this freewheel, which is pulled/rotated by the

chain.
Now when you have to move forward (counter-clockwise in above
figure), the red color link - called pawl, acts like a hook and gets locked
with the teeth - called ratchet and transmits the torque. The complete
mechanism is called ratchet and pawl mechanism.
But when you reverse pedal, it falls back and becomes "free". The yellow
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color link is actually a spring that prevents it from falling permanently.

This is the reason why you hear the distinct "click-click" sound when you
reverse pedal. Also, there are multiple "pawls" placed along the
circumference too.
The figure above is very simple diagram for the freewheel. The actual
part diagram is shown below with the names of each.

This is what it looks from inside in real.

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and this is what you actually see!

A close view of the hub:

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High torque gives low speed and low torque gives high speed. How
does this happen?
You can understand it without any equations!
To get an analogous example of cycling:

Case 1
Level Road: Let's say you are pedaling the wheel with your full body
power. You will see the speed is high, but you will "feel" as if you are
applying very less effort (Less torque). It makes you enjoy the cycling.
(High speed)

Case 2
Inclination: Now again you are applying full power as you wish to
reach destination as early as possible. Now you will see speed is low, but
you feel as applying greater effort (High torque).

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Make the understanding strong.

The Power supplied by you for a particular load is constant.
Now Power is the product of Torque and Angular velocity .

So Lower torque implies Higher velocity and Higher torque implies

Lower Velocity for the same power output.

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Bicycle Brakes
There are different types of Bicycle brakes. All of them have 3 major
components.
1. A mechanism through which the rider apples the Braking force.
2. A mechanism to transmit the force to the wheels.
3. A mechanism that ultimately applies force on wheels.

In this article the most commonly used braking system is discussed. It is

quite simple with the rider pressing the brake handle, which is directly
connected with a cable (usually Bowden cable). This cable transmits the
force and pulls the levers (shown in blue and red). This brings the brake
pads (shown in black) closer to each other. The brake pads then applies
force on the rim of the wheels.

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Balancing of Bicycles
There are very few engineering machines, where knowing how it works
is difficult than actually working on it. Bicycles are one of those things!

It is true that the exact reasons validated by both theoretical proof and
experimental evidence has not been found for which all
factors contribute to the balancing of bicycles and by how much.
Currently we talk only in terms of major and minor factors for this sortof magical stability of bicycles.
Even then, there are confusion regarding which is the most important
factor and how much it accounts for it. In this article, I will be
mentioning the major reasons that have been proved experimentally.
There are 4 important factors that contributes to balancing of bicycles.

1. The ability of the front wheel to turn into the fall.

2. The trail of steering axis
3. Gyroscopic Precession (Secondary reason - Earlier this was
considered to be the primary reason
4. Operator skill that many times acts effortlessly.

The ability of front wheel to turn into the fall

To understand this reason, try to balance a pen (with flat base) vertically
on the center of your palm. If you see carefully, you will notice that you
always try to move your palm in the direction in which, the pen starts
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falling.

The same thing happens with the front wheel. The front wheel turns
(rapidly) on the side the bicycle starts falling. You would have also
experienced this, while just walking and taking a bicycle from one point
to another, by holding the seat (saddle) and the handle bar. If you tilt the
cycle and don't hold the handle it falls (we call it turning, but
scientifically it is just falling).
Understanding Gyroscopic Precession is easier and helpful in getting the
feel of first reason - the trail. So let's start with that.

Gyroscopic Precession
Check this video to understand this seemingly complex topic clearly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9QSiVC2g0

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You may like to see this video too - Gyroscope

So, a spinning wheel resists change in its angular momentum and
prevents itself from falling. Okay, this could be the main reason for the
stability of bicycles. Many people believed that this was the case (even
now, some people believe the same).
This has been proved wrong, by carrying simple experiments in which
another wheel was attached to the bicycle wheels and made to rotate in
opposite direction. This cancels the total angular momentum, which in
turn removes the gyroscopic effect. Had this been the major factor, the
bicycle should have become unstable. But it was not the case. The
impact was much less.

It was concluded that while GP effect is there, its effect is a minor factor
rather than being a major one.

The trail of steering axis

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The point of contact of front wheel "trails" the point where the steering
axis meets the road. Because of this, when a bicycle leans, a torque is
developed that turns the front wheel. The result is similar to that of
Gyroscopic effect but the reason is different.
In fact, the stability of bicycle increases on increasing the amount of trail.
The problem that prevents in having excess trail is that it becomes
difficult to steer.
In the figure above the trail is referred as positive. Experimental bicycles
with negative trail were found to be extremely unstable.
The above three reasons coupled with the skill of operator is responsible
for the balancing of the bicycle.

This article is a part of a Quora Book on the topic Bicycle - An

Engineering Marvel.

You can download the entire book as a free pdf for offline reading Visit this link - E-Book Download

Sources:
1. The stability of Bicycle by David E. H. Jones
(http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~fa...)
2. Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics

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What makes a bicycle faster than a regular walking man?

Vertical motion of Center of Mass

This has been mentioned by Jack Dahlgren. The diagram below shows
the different position of the center of mass of a human while walking. A
good amount of energy is wasted in the up-down motion.

Applied force is Discontinuous

The power you supply is not continuous while walking. If you do the
same thing on bicycle by applying force on pedal for every 1 second
followed by a brief pause - your speed will reduce drastically.
The figure below shows how the reaction from ground varies on the
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body. You can see it drops to zero periodically.

Higher Surface Resistance

The resistance offered to ground is higher to our feet than to wheels.
Please not that at very high speeds, wind drag becomes very high too, but
yes, you can't reach that speed by mere walking.

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Unwanted Motions
You generally swing your hands (and slightly neck too). Energy losses
takes place here.
The result of all above is that a person can lose upto two-thirds of the
power he spends while walking.
To know more on the resistance thing:
Raj Arjit's answer to Why does a rolling tyre/wheel stop after some time?
Rolling friction does no work. What dissipates its kinetic energy?

Source of the figures: Biomechanics of Walking and Running,

by Claire. T. Farley.

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When a fan spins really fast, why does it appear like it is spinning in the
opposite direction?
A rotating wheel can appear to rotate faster, slower, reverse or even
stationary to the human eye. Such illusions happen in two forms.

1. While watching a video.

2. While seeing in real life.

The illusion while watching Video

Short answer
The rotation of the object (let's say a spoke-wheel) happens continuously
while the camera records it as "instances" in form of frames. Now
humans perceive motion by, sort of, comparing the one frame with the
previous frame (very quickly). Depending on what gets recorded in the
consecutive frames, different types of illusions occur.
Long answer
Consider a wheel with 4 spokes at at equal angles from each other.

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Consider the wheel to be rotating in clockwise direction. The wheel is

rotating continuously but the camera will be recording it in frames. Let's
focus on the top most spoke. The current position of it is 12 o'clock.
Note: Frames refer to one of the many still images that make up the
entire video.
After one frame, consider the top spoke to have rotated 3/4th of the
circle (270 degrees) and is now at position 9 o'clock. After another frame
it will be at position 6, and then back to 3. So in reality the spoke moves
12 - (3) - (6) - 9 - (12) - (3) - 6 - (9) - (12) - 3
in clockwise direction.
but when our eyes sees it in form of frames it is easier to relate it in
counter-clockwise direction and it appears the spoke to be moving in 12 - 9 - 6 - 3
in counter clockwise direction.
This creates the impression of wheel moving in reverse. Had after every
frame the spoke was at 12 o'clock position, it would had appeared to be
stationary. If after each frame it had made slightly more than one
revolution then it will appear to be moving in right direction but slowly.
Another example is shown in figure below.

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Image source: Sciencelet.com

The illusion in real life

This type of illusion also occurs while seeing the wheels of fast moving
car or blades of a fan.
Now while the reason is quite similar considering that our eyes are also
like camera. The actual reason is debated since we do not know how
exactly our eyes work (in frames?).
Neuroscientist Dave Purves and colleagues in a 1996 issue
of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, posits that humans
perceive motion in a manner similar to a movie camera, just like frames.
But in 2004, researchers led by neuroscientist David
Eagleman demonstrated that test subjects shown two identical wheels
spinning adjacent to one anotheroften perceived their rotation as
switching direction independently of one another. This observation is
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inconsistent with Purves' team's discrete-frame-processing model of

human perception, which, reason suggests, would result in both wheels'
rotations switching direction simultaneously.
A "better" explanation for motion-reversal, Eagleman and his team
conclude, is a form of "perceptual rivalry," the phenomenon by which the
brain generates multiple (or flat-out wrong) interpretations of a visually
ambiguous scene.
Sources
1. IO9
2. Wagon-wheel effect
3. Sciencelet.com

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

About myself A passionate mechanical engineer, with interests in sharing and
gaining knowledge. I am Quora top writer and instructor on Udemy as well.
You can connect with me here and check my online courses and free articles.
Udemy profile - https://www.udemy.com/u/arjit/
Quora profile - https://www.quora.com/Raj-Arjit

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