VIRTUAL ASSESSMENT OF MOTORCYCLE VIBRATIONS 2001-01-1849

While on the one hand the development period to meet the market needs to be as short as possible and cost reduction of products is extremely important for manufacturers, the demands for environmental considerations and riders' comfort have recently been rapidly increasing in the area of motorcycle performance as well. Considering these arguments, this paper discusses how to establish technology to predict riders' vibration comfort of a motorcycle, starting from a computer aided design (CAD). So far, only a few papers on the prediction of motorcycle vibration have already been made public, but with regard to modeling the connection between component models even less literature is available and, as a result, empirical figures are widely used. Therefor this paper focuses on the modeling aspects of these connectors to make accurate virtual models that allow the assessment of motorcycle vibrations in operational conditions. In addition, technology is shown to calculate the operational forces, acting on the engine and to effectively use CAD, which recently have been developed tremendously with the use of digital technology.