Why is balancing on a stationary bike so much more difficult than on a moving one?
In: 48
A bicycle is an inverted pendulum. The normal method for keeping it upright is moving the contact point with the ground left or right to keep it underneath the center of mass, and this requires the bicycle to be moving. When the bicycle is moving, it will self-steer in the direction it is leaning, which will help keep it upright(multiple causes for this self-steering effect, including gyroscopic precession, and the geometry of the steering).
When the bicycle is stopped, you can’t move the contact point with the ground enough to stay balanced, so you have to move the center of mass left and right to keep it above the contact point with the ground, this is very hard because the only way you have to move the center of mass left and right is a torque through the contact point, which necessarily causes rotation, so you have to push that even harder so you go back over center in the other direction enough to pull yourself back upright.
Latest Answers