Semi-Active Damping for Off-Road Bicycle Suspension: An Experimental Study

This paper presents experimental results from the testing of a semi-active damping system in an off-road bicycle (bike). Magnetorheological dampers are being increasingly used in automotive applications to enhance damping capability of a suspension system or to mitigate the trade-off between ride comfort and handling. A magnetorheological (MR) damper requires a relatively low amount of energy to control damping characteristics, and behaves as a passive damper in the absence of any power input. This study investigates the use of a semi-active magnetorheological damper for the rear suspension of a mountain bike. The performance of this damper has been compared to the current shock absorber on the bike. All testing has been performed on a shaker table and the performance of the damper has been evaluated by comparing the input acceleration at the hub of the rear wheel to the acceleration at the seat of the bike. The main aim of this study is to investigate the viability of using an MR damper in a mountain bike suspension system. Test results indicate that the performance of the semi-active MR damper is comparable to the current shock absorber. Furthermore, the MR damper lends itself to hands-off control that will be investigated in a future study. Therefore, it can be concluded from preliminary testing that an MR damper can be used in a mountain bike to effectively control damping.