Hi there,
recently a russian guy called Dmitry Kuteynikov proposed me to realise a front suspension by placing a rubber in the steering pivot.
In the mailing list this idea was already discussed and we came to the conclusion that this could not work because the pedal pressure would activate the suspension.
Encouraged by this discussion I taxed my brain and got out a solution witch might work:
- mount a hinge between the steering pivot and the front part - the hinge has a stopper in the lower position - a pretensioned rubber is placed below the hinge
The principle is similar to the rear suspension. The rubber is preloaded so that the system weight is compensated.
When the rider pushes the pedal, nothing happens to the suspension as the pushing force is towards the stopper plate.
When a road bump is passed over, the force is directed to the opposite direction and the front part can fold upwards (suspension) and is later pulled back to the home position by the rubber.
I suppose this is difficult to understand and my technical english is not the best. So I added a rough sketch to outline the idea.
What do you guys think?
Cheers, Jürgen.