Calspan Bicycle and Motorcycle Dynamics Reports

August 19, 2010, Green Bay, WI, USA

The following files are scans of reports and other documents produced at CALSPAN (originally CAL, or Cornell Aero Labs) relating to single track vehicle research.

CALSPAN had a productive and active vehicle dynamics department headed by Bill Milliken. They did some work for the Department of Transportation on motorcycle dynamics, then used this expertise and experience to win additional government contracts, and also proprietary contracts with Schwinn, Harley Davidson, and others. The CALSPAN efforts included tire testing, tire modeling, dynamics modeling, dynamics experiments, and lastly a sustained effort to incorporate rider control. Posted here are some final reports, some progress reports, and some other materials. This may not be a complete list.

The owners of Schwinn intellectual property have generously given their consent to post the Schwinn-sponsored research. Also the government-sponsored research is posted. But reports to Harley Davidson will not be posted, unless their permission can be gained.

Sincere thanks are due to Forrest Yelverton for granting permission to hold and post these scans, and especially Doug Milliken, who was at least partially involved in some of the reported research, knew the people involved, and has maintained this archive. Doug kindly made these scans August 17 and August 18, 2010, while he was generously hosting and supporting my efforts to uncover what was in his files.

In future we will expand this section, summarize the general contents of each paper, and give a list of other papers not yet scanned.

Jim Papadopoulos
papadopoulos@alum.mit.edu