[hpv] Steering head bearing loads in front-drive bike

[Jeff Wills]

Garrie, one of the things that make a bicycle rideable is the near-zero friction in the headset. This allows tiny, subtle movements to happen, which in turn allows the bicycle to balance with tiny corrections to the steering. A bike with a "tight" headset is a chore to ride, and it certainly won't self-correct when "ghost ridden".

Even the largest motorcycles use roller or ball bearings in their steering pivots instead of bushings.

Jeff Wills
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----- hpv-request at hupi.org wrote:
0
> From: Garrie Hill <garrie at recumbents.com>
> To: Ben Brown <hbb at cs.cmu.edu>
> Cc: HPV_list List <hpv at hupi.org>
> Subject: Re: [hpv] Steering head bearing loads in front-drive bike
> Message-ID: <8B2BD011-EADE-46AE-AE82-B885AC35812A at recumbents.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> One of the things I've pondered over the years is, "Why do we use ball or roller bearings in head sets?"  Nothing is rotating more than a couple degrees ( more than 90% of the time) plus or minus, and a good shock through the wheel into the fork can cause indentation of the balls into the races.  Use a bushing and you spread forces over infinitely larger bearing surfaces than the contact area of balls/races.  In the case of MBB FWD, bushings have the added advantage of extra drag dampening some pedal induced oscillation.
> 
>  
> Garrie "carbon based lifeform" Hill
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