Ken Freeman wrote: <snip> If you read the MIT press book Bicycling Science, 3rd edition, page 266, the authors discuss the broomstick analogy. This simple experiment shows that it is easier to balance a long broom on the palm of one hand than a short broomstick. They quote a mathematical result that states that the time it takes such an object to topple to a predetermined degree is proportional to square root of the height of its center of mass. Longer broomsticks have the center of mass higher off the support plane (the palm) than short broomsticks. So much for principles. <snip>
The steering chapter (and much of the the other seriously analytical material) was written by Jim Papadopoulos, long-time vintage enthusiast. With other colleagues, he has some new work coming out, but it will be techniclly challenging to absorb (at least for me). Regretably, the steering analysis probably will live on another forum...
harvey sachs
mcLean va