The front suspension

In this chapter, the authors introduce the telehydraulic fork, which has become, across the years, the most common kind of front suspension for motorbikes. In chronological order, some noteworthy patents are presented, which help the reader following the main steps of the technical evolution which gave front motorbike suspensions their current shape. Then, the behaviour of some key structural elements of the fork is examined, under the assumption that the fork is subject to a bending moment acting on the front wheel mid-plane. Such a noteworthy loading condition is frequently encountered during the life cycle of a motorbike: consider, for instance, an emergency braking manoeuvre. Tests which simulate the effect of a hard braking on the fork are also part of the product validation programmes of the main motorbike producers. It is illustrated an analytical model useful for calculating the stress state of the fork legs under said loading condition. Such a model takes into account some architectural configurations as well as some characteristic geometrical parameters of the fork and of the motorbike. The model was validated referring to some production forks, both by finite element analyses and by experimental tests on the road. In the case of forks equipped with a single brake disc, the load unevenness between the legs during braking is analysed, and some strategies aimed at reducing such loading unbalance are suggested. The model presented herein could be helpful for designers who are developing new fork models, because it allows foreseeing critical issues due to legs dimensioning since the early phase of product development, when FEA techniques may be difficult to implement.