Commuter

Commuting is fun. I’m fortunate to live within biking distance of work and have access to several fun paved/un-paved routes on my way home.

My interest in suspension elements on cargo bikes has grown over the past few years. Most of my designs have been rigid, which results in cargo compartment chaos going over rough surfaces. This project presents an opportunity to use a small amount of suspension travel (~40mm) to isolate myself and my cargo load. I avoided higher travel values for two reasons. First - more travel would make my rear suspension layout difficult, if not impossible, with steel flex elements. Additionally - I want to minimize the perceived “energy” dissipated by the suspension and balance the ride to mostly feel like a traditional rigid frame while providing some amount of road isolation.

I hope to qualitatively and quantitatively capture the effectiveness of the suspension (quantitative side will be captured with my YostLabs data logger!)

Suspension:

The fork is a leading arm, linkage-style layout. Due to the low travel amount and orientation of axle relative to pivot, the axle path is more rewards compared to a telescoping fork. I also calculated the telescopic head angle equivalent based on the local slope of the swingarm axle path. I think this is a pretty interesting comparison. Plots shown below.