trail wrote:
Now I'm not entirely sure, here, but my mental visualization seem to say that H does not change when changing from right to left, if I'm understanding H correctly (which I may not be). It's symmetric with respect to linear distance from the track surface. And if H doesn't change, then I think this would corroborate Felt and SuperDave (and all the left-hand-drivers who came before). But I could have gone wrong at several points here, including selection of valid equations.
Nice find Trail. I believe you have put your finger on the reasoning that might be behind the LHD.
My reason for challenging that line of reasoning is has to do with the forces exerted by the tires on the track. Those contact forces must represent both the weight and the centripetal force. So the tires push down and outward on the track surface. The track pushes back with an equal and opposite force; call this the track reaction force. The line of action (where the vector points) of the track reaction force must pass through the overall bike+rider center of mass. If it didn't the bike would fall over because the tires are free to rotate in the frontal plane about the track surface.
Next time you're riding your bike on a straight road, hang your body off to one side of the bike and observe what happens. The lean angle of the bike will change but your center of mass must remain directly over the tire contact patches. The same thing must happen when riding through a turn but now the lean angle will be influenced by the centripetal term.
Would love to hear from SuperDave or from any of the Felt engineering team on this.
My immediate reaction the first time I saw it was that it was a placebo design. Give the riders something no one else has and tell them its faster. If they believe it, they will likely go faster. Placebo studies have demonstrated up to 6% improvements due to belief so its not something to be dismissed. Perhaps Felt has an engineering staff as well as a sports psych staff.
Cheers,
Jim