Pendulum fork

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First pendulum fork (1905), Oscar Hedstrom

The pendulum fork was a type of front suspension on motorcycles . Oscar Hedstrom , co-founder of Indian , received a US patent for the first pendulum fork on January 10, 1905. Indian built pendulum forks between 1905 and 1910 on all motorcycle models, then the leaf spring fork . A further developed pendulum fork from the British manufacturer Triumph appeared in 1910. Pendulum forks were brought back onto the market by DKW , Reichsfahrtmodell (1922) and Motobécane (1923) after the First World War . The last DKW motorcycle with a pendulum fork was the E 200 (1928); then the trapezoid fork was used, which had far better properties. Until the 1950s, the so-called pendulum spring fork was installed in motorcycles and mopeds .

technology

The pendulum fork was rotatably mounted below the steering head on an axis transversely to the direction of travel, so that the lower part of the fork with the wheel could move forward and upward. A spring absorbed the horizontal forces. The response is described as good; Decisive for the low distribution of the pendulum fork was the low vertical suspension and the change in wheelbase and caster and the resulting "miserable guidance properties". The compression is coupled with “considerable horizontal movements”, which make this construction appear “almost pointless”. Pendulum spring forks were sprung with coil or torsion bar springs .

  • Triumph (1910)

  • Motobécane (1923)

  • DKW E 200 (1928)

  • Opel Motoclub (1930)
    under fork described

  • Phenomenon Moped Bob (1937)

  • Zündapp Combinette (1954)

literature

  • Helmut Werner Bönsch: Introduction to motorcycle technology . 3. Edition. Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-87943-571-5 .
  • Hans Trzebiatowsky (Ed.): Motorcycles, scooters, mopeds and their maintenance. Fachbuchverlag Pfanneberg, Gießen 1955. (Reprint: Bulldog Press, Limburg / Lahn 1994, ISBN 3-9803332-4-8 )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Patent 779709 (accessed January 8, 2014)
  2. ↑ Trzebiatowsky (Ed.): Motorräder ..., p. 554.
  3. ↑ Trzebiatowsky (Ed.): Motorräder ..., on p. 934/935 about 45 moped models with pendulum fork are mentioned.
  4. ↑ Helmut Werner Bönsch: Introduction to motorcycle technology ., P. 49
  5. ↑ Trzebiatowsky (Ed.): Motorräder ..., pp. 774, 775.