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Top1. Introduction
Cycling’s perceived connection to health is highly prevalent among active cyclists. The most frequent encouragement for it could be concluded as physical health and fitness, contribution to environmental sustainability, economy and time saving, etc (Useche, et al 2019; Götschi, et al 2016; Leyland, et al 2019; Useche, et al 2019; Liu, et al 2021). However, crash risk, adverse weather conditions and lack of safety could be the most discouraging factors. Nevertheless, cycling regarded as an alternative transportation option can be strengthened and enhanced with healthier practices (Kelly, et al 2014; Redberg, et al 2021; Lock, et al 2020; Kraus, et al 2021; Alonso, et al 2014).
Hydraulic dampers are damping elements that are used to avoid hard impacts or excessive vibration amplitudes for the respective product application. They are widely applied to achieve an optimal movement sequence or optimal vibration behavior (Zhang, et al 2017; Wu, 2021). To make cycling more comfortable and safer, hydraulic dampers are usually installed in the bike. Traditionally, damping adjustment relies on manual operation using mechanical system in advance before riding. It means that the damping can not be changed during riding. This can become a disadvantage when the road condition is inconsistent (Zhao, et al 2018).
A magnetorheological shock absorber is a damper that is controlled by a magnetic field, usually using an electromagnet. It is most notably applied in semi-active vehicle suspensions which may adapt to road conditions (Winter, et al 2017). Also, it has been used for on-line control of cutting tool vibration (Kishore, et al 2018). Analysis of ride comfort related to damping of cushion-suspension is still dispensable for wheel-drive vehicles in damping parameters design (Yang, et al 2017). Recently, a hydraulic semi-active suspension using road statistical properties and road identification was proposed (Zhao, et al 2018). This study showed that the road identification method could effectively perceive the actual road grades. However, above dampers are relatively expensive and unsuitable to be installed in bikes.
In this study, a hydraulic damping adjustment system using APP control for bike front fork is developed. The system structure is introduced in Section 2. It includes APP interface, System rear end, hydraulic damping and front end hardware. The system programming is demonstrated in Section 3. Section 4 presents the experimental results and discussion. The conclusions are given in Section 5.