Swingarm

This product was added on the quality assurance side of the portal car and motorcycle. Please help to improve it, and take part you in the discussion. ( )

A rocker is a component of the suspension system for vehicles. It is usually oriented parallel to the direction of travel, mounted rotatably on a rotational axis transverse to the direction of travel. At its free end, it receives the wheel. The axes of rotation of the swing arm and the wheel are located approximately at the same height. The rocker comes in front - and rear suspensions are used. In the motorcycle it is the most common type of rear suspension.

The wheel mounts

• For motorcycles this is usually a simple axis.
• For unguided wheels are the bearings of the wheels
• When the steered wheels are the uprights.

Types of swing

A distinction is drawn between swing and pushed swing. Seen in the driving direction is by solid wings of the pivot point (storage ) before the wheel axle for rear behind.

Use the motorcycle

Front suspension

Front wings were realized earlier with hand-propelled swing. From these concepts only pushed the long arm has survived in motorcycle sidecars. On the chassis -mounted wings for the front wheel in conjunction with axle steering as on the Yamaha GTS 1000 or a steering wheel hub as Bimota Tesi at the could not prevail despite their rigidity due to the complex design and the small steering angle.

Rear suspension

Rear suspensions of two-wheelers are becoming increasingly realized with solid swing. This outweigh two-arm swing, which lead the wheel on both sides. Single arm swing are much more expensive to design and manufacture.

Single-sided swingarm

Single side that lead the wheel on one side only, have been since the thirties in automobiles (see below) and rarely also in motorcycles (eg Imme R 100 ) was used. In 1980, BMW began with the BMW R 80 G / S equip its motorcycle models with single sided swing arm, called the BMW Monolever. The principle was further developed to today's Paralever swing arm steadily with torque support. Today, in addition to use BMW and other motorcycle manufacturer single sided swing arm, for example, Ducati, Honda, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta and Triumph. They are less stiff than two-arm swing usually heavier or the same weight, but allow quick and easy wheel change. On motorcycles they are therefore often used in endurance racing.

Cantileverschwinge

" Cantilever " is a type of the rear suspension for motorcycles, wherein a long arm is formed as a two-armed lever. The longer lever arm supports the wheel, the upward-facing arm is shorter by an inclined or flat-lying spring (usually with vibration ) supported below the saddle against the frame. This type of suspension sat at the NSU NSU Fox and Norbert Riedel motors corporation at the " Imme " in Germany for the first time in 1949. In England there were similar structures already in the 1920s/30s, for example, in the Matchless Silver Hawk. The term " cantilever ", however, was not coined until later in connection with such wings that - viewed from the side - form a triangle. Even today we find this design in different models, eg in DB5/DB6 Bimota, Buell XB models, MZ 1000S/SF/ST, Yamaha XT 550

Unit Swing

Propulsion unit rotating additionally carry the engine and transmission or may be formed of their housing. With direct fit on the run from the transmission shaft wheel they are often used in scooters. There, the worse suspension is accepted due to the inertia of the larger unsprung mass in favor of cost-effective and maintenance-free power transmission. The first motor scooter with Unit Swing was the Vespa. Motorcycles with Unit Swing were the already mentioned Imme R 100 and also designed by Norbert Riedel Victoria Swing. With the chain drive is an advantage of the system Unit Swing that the chain tension remains constant.

Anti-dive

If the support of the brake pads, such as the brake caliper is fixed to the rocker, as usual, the directional rotation of the wheel against the force of the brake causes a torque on the rocker. When a pulled rocker, this torque is directed against the spring so that the arm is lifted during braking briefly. The wheel is then released, whereby the friction between the tire and the road surface decreases. This results in a reduced braking action and directional stability. This can be prevented by a brake torque support is rotatable in the caliper mounted on the wheel axis and fixed to a rotatably mounted at both ends on the chassis strut or another sprung part.

Use in automotive

For automobiles, there are Swing - consistently Single side - since the 1930s, such as the Stoewer gripping V8, Adler Trumpf Junior ( pushed back), also on the front of the steering axis in the Opel Olympia ( Dubonnet suspension ). After the Second World War, they were used in front-wheel drive small and medium-sized cars, mostly just behind France and the United Kingdom. The Citroën 2CV was Swing around ( pushed forward ), as well as BMW 600, 700 employed with the back swing. Medium-sized cars with rear wings are the Citroën DS, Renault 16 and the BMC ADO17 (Austin 1800).

In parallel swing the instantaneous center is very low ( at road level ) so strong sway ( body roll ) can result in curves and problems with the driving stability is. Because of the great moments in the bearing points, a subframe is used often.

Wings are often ( somewhat inaccurately ) referred to as trailing arm.

They are also still used today, often something wrong as trailing link axle. If parallel swinging connected by a rigid stabilizer, storage can be simplified and executed comfortable soft rubber in this type is then called coupling or beam axle.