The Physics of Riding on Track Bankings
Three questions frequently crop up around the physics of riding around track bankings:
- What kind of G-forces do riders experience when riding though bankings at speed?
- A low speeds a rider “leans out” in the banking as gravity pushes them down the track. A high speeds a rider leans in as the centrifugal force tends to push them up the track. There is a speed when a rider transitions between these two states, a speed when the bike is exactly orthogonal to (i.e. perpendicular to, or at 90 degrees to) the surface of the track. What is this speed?
- What is the minimum speed you need to ride to avoid “falling off” in a banking?
The material that follows is based on two excellent posts on the subject: