Very cool.

http://www.develop3d.com/features/digital-doppelgaenger

The biggest challenge with data collection is knowing what to do with it.

Seeing your CAD model replaying the data is a good start

The biggest challenge with data collection is knowing what to do with it.

That was my first thought, Reading through they’ve put some basic linear and rotary position, speed and accelerometer sensors on a bike cobbled it together with a Pi and some arduino kit, and then streamed the information…

The value isn’t really in the real time streaming, that’s just a gimic for PTC to use in presentations. The real value is in what it can tell you about the performance of the bike (or any thing else you might want to gather telemetry from)…

As it apparently lacked anything additional to measure strain/deflection/changes in pressure or temperature in key components, it’s just telling you that a some mechanisms moved, and how quickly they did, any measure of components performance would have to be interpolated…

Seeing your CAD model replaying the data is a good start

A start….

To make it more meaningful you would then want to link it to positioning to see what part of the run you were on – how live you can make this or tight is interesting.
Then add 2 or 3 cameras to analyse & link to what the rider see’s

I can see working out how often you blew through the travel ona run could be useful

A: Angle Sensor
An angle sensor is used to monitor steering angle as well as the movement of the rear suspension arrangement

B: Displacement Sensor
Displacement sensors are used in combination with the already-known K-factor of the forks to give reaction forces at the front shocks

C: Board + Power + WIFI
Powered by a portable battery, the whole rig is controlled by a Raspberry Pi 2, connected to the various sensors using a Pi-to-Arduino bridging component

D: Accelerometer
An accelerometer is fitted to a 3D-printed rig to assist with measuring the force placed on the seat of the bicycle, detecting movement changes in all directions

E: Speed sensor
Speed is monitored at the two axles as well as the crank axle to detect wheel and pedal rotations

F: AR target
A universal AR target is added to the bicycle to enable the iPad app to track the viewer’s position in relation to the bike and allow the overlaying of real-time sensor results

The Speed Cadence is easy to record and back in the days of PMB WC in South Africa lots were running garmin type devices with Speed/Candace and Power tracked. Match that with GPS & HR and you have really good data to work with.

Not recording what the rear travel is doing seems a bit of an oversight

They did this with £200 quid of bits, that’s impressive to a small time designer like me.

I like your idea of extra cameras to see where they are on the track, but their camera to see where the rider is in relation to the bike sounds very cool. Model the rider and compare his CofG to the bike CofG.

I’m not a bike designer but this tech sounds interesting for so many applications. I hope Autodesk give me something similar.

knock yourself out with linkage
http://www.bikechecker.com/

The question is really what are you going to do with the data. Lots of data is fashionable at the moment but using it is much harder.

Thanks…but that’s dangerous, I have too much else going on 🙂

I think seeing peak loads would be my first interest. Overengineer the prototype, get a DH rider to smash a run, then compare to my FEA analysis.

Or maybe if Aaron Gwin had had all this, we could work out exactly how he won without chain!

But yes I agree with your point about big data. That’s why I stopped tracking my rides. Paralysis of analysis.

it’s either in the collective or roam extra’s that the do the birth of the Demo 8, bike in jigs doing all the load and stress analysis in a very reputable way. 1000’s of impacts and stress tests to destruction on every iteration of the design.

Lapierre are doing it on the DH bike but mostly around the suspension rather than the angles etc.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/lapierre-gravity-republic-uses-data-acquisition-telemetry-at-cairns-wc-dh-2014.html

Like I said what’s missing is any measure of input loads, or structural deflections, measuring a few mechanical movements is of quite limited value IMO…

If your a bike frame designer, real data on the stresses your bike is undergoing would be more useful than knowing the fork moved 158mm within 0.23 seconds @ T+2.15 Shirley…

It’s a cheap sales Gimick, because none of their motor sports or aero customers would be willing to let them shout about proprietary telemetry or measurement set-ups…

If it were me (and of course it’s not) I’d want to see strain and deflection measurements taken using Fiber-Optic Sensors or similar laid along some of the frames main load paths and the handlebar, as well as tyre pressure monitoring (also relatively straight forwards), then the data might have some real value as you could relate those kinematic movements to proper measurements of stress/strain and deflection and actually be able to refine a frame design, or verify how effective the suspension components/setup actually are…

SC of course have form for providing PTC with pretty pictures and stuff for their promo’s/literature…
It makes sense they probably get some freebies/discounts but they’ll be a relatively small customer for PTC anyway, I’d be surprised if they need more than three seats.

Of course it’s easy to pick at other people’s work, quite another thing to try gathering any sort of data on product performance…