Suspension

The suspension expert’s illustrated, comprehensive troubleshooting guide for dirt, street, and supermoto—with a solution to virtually any problem. Suspension is probably the most misunderstood aspect of motorcycle performance. This book, by America’s premier suspension specialist, makes the art and science of suspension tuning accessible to professional and backyard motorcycle mechanics alike. Based on Paul Thede’s wildly popular Race Tech Suspension Seminars, this step-by-step guide shows anyone how to make their bike, or their kid’s, handle like a pro’s. Thede gives a clear account of the three forces of suspension that you must understand to make accurate assessments of your suspension’s condition. He outlines testing procedures that will help you gauge how well you’re improving your suspension, along with your riding. And, if you’re inclined to perfect your bike’s handling, he even explains the black art of chassis geometry. Finally, step-by-step photos of suspension disassembly and assembly help you rebuild your forks and shocks for optimum performance.

Suspension Concentrates is a survey into the theory of the formulation and stabilization of suspensions, elaborating on the breaking of aggregates and agglomerates and the role of dispersing agents on flocculation and electrostatic and steric stabilization. Practical analysis by rheology is discussed. Suspension Concentrates is ideal for research scientists and Ph.D. students investigating chemistry, chemical engineering and colloidal science.

Hand-selected by racing engineer legend Carroll Smith, the 28 SAE Technical Papers in this book focus on the chassis and suspension design of pure racing cars, an area that has traditionally been - farmed out - to independent designers or firms since the early 1970s. Smith believed that any discussion of vehicle dynamics must begin with a basic understanding of the pneumatic tire, the focus of the first chapter. The racing tire connects the racing car to the track surface by only the footprints of its four tires. Through the tires, the driver receives most of the sensory information needed to maintain or regain control of the race car at high force levels. The second chapter, focusing on suspension design, is an introduction to this complex and fascinating subject. Topics covered include chassis stiffness and flexibility, suspension tuning on the cornering of a Winston Cup race car, suspension kinematics, and vehicle dynamics of road racing cars. Chapter 3 addresses the design of the racing chassis design and how aerodynamics affect the chassis, and the final chapter on materials brings out the fact that the modern racing car utilizes carbon construction to the maximum extent allowed by regulations. These technical papers, written between 1971 and 2003, offer what Smith believed to be the best and most practical nuggets of racing chassis and suspension design information.

May 31, 1883, 3:55 p.m. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, their faces shining in the late afternoon sun, are strolling the Eighth Wonder of the World. The Brooklyn Bridge is open just a week, its promenade a magnet for the teeming masses of New York and Brooklyn. Anxious to escape the heat, overcrowding, and disease of the tenements, thousands stream onto the soaring span. To breathe free, high above the choking confines of the city is an experience like no other. An engineering marvel of transcending beauty, the bridge is simply breathtaking. In precisely five minutes, it will fall. Seven desperate men, former Confederate soldiers turned saboteurs, have labored for years to destroy the bridge. A symbol of hated Yankee supremacy, the bridge is the creation of Chief Engineer, Washington Roebling. They have stalked him down through the years, with hatred born of bitter loss. His actions at Gettysburg have earned him terrible retribution. It is his bridge, his life's work that will pay the price. The river will run red but for one man. Sergeant Detective Tom Braddock is one step behind the conspirators. Working through a series of murderous dead-ends, Braddock has dogged the seven men from the cables of the bridge to the shadowy alleys of the Lower East Side and the back streets of Richmond, Virginia. With the help of an eager roundsman, new to the force, he has slowly drawn closer to the unthinkable truth, a truth that none can accept. Braddock's adversaries are many. Enemies within the police department seek to draw him deeper into a cesspool of corruption from which there seems no escape. To lose that battle is to surrender all hope, for his hands are far from clean already. Braddock must prevail against the enemy within if the bridge is to be saved. It is the love of Mary, the captivating Madame of a mid-town brothel that helps him find the way. Their fates are bound together, as surely as they are bound to the bridge. But it is Mike, a boy of the tenements, who literally holds the key to all their futures. Suspension is a riveting historical thriller filled with fascinating details of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.