Anti-Dive Brakes

Many any years ago when I used to ride a motorcycle, I always found it disconcerting how much the front end of the bike would sink down when I applied the brakes hard. After some thought on the matter I realized a link connecting the front brake caliper to the steering head could help alleviate this sinking feeling.

The caliper would need to be mounted to the axle and free to rotate around it. It would be mounted behind the front fork, that is, to the rear of it. When the suspension is compressed, the link would cause the caliper to rotate around the axle towards the bottom of the disk. Conversely, when the suspension was extended, the link would cause the caliper to rotate towards the top of the caliper. Applying the brakes would cause the caliper to try and rotate in the direction of the forward rotating disk. This would exert an upward pressure on the link which would counteract the downward pressure of the front of the bike, keeping it from diving so far down. Some experimentation to determine the length of the link and radius of the link connection point will be in order.

I supposed an illustration is in order, but I have not learned to use a computer drawing program that would allow me to produce a drawing as quickly as a pencil. And pencil sketches, well, they would have to be scanned, and then they would require some fiddling. Someday I may get around to that.

But back to the topic at hand. Some time later I observed that when a car comes to a stop we have something of the same phenomena. It is not nearly as disconcerting, probably due to the seating position, but there is one thing that bothers me, and that is the way a car sets back on it's springs after it has come to a stop. It should not do that. When it comes to a stop, it should stop completely, it should stop moving. It should not be moving around on it's springs. With all the fancy schmancy technology they are trying to pack into cars these days, let us see if the automotive engineers can solve this puzzle. I can smell the hype now: "Anti-dive brakes, the ultimate in braking refinement".