EXPERIMENTAL TESTING OF COMPOSITES CYCLING COMPONENTS STIFFNESS

This work is inserted in a broader project developed by Gregario s.r.l for the design and manufacturing of an adjustable, highly customizable, and high-performance carbon stem and handlebar assembly. It follows two other theses about the layup optimization and the development of a test bench to test bicycle’s frames and handlebars. These two works I will refer to are respectively “Ottimizzazione del layup su un manubrio per biciclette sportive in fibra di carbonio” by Edoardo Chillotti and “Progettazione di un banco prova per telai e componenti di biciclette” by Vincenzo Santoro. Following these previous works, this thesis project aims to test the carbon fiber handlebar and stem using the test bench studied by Vincenzo Santoro and developed by Gregario to validate their torsional and flectional stiffnesses. Comparisons between experimental results and FEM models are shown and some possible improvements are presented.