Cross-Cultural Bicycle Design at Cal Poly and the Munich University of Applied Sciences

Bicycles are ubiquitous and also globally a cornerstone of student transport and recreation. We have found that bicycles also serve as a transition vehicle of another sort. They serve as a technical platform that both encapsulates fundamental and interesting problems in mechanics, vehicle dynamics, stability, motive power, etc., and they are also something that university students have an intuitive, firsthand knowledge of from an early age. Thus they function well as a springboard for students headed into areas where they have no prior experience. The bicycle industry is strong on the U.S. West Coast. For example, the “mountain” in mountain bike is Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. In urban Germany the bicycle is an important cornerstone of personal transportation. The Mechanical Engineering Departments at Cal Poly and the Munich University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Munchen) have an exchange program involving both students and faculty. Both have curriculum ingredients that focus on bicycle science. This mixing of students and professors and the study of bicycles has led to interesting projects, curriculum development, industry engagement and sponsorship, cross-cultural information exchange, and individual cross-cultural enrichment experiences for both faculty and students. What has developed has not been planned from above. The individual pieces, like Cal Poly’s “Single Track Vehicle Design” course, have been methodically developed. But like most things involving bicycles, what has developed has grown from the bottom up without an overall plan, a grassroots effort. But the individual puzzle pieces form a larger whole with a story worth relating, a story that involves helicopters, fluid power, and a trip to Munich’s Oktoberfest along the way. This paper gives some of this history and experience in a sequence of vignettes.