Seventeen Motorcycle Crash Tests into Vehicles and a Barrier

• Published in: SAE transactions Vol. 111; pp. 709 - 735
• Main Authors: Adamson, Kelley S., Alexander, Peter, Robinson, Ed L., Johnson, Gary M., Burkhead, Claude I., McManus, John, Anderson, Gregory C., Aronberg, Ralph, Kinney, J. Roily, Sallmann, David W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc 01-01-2002
• ISSN: 0096-736X; 2577-1531

Staged motorcycle-to-car and motorcycle-tobarrier collisions were conducted with seventeen early 1990's models Kawasaki 1000 motorcycles. The impact speeds into the barrier and cars were varied between 10 and 49 MPH. The purpose was to observe the change in motorcycle wheelbase, and characterize motorcycle-to-car and motorcycle-to-barrier crush profiles. These crash tests will expand the existing motorcycle crash test database. The vehicles were instrumented with tri-axial accelerometers to facilitate the analysis offerees, speed change, and stiffness. Some of the crash tests were recorded by high-speed video cameras. This paper characterizes the data collection system, summarizes the data collected, and lists the parameters that characterize the collision. Crush data and vehicle rest positions were recorded by typical reconstruction methods.