Exploring the association of riders’ physical attributes with comfortable riding posture and optimal riding position

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a keen interest in the design improvisation of motorcycles. However, the theoretical model of association between motorcycle design attributes (like frame size/riding position) and rider’s physical attributes (like anthropometry, range of motion (ROM), and comfort joint angles) are not well established. This study aims to estimate the relationship between rider’s physical attributes and motorcycle design attributes. During this experimental study, the data was collected from 120 motorcyclists (aged between 19 and 44 years) belonging to 20 major states of India. A test-rig was fabricated to obtain the perceived comfort posture and position data using image processing technique. The anthropometry and ROM were manually measured and verified by reliability testing. The principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression were used to reduce the set of variables and estimate the relationship between 10 comfortable riding position and joint angles (as dependent variables), and the reduced set of 29 anthropometry and 20 ROM measurements (as the independent variables). These results indicate that the comfort joint angles and riding position were significantly associated with the anthropometrics and ROM of the riders. Highly significant regression models were formulated to examine the relationship between the comfort joint angles/riding position and the anthropometrics and ROM of the riders. The findings may support the motorcycle designers to design a comfortable motorcycle complying with Indian anthropometry and ROM.