As freshmen, we don’t drive cars to get around campus, we don’t fly in planes, we certainly don’t ride in boats, and we definitely don’t take trains. No, instead, as freshmen, we either walk or ride bicycles to get around University Park (which I have quickly learned to be more the size of a small nation, rather than a campus). Decisively, this prompted me into choosing the latter method of transportation: riding a bike. So as I rode from one place to another, whether it be my dorm to the HUB or the HUB to class or class to my dorm, or from whichever Point A to whatever Point B, I began thinking more and more about my bicycle. I realized it toppled over only when it was still…not when it was in motion, whether there was a rider atop or not(accidents excluded). This didn’t make sense to me. Why does it fall when motionless? Why does it stay upright when moving? After all…more people fall when moving than standing still. More cars crash driving than when sitting motionless. It’s also more easily to balance something, or stay balanced, when motionless. So, in a question sparked by my source of campus transportation: Why do bicycles fall when standing still, but not when moving?

To address and analyze the question, we should first examine why a bicycle is able to stay upright while in motion. We can then assume that what makes a bike fall, at the very least, is the simple lack of what keeps it standing. However, in every source utilized, no common consensus between researchers or scientists could be reached. The very fact of the matter is that, despite extensive research, no single deciding factor causes a bike to stay upright, and no single deciding factor causes a bike to fall over when motionless. No scientist, no researcher, no student or professor, none of those who endeavor into the study of great mysteries, can offer a solidified explanation. Literally, as unreasonable as it may sound…why a bike stays upright can actually be added to the list of great mysteries with evidence to both support and demote theories, alongside “What killed the dinosaurs?” and “What is the single event that created life?”

The first theory on why a bike stays upright when turning is because of, simply, well, friction. It’s also the most widely accepted and generally correct. Falling or leaning to a side doesn’t mean crashing. It means the bike turning in that direction. It means the bike curving in that path. It means friction is acting alongside the bike, deflecting that path onto the necessary curve it must take to avoid toppling over. It’s all about the transferring of momentum.

After all, this theory seems to be the most sensible when we think about it. Like our lesson in which we tried to figure out if wormy kids are stupid, we should remove a variable applicable to this bicycle theory. Friction. When a bike falls to its side on ice or gravel and friction vanishes, the bike no longer stays upright. Therefore, that could be a possibility of why bikes don’t stay upright without moving- the absence of friction caused by movement.

The second theory states that what keeps a bike upright is the gyroscopic motion it possesses. Put basically, if a handlebar turns and the bike starts to tilt, the front wheel simply hurries back underneath the frame. With this counteraction, it makes sense a bike seldomly falls while in motion. As for why it falls when motionless then? These gyroscopic parts aren’t moving quickly enough to counteract when the bike is motionless. Therefore, they are far too slow and far too futile in stopping the bike’s stationary fall.

Another theory, one of the final reputable ones I was able to locate, is that the bike only stays upright when it moves for the same reason a top does. When the momentum of the bike falls below a certain number, the bike is then at the will of gravity and will quite frequently plummet to the ground. That’s why bikes begin to fall when they even slow down way before they come to a complete stop.

Some other less exciting theories on why a stationary bike falls over are listed on Physics Stack Exchange. One such example is that the bike is not on its “convex hull”. Basically, to roughly explain, think of a bike as a pyramid. Standing it up on its wheels would be like trying to balance a pyramid on a tip. The theories go on, and on, and on, but surprisingly there is no accepted reason why bikes stay upright when moving and fall when stationary.

Perhaps the reason bikes don’t stay standing is because they’re too tired.

-By Isaac Will