Design of combined brake system for light weight scooters

The combined brake system (CBS) is a mechanism that links the front and rear brakes for scooters. For two-wheeled scooters, a CBS with appropriate braking force distribution can reduce the risk of crashing accidents due to insufficient driving proficiency. The design of the braking force distribution for a CBS is challenging to the designer because it has to fulfill many requirements such as braking performance, ride comfort, reliability, and low costs. This paper proposes a systematic method to optimize the parameters of CBS. The evaluation indexes for the design are first discussed. The steps to determine the critical parameter to meet the indexes and a method to predict braking performance are developed. Finally, driving tests are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experimental results showed that the deceleration of the tested scooter equipped with the designed CBS achieves an average mean fully developed deceleration (MFDD) of 5.246 m/s², higher than the homologation requirement. Furthermore, the proposed method’s prediction of braking performance is in good agreement with the test results, with errors <1%.