During the past five years, Lindemann Engineering’s Ed Sorbo has been working on a new formula to more accurately calculate the correct spring rate and pre-load for a given rider and motorcycle weight.
Sorbo first realized there could be a better way after analyzing Jim Lindemann’s notes on spring dimensions and more specifically the relationship between a spring’s spiral shape, circumference and diameter.
This led Sorbo to study potential applications for the famous formula Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, 3.14 etc., in the context of motorcycle suspension behavior.
The results of Sorbo’s initial theoretical calculations appeared to be simply random numbers, like the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) left over from the Big Bang. CMB is so random that it is used to encrypt secure messages.
In a mind-bending eureka moment, Sorbo realized that the CMB is Pi. The reason no one noticed before is simply that we can’t yet see back to the very beginning of the Big Bang to see the three that comes before the decimal point.
Sadly, this discovery of the answer to life, the universe and everything has not led to a better spring rate calculation, or anything else useful, but pure research is like that sometimes. Surely someone will eventually find a way to utilize the knowledge that Pi surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.
We all know that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything is 42. If you don’t, please read all the books you can find by the eminent British scientist, Douglas Adams.
Photo Caption: Ed Sorbo has been through the desert on a scooter with no springs.