Development of a Dynamometer to Measure Grip Forces at a Bicycle Handlebar

The purpose of this paper was to develop a dynamometer to record grip forces at the human-machine interface in biomechanical studies. The development of the dynamometer was based on the approach described in VDI 2221. The principal solution was a dynamometer in the shape of a hollow cylinder. The dynamometer contains one clamp and two facing bending beams in the shape of half-shells which were equipped with strain gages allowing measurements of deformations. The validation was carried out in a biomechanical study, indicating a maximum relative error of 4.5 %. The reproducibility of measurements and the functionality was proven.