Take the msf course before you kill yourself or someone else

 

+10000000000

Also watch this :-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrBi3Y76OPY&feature=related

Also forget the bike!! The bike wont do anything unless you tell it with your body.

Lead with your head and shoulders and the bike will follow you, that means you! should be leaning into the corner before the bike is!


DO NOT TRY THIS ON THE ROAD!! Practice in a controlled area, e.g. a parking lot, before trying it on the road!!


Remember, learn from others, failure to do so may result in death!!

 

Hey Cooke, I know this post is rather dated, but I wanted to share this video with you. It explains fairly well how and why counter steering works and may still provide you with some additional insight.

The Physics of Countersteering - YouTube

 

Thanks for the help lads

 

I don't get it. Countersteering is how you steer a bike. Its not a special technique. If you are going over about 15mph on a bike and you're turning it.....then you're countersteering. Its the same on a bicycle. I've never understood why people talk about this so much. Unless you've never been on a 2-wheeled vehicle before. Even then, its pretty easy to figure out when you turn the bars to the right and the bike starts going left.

 

My two cents. A lot is said about this technique and you may be overthinking. May i suggest that you are more than likely doing it already. It works on a bicycle and if you ride you are probably doing it. Just to demonstrate to yourself, go to a safe area. go in a straight line. push you left handlebar. NOT A LOT !! just nudge it. The bike will go left even though you have turned the bars to the right. I don't recommend it but when no one is watching I used to go back and forth between the white lines staying on the pavement not the lines!( the lines can be slick ! Using counter-steering you can get very accurate with practice. Really effective at dodging cars and other things that pop up. It is counter-intuitive but you can get it to be instinctive with practice in a safe place....and instinctive is what you want.
+1 on the MSF. I took it after 30+ years of riding mainly to get my license but I still learned and re-enforced my skills.
my disclaimer - I don't recommend the white lines exercise- most would faint at the idea, but I was young and invulnerable.

 

Well, that's not entirely true. Many people use a combination of leaning the body to tip the bike first whereas a counter steer movement upsets the CG to tip the bike over.

I can take a bike around a whole road course and never touch the bars. If you ever rode a bicycle with no hands, you could to. Although obviously, one method is clearly more efficient than the other.

But some still have a difficult time understanding the different concepts.

 

It is impossible to turn a bike simply by leaning. Most people do not realize that when they lean the bars are also turning, even if ever so slightly. I can ride my bicycle all day long with my hands off the bars but when I lean to make it turn the bar (and thus the front wheel) also turns a bit.

Keith Code's No BS Bike proves this to any doubters once they've ridden it.

 

Wrong. Sorry.

No one said the bars don't turn. When you lean the bike into the turn the bars will turn.

When you countersteer, you turn the bars in advance of the turn, in the opposite direction of the turn. This upsets the CG of the bike making it 'fall' into the intended direction of the turn in which case it eventually gets 'caught' by the following steering input.

Its not even debatable that you can steer a motorcycle without touching the bars by shifting your weight around. The No BS Bike proves my point actually. How do you think you steer it around the track silly ?

 

Just to be clear, "I Believe" the OP was referring to the action of countersteering to initiate the start of the turn. It sounds like his mistake was attempting to actively input a counter steer while already into the turn. At which point would potentially be disasterous.

When people talk of countersteering as a conscious action, this generally should only be the case in order to initiate the entry of the turn outside of any minor corrections in turn which at that point should be so subtle as to most likely be nearly subconscious. IMO.

Clearly there is going to be alot of interpretation of the minor details as each person percieves their own process.