Countersteering

now i know all about negative torque i might actually get somewhere !

I'm just the opposite. I studied that diagram, went out to test it on my bike and fell off.

Now I'm wondering if I need a bike shaped like the one in the diagram. I think I prefer beer goggles to science goggles.

people that really over exagerate it get on my nerves though. weaving about the place like cocks.

yes, what is that all about?

I've seen lots of willfull swerving from the fixie pricks about town for no apparent reason.

My only suggestion is to not stand too close to these people if you are at the urinals

That diagram and explanation are very helpful.
I failed my countersteering exam as a child and as a result have not left my house since. I have been described as unstable on a bike but then I can torque.

"It's absolute proof of the thesis that you don't need to be able to understand something scientifically to be able to do it" . Now this I like as the implications set me cackling

I'm still waiting for someone to properly explain gravity to me.

wear your helmet, it's safer.

Countersteering eh?

I always thought it was just call 'riding a bike'

Whilst everyone that can ride a bike around a corner without falling off uses countersteer without knowing it, if you know the physics behind it it can make your turning smoother, and help you to corner better at high speed.

Also very useful for when you need to avoid something, like a wandering ped or nodder sitting still at a green light.

I have thought about it and do it every day - it's good for potholes, like Velocio said, and swerving around traffic. Not that I ever do that.

Truth is "Countersteering" is the ONLY way to control a bike at riding speeds. That's why it's so hard to learn when you are 6. The handlebars are for keeping your balance having initiated a turn. The only way a bike will turn right is when the rider's weight is displaced that way. It's done by turning the bars to the left to unbalance the bike, or leaning your weight to the right. What some folk find hard to understand is that there's a SPECIAL TERM for what we have all been doing since we were kids.

On your way home tonight, don't try "Countersteering". Try steering by turning the bars the way you want to go. It can't be done! It's absolute proof of the thesis that you don't need to be able to understand something scientifically to be able to do it.

+1

Check out this video, I was waiting for something dreadful to happen.

YouTube - Counter steer on a bike

By the way, is that a Maglite on his handlebars? Can you buy an adapter?

By the way, is that a Maglite on his handlebars? Can you buy an adapter?

I use this for my Fenix which is similar to a Maglite.

http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/lockblock.html

Dat bloke is riding geared. Got absolutely nothing to do with fixed. I'm really surprised his bike responds the same way as mine does. He was going so fast in a sort of park I was waiting for a horse to cross his path and see how he got out of that!

I love his last line: "ahh that wasn't a good demonstration cuz you can't really see anything"

I use this for my Fenix which is similar to a Maglite.

http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/led_torches/lockblock.html

Are they good, then?

isn't this just standard cycling practice ? fairly intuitive really. when i learnt to turn corners on a bike as a child i certainly didn't think to myself "right, now for some countersteering ! "

You can do it MUCH more consciously/aggressively on a motorbike. An older mate told me years ago that Eddie Lawson used to countersteer so hard, he'd bend his handlebars.

Bad thing to tell a 17yr old with sticky tyres and a RD350.....you can imagine what happened next.

superman impression ?
the rd350 ypvs was the fastest thing i had ever seen when i was a 14 years old a boy at my school afew years above me had one
i never saw anything accelerate so fast power baaaaaaand time

yeah...sort of. I had a YPVS and a LC (the LC was significantly faster but truly evil handling).

I loved the YPVS, uncommon to most 2-strokes it was really reliable. It met a sad end under a UPS van on the A4 just before hammersmith.

This stuff had never crossed my mind before I read it yesterday. Messed about with it on the way to work this morning, fun stuff. Taking my mind off London's famous rain on the way home tonight I think I figured it out.

I'm not much of a physicist but I've drunkenly decided that the comparison between bicycles and motorbikes is completely irrelevant because of the massive difference in relative weight between bike and rider. On a motorbike you need to change the direction the bike is going (cos it's fucking heavy), but a fixie skidder is completely the opposite and will go pretty much which ever way you shift your arse.

Hard to believe anyone does this instictively when there doesn't seem to be any need for it. Having to be taught it for the big bike test also suggests it's not an instinctive thing.

I too learned it for the bike test after riding with no instruction for 25 years (1954 Sunbeam S7) I always rode slow so it did not mater but when I got a modern bike (1973 R75/5 BMW) a few years ago I was glad I learned it as now I can go around any curve with out fear of driving off.

So yea on a 400 lb. motor cycle it is great on a bicycle it is just fun especially if you are going fast.

The way they taught it - to go right push away with your right arm, the hips go the opposite way and the bike leans, keep pushing harder and you go in a tighter curve. Your sort of more upright but the bike is farther over - totally counter intuitive cause the wheels stay in a straight line (no steering to the right) but the machine turns by being leaned.

counter steering is funny little thing, cos i think every biker does it without knowing it.
It's something you do naturally.

i do it only when i go into a sharp corner at more than 23mph+

makes more sense doing it on a motorbike though when the speeds are tripled

This sounds like the geeky shit Alan Partidge would come up with alongside conversations about Lexus cars. "Hey, do you counter steer?"

Surely it's just a natural thing and shouldn't really be classified as a style of riding? If you lean out and then in you get the slingshot on a corner..simples

This sounds like the geeky shit Alan Partidge would come up with alongside conversations about Lexus cars. "Hey, do you counter steer?"

Surely it's just a natural thing and shouldn't really be classified as a style of riding? If you lean out and then in you get the slingshot on a corner..simples

Damn right. Even amongst mo'bikes. Everybody does it to some degree anyway. If you are conscious of it though, you can you it to turn MUCH harder (on motorbikes anyway). Good for the 'see god, then brake' Kevin Schwantz style of riding. In deep, slam it on its side, stand it up fast and pull the trigger.

(further thread de-rail - check him out in action)

YouTube - 500.-.1991.-.Hockenheim.-.Kevin.Schwantz.vs.Wayne.Rainey.

with all this countersteering fixie-pricks are still weaving all over the road and riding into the back of buses. shouldn't they worry about riding like a normal person before agonising over countersteering.

with all this countersteering fixie-pricks are still weaving all over the road and riding into the back of buses. shouldn't they worry about riding like a normal person before agonising over countersteering.

word is bond.

"do a countersteer!"