As a new rider, 4 months now i think, i can feel that counter steering is one of those things you just do instinctively but I'm one of those nerds that have craved that knowledge to really understand it to try and improve the craft... This is exactly the level of detail i wanted to hear from experienced riders!! Great vid!
Thanks for the constructive comment and I'm glad we could help. The idea with this series is to offer information and know-how by breaking down elements of riding (even the simplest functions) to create a world of better, safer riding which automatically reduces single-bike accidents. That's the plan.
i remember being taught this at donnington way back in about 92 when i was racing as a teen, blew my mind but my god does it work - what helps me to pass it on to others when i am teaching enduro riders is to tell them to straighten the arm on the inside of the turn and bend the arm on the outside of the turn - basically the same result as counter steering pushing action but a different way to consider the technique, makes more sense to some to do it this way
I tell what I want Michael (would pay actual money) is an off street course that made me a better slow speed rider, like a Moto Gym kana. I see more people dropping the bike in the car park than binning it on a bend.
Always a great subject. Few people realise that subconscious grasp of c/steering is what allowed us to ride a pedal bike. Our brain finally stopped us steering right, as we were falling to the left, which ofcourse was making us fall faster.
I was saved twice by devine intervention, unconsciously using countersteering, both in head on scenarios with cars. One, I actually closed my eyes expecting impact, only to come out other end OK. Never new about countersteering until a Cycle World article, 6 years into my riding career. I was able to analyze my previous encounters, and then practiced them.
I started riding motorcycles in 1978 when there was no social media, I never once thought about how to take a corner or anything for that matter I rode till I was 31 years old without incident. Anyway 3years ago at the age of 61 the bike came back and I started watching all these videos and I now find myself with my head full of stuff which on 2 occasions has almost caused me to crash. Sometimes I think its better to use real intelligence than a lot of this artifical intelligence that is being banded about these days maybe my brian is just too old to soak up all the info required to turn a corner.
Thankfully, you and I rode MC's before countersteering was ERRANTLY applied to MC's, mainly be Keith Code in the late 1970's. Today's riders are totally brainwashed to believe CS MUST happen with MC's, even when it is PROVEN otherwise by riders who can do contorlled figure 8's without EVER touching the handlebars.
@@microatmospherebreeze Keith = almost genius; you = ignorant. Countersteering IS a must for proficient riding. The issue is that you still don't understand it. Nobody (I hope) says you can't do 8s w/o countersteering. But if you're at speed, on the road, or track, there's no better, more efficient way to initiate turns than countersteering.
You were countersteering in 1978 too; you just didn't know it and didn't think about it. Keep it simple. Push right, go right, push left, go left. Just don't go yanking on the bars at parking lot speeds. Find a bit of road w/o traffic and try it. Push softer at first then you will develop a feel for how much force you need to put on the bars to achieve the desired result. Depriving yourself of this riding tool is not to your advantage.
@@microatmospherebreeze Sorry bro, even no handed a counter steer has to be induced to get the bike to lean and turn. There are reasons those things are called the "laws of physics." There was a time when we didn't understand Newton's law of universal gravitation but that didn't mean prior to 1687 stuff couldn't fall on you. Likewise, just because you don't understand the laws of physics governing the turning of a two wheeled vehicle doesn't mean those laws don't apply.
@@Isaac_132 Motorcycles can't countersteer because they must stay balanced. Cars certainly can countersteer because they don't need to be balanced, while making a left turn a car can steer to the right, usually this is done to prevent a "spin out" from a "fishtail". Perhaps some simply don't know what countersteering is. MC's turn by LEAN and anytime a MC is leaning, the wheel is pointing in the direction of lean, NEVER does it point opposite (countersteer) of the lean or it loses balance and falls down.
Thanks, this was an excellent explanation of bike steering. I have done a couple of MotoDNA courses at Lakeside, and they are very good at explaining bike dynamics, so I look forward to further commentary so I have subscribed (I do have a doctorate in engineering and also a motorcycle instructor, and countersteering is a complex area).
I heard someone explaining this as moving the wheels over to one side to get lean in order to turn. A great example is when Rossi took out a pesky Marquez in Argentina 2014 when Marquez was riding unsafely close to him. Looked to me like Rossi knew he was there and turned in a little early but was ruled a racing incident.
I’ve always thought that if you have to told what counter steering is, and you have to actually think about it rather than just intuitively doing it, you probably shouldn’t be riding a motorbike!
That's kind-of the point. When you actively counter-steer and experiment with the amount of force you use and when, it brings a very different feeling of control to your cornering. It also means that should something go wrong and you need to steer your way out of trouble, you have the skill and control to act positively. If your favourite road includes fifteen great corners, why not actively practice your steering and maybe you might even enjoy it even more. What have you got to lose?
You're wrong about it. It's a learned skill. Many find it weird when it is explained to them, even though everyone who ever rode a 2 wheeled vehicle did it w/o even knowing it. There's no other way to turn. No matter what your input on the bike is (peg loading, throwing your weight around), if it turns it countersteers. But after people understand it, and practice it, they have a great tool and much better bike control because they apply it deliberately.
@@johnnyblue4799 Err, "It's a learned skill" but "though everyone who ever rode a 2 wheeled vehicle did it w/o even knowing it." That's a contradiction surely? I hope parents aren't teaching kids about counter steering when they are learning to ride a bike! But I accept that it is a skill that con be improved through knowledge and practice.
As you said, most people don’t understand countersteering. Even the presenter here doesn’t fully understand it. Countersteering works at any speed above 0 MPH. It is hard to perceive at very slow speeds as you also use countersteering to maintain balance while riding in a straight line. So, if you are doing a “slow race” for example where may be traveling slower than a walking pace, the counter steering movements required to maintain balance while going so slow, completely swamp the counter steering input required to initiate a turn at that slow speed.
@@LTVoyager that’s right although we planned for the presenter (that’ll be me) to ask the relevant questions in order for Mark to explain in detail about each element. Cheers, Michael
@@bennettsbikesocial By “presenter”, I was referring to Mark as he made the statement about needing to be at walking speed or above for counter steering. That is incorrect and simply perpetuates the “magic speed” myth that most people, including most motorcycle instructors, hold in regard to counter steering. It is a fine point, I agree, but I believe it is important to kill this “magic speed” myth associated with counter steering.
At a slow speed when one turns the handlebars left for left and right for right without any lean angle and everything throughout the turn is vertical you are turning on the same contact patch in the centre of the tyre and thus no lean is used or necessary. So no counter steering. Its only when the contact patch moves over onto the sidewall of the tyre then are you using counter steering and a lean.
@@LTVoyager You are correct. I was one of those instructors. It was in the curriculum and for a while I accepted it w/o questioning it. Then I looked more into it and changed my mind.
@@rcraven1013 Physics is hard to understand and you need to understand physics well to understand the dynamics of two wheeled vehicles. You don’t understand it as evidenced by your comment and it is not likely I can explain it to you here. A motorcycle can’t turn without some lateral force. That is simply physics. If you are going in a straight line you will keep going in a straight line until acted upon by an outside force. If you have a strong wind from the side, then, yes, you could make a turn without leaning as the wind provides the lateral force. If there are no forces acting on the bike other than gravity, then the only way that you can use gravity to make a turn is with lean. As long as the force from gravity is acting straight down through the line connecting the contact patches of the front and rear tires, the motorcycle will not turn. Turning the handlebars upset this perfect balance by moving the front contact patches out from under the center of gravity. This allows gravity to then provide the lateral force needed to effect a turn. There is no other way except an outside force such as wind or someone pushing on the side of the motorcycle.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not convinced the front wheel turns into the corner anymore after cornering at ~25 mph at lean. At 3mph you can full lock the bars to get your tightest turn, increas speed to 6mph and now you cannot full lock anymore because that extra speed/momentum makes full lock counter steer the bike back up, so the bikes happy place is about 80% handlebar turn. The handlebars seem to turn less and less into the corner as speed increases and at a certain point they're straight and will not and cannot point into the corner anymore, lest the bike counter steers back upright. In a nutshell: I think the more speed the bike has, the more your bars turn away from the corner (once in the corner at lean) because your momentum keeps increasing and outweighing the gravity/cornering force, thus the handlbars' happy place moves away from the corner to compensate. Does knowing this help you ride better? Maybe, probably not. But the physics are interesting.
When I took the MSF class the instructor asked if we could feel the counter steering. I did what everyone else did; I lied and said "yes". 1st gear at 7-10 mph and you're not gonna "feel" it even though it's happening. If you managed to get the bike around cones in the parking lot you "mastered" counter steering. You probably mastered it shortly after the training wheels came off when you were 5 years old. Developing proficiency and competance in handling your machine is a different story.
Many of my former students called and,thanked me for teaching them the technique of counter steering. I demonstrated by putting a spinning top on a table and moving the table. Law of physics.
I assume the positive and negative steering torque values indicate left vs right turning. It was interesting to see that every one of the four riders had a bias towards one direction. Was that a function of the course they were one? Or just a function of most of us preferring to turn one way as opposed to the other?
Good question and you are correct with the left vs right handlebar inputs. The left vs right bias is a function of the Figure 8 course which was shown in the video.
As an inexperienced rider I struggle to corner at the speed limit of faster roads and I am slow round roundabouts. (In many ways I think I’m afraid to lean especially as a guy who is 6ft6) What tips would you give me in how to corner with more speed and lean with confidence? Thanks
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. We're focusing on cornering confidence in the next episode touching on elements such as understanding (and building faith in) grip. Hopefully that'll help but please feel free to send your questions our way for a more specific answers. Cheers, Michael
I have a thing for you to try. Finish you braking before the roundabout and get back on the throttle, just enough to maintain speed (whatever speed is comfortable for you in that turn). Use a higher gear, 2nd maybe, so the bike is not jerky. I think you'll find that not coasting through a turn gives you more confidence. If the roundabout is big and you enter it with closed throttle you'll have to get back on gas mid-turn. That unsettles the bike and is not confidence inspiring. Every correction you need to do through the roundabout will feel clumsy. Keep you tire pressure correct (not max inflation and not too low either) and don't ride on squared out tires. And as Micheal said... trust your tires. There's a lot more grip then you'd be inclined to believe. Of course, watch for sand, gravel oil spills... etc. Rain is not really an issue after the dust has been washed away. I actually enjoy riding in the rain.
I find counter steering a 21 inch front wheel , is different than a 17 inch front wheel ,the effect appears to only be noticeable at higher speeds , and is harder to execute.
You only have to walk your bike and steer it away from you to realise the weight starts coming towards you even though you are steering the bike away from you. Theres a great video on youtube of a guy who has rigged up a pushbike for the handlebars to only turn one way. You can see that the only way he can turn the bars, actually leans him and the bike over in the opposite direction.
I've always thought of counter-steering as a two step process. First, you push the front wheel to the outside of the intended corner, making the bike start to fall over towards the inside of the corner. Then it immediately catches its balance automatically by turning the front wheel into the corner. Exiting the corner is the same idea - you turn the front wheel further into the corner, bringing it under the bike again, and so the bike settles back into an upright, straight ahead position. Start the lean, then catch the lean. Rather like how we walk - first lean forwards, get off balance and start to fall, then use the spring of our step to balance that falling force so we maintain that forwards lean and continue being able to move. And when we stop, we first actually lean backwards slightly so we don't faceplant. All small amounts, but more noticeable when running or starting/stopping quickly or abruptly.
I got nervous when I saw the title. I was like there's not a method to steer a motorcycle and another method to counter steer a motorcycle. Physics says there's only one way to steer a motorcycle and that's using counter steering. I was kinda expecting something like I see in typical comment sections about how if the biker just knew how to counter steer he would have avoided the crash. And I'm thinking if he couldn't counter steer how the heck did he get around all those corners and make it to the crash site to begin with? Then you read this guy's résumé and I knew we weren't gonna hear something silly. But you did scare me for a minute. 😂
@@steve00alt70 The bike will also slow down, thus decreasing the turning radius. But it's not all black and white. Sometimes just reducing the throttle decreases speed and also shifts weight to the front wheel, which is what you'd want in a turn. It all depends on your speed and the turn. If I need to brake I much prefer both brakes in most cases other than very slow speed.
@@steve00alt70 Yeah, but that's different. You enter a corner on the brakes, carrying more speed and don't fully release the brakes. If you start braking mid corner because it tightens, that upsets the bike more.
Because Honda Motorcycles UK has supported this series, there's a message about the reasons why right at the end of the show but it's mainly due to our mission to make every rider safer by being better. Hope that helps. Cheers, Michael
You only need to counter steer if you have too much weight over the front end. Get you suspension right and you should go round corners with one hand on the bars 🤷♂️
Nice content.. But it would be great if you could improve the colors of your videos.. They are really dull. At first glance the viewer gets an impression that the video has been recorded 5-10 years ago.
День тому+2
Not a very useful video.....living in America, we don't see a lot of corners 🤣🤣
motorcycling equivelent of heel and toe.its a thing ,you can do it but no real relevance/point outside of a racetrack. still wont stop the influencers/influenced wobbling on about it till the next thing. (insert "real world" examples of how it saved youre life/helped you beat a guy on a pannigale when you rode youre cb125)
Counter steering is literally the laws of physics on how 2-wheeled vehicles turn. It's how bicycles turn and motorcycle turn on the street as well as the track. Counter steering is not some "magical" technique that makes you better on track. Coiunter steering is literally how you managed to navigate that curve on the way home. It's just so intuative that you didn't even know what it was called. Now you know the name and are having trouble grasping the idea that you've been doing this since the day you learned to ride a bicycle.
@@Isaac_132 i do understand the concept of how motorcycles steer they and i arnt talking about what automaticly happens when you lean a bike they are talking about consciously steering a bike by pushing on the bars which is a deliberate action derived from racing not how the vast majority of cycle and motorcyclists ride which is why they are talking about learning a new technique to people that allready ride,which is kind of evidence that it isnt really neccesary to think about doing it. unless you want to maximise your speed in fast direction changes
My real world example on a 125 a couple of years ago. Approaching a fairly tight right hand bend on a country road, I realised I was heading for the house on the left side of the bend. I quickly realised I was target fixating at the house and subsequently flicked my head far to the right to look where i should be going while making a deliberate steering input on the right bar to tip the bike over. Having done that I completed the rest of the corner with ease. I believe having an understanding of both target fixation and counter steering saved me a nasty accident that day.
As a new rider, 4 months now i think, i can feel that counter steering is one of those things you just do instinctively but I'm one of those nerds that have craved that knowledge to really understand it to try and improve the craft... This is exactly the level of detail i wanted to hear from experienced riders!! Great vid!
Thanks for the constructive comment and I'm glad we could help. The idea with this series is to offer information and know-how by breaking down elements of riding (even the simplest functions) to create a world of better, safer riding which automatically reduces single-bike accidents. That's the plan.
Perfectly clear example of counter-steering. Now watch everyone in the comments add their own take on it and confuse the hell out of everyone... 🤣
Hopefully it'll be full of riders passing on their stories of practicing some of the techniques. Maybe!
i remember being taught this at donnington way back in about 92 when i was racing as a teen, blew my mind but my god does it work - what helps me to pass it on to others when i am teaching enduro riders is to tell them to straighten the arm on the inside of the turn and bend the arm on the outside of the turn - basically the same result as counter steering pushing action but a different way to consider the technique, makes more sense to some to do it this way
You guys made hard work of that. Keep it simple. 👍
Knowledge is power 💪🏽
@@DeSousm Knowledge if not portrayed right can be confusing then others dont bother listening anymore so it all goes over their heads.
@@rcraven1013 I found the knowledge in this video to be very clear.
I tell what I want Michael (would pay actual money) is an off street course that made me a better slow speed rider, like a Moto Gym kana. I see more people dropping the bike in the car park than binning it on a bend.
Your wish might well be our command. We're working on something for 2025 that might suit. Stay tuned!
Cheers, Michael
this series is unfolding at a too low speed for me :D
Great job guys! Can't help but hope the next episodes will come faster!
Thanks for the love. We're spreading them out with the intention of getting each of the first five epiosdes (series 1) out each fortnight.
@@bennettsbikesocialwill there be a series 2 as well? What will that be about?
Always a great subject. Few people realise that subconscious grasp of c/steering is what allowed us to ride a pedal bike. Our brain finally stopped us steering right, as we were falling to the left, which ofcourse was making us fall faster.
Top job, Graham. Well said.
I was saved twice by devine intervention, unconsciously using countersteering, both in head on scenarios with cars. One, I actually closed my eyes expecting impact, only to come out other end OK. Never new about countersteering until a Cycle World article, 6 years into my riding career. I was able to analyze my previous encounters, and then practiced them.
Glad your subconscious saved you and you've honed your skills since. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Michael
@@bennettsbikesocial Thanks, I’m 72 now, moving over to a Kawasaki 1000P, from my old built 500 4 cafe racer also helped! Lol
I started riding motorcycles in 1978 when there was no social media, I never once thought about how to take a corner or anything for that matter I rode till I was 31 years old without incident. Anyway 3years ago at the age of 61 the bike came back and I started watching all these videos and I now find myself with my head full of stuff which on 2 occasions has almost caused me to crash. Sometimes I think its better to use real intelligence than a lot of this artifical intelligence that is being banded about these days maybe my brian is just too old to soak up all the info required to turn a corner.
Thankfully, you and I rode MC's before countersteering was ERRANTLY applied to MC's, mainly be Keith Code in the late 1970's. Today's riders are totally brainwashed to believe CS MUST happen with MC's, even when it is PROVEN otherwise by riders who can do contorlled figure 8's without EVER touching the handlebars.
@@microatmospherebreeze Keith = almost genius; you = ignorant. Countersteering IS a must for proficient riding. The issue is that you still don't understand it. Nobody (I hope) says you can't do 8s w/o countersteering. But if you're at speed, on the road, or track, there's no better, more efficient way to initiate turns than countersteering.
You were countersteering in 1978 too; you just didn't know it and didn't think about it. Keep it simple. Push right, go right, push left, go left. Just don't go yanking on the bars at parking lot speeds. Find a bit of road w/o traffic and try it. Push softer at first then you will develop a feel for how much force you need to put on the bars to achieve the desired result. Depriving yourself of this riding tool is not to your advantage.
@@microatmospherebreeze Sorry bro, even no handed a counter steer has to be induced to get the bike to lean and turn. There are reasons those things are called the "laws of physics." There was a time when we didn't understand Newton's law of universal gravitation but that didn't mean prior to 1687 stuff couldn't fall on you. Likewise, just because you don't understand the laws of physics governing the turning of a two wheeled vehicle doesn't mean those laws don't apply.
@@Isaac_132 Motorcycles can't countersteer because they must stay balanced. Cars certainly can countersteer because they don't need to be balanced, while making a left turn a car can steer to the right, usually this is done to prevent a "spin out" from a "fishtail". Perhaps some simply don't know what countersteering is. MC's turn by LEAN and anytime a MC is leaning, the wheel is pointing in the direction of lean, NEVER does it point opposite (countersteer) of the lean or it loses balance and falls down.
How original, well done for the effort to come up with something engaging and new. 😂
Thanks, this was an excellent explanation of bike steering. I have done a couple of MotoDNA courses at Lakeside, and they are very good at explaining bike dynamics, so I look forward to further commentary so I have subscribed (I do have a doctorate in engineering and also a motorcycle instructor, and countersteering is a complex area).
Respect for measurements in metric. Great video.
The Irish-Australian accent is killing me here
Good’ay, hai about ye?! 😂
Sounds northern Irish accent, totally different to Irish, it's closer to Scottish
@@dennisperkins1989 I’m Irish…As in 🇮🇪 republic of and I understood what he meant 🤦♂️
🙏 😂 ☘
@@markholmes5695 yes me too and it was an interesting video
I heard someone explaining this as moving the wheels over to one side to get lean in order to turn. A great example is when Rossi took out a pesky Marquez in Argentina 2014 when Marquez was riding unsafely close to him. Looked to me like Rossi knew he was there and turned in a little early but was ruled a racing incident.
What I'm waiting for?
For Bennett to open up in Sweden and to get my MC license!
I’ve always thought that if you have to told what counter steering is, and you have to actually think about it rather than just intuitively doing it, you probably shouldn’t be riding a motorbike!
That's kind-of the point. When you actively counter-steer and experiment with the amount of force you use and when, it brings a very different feeling of control to your cornering. It also means that should something go wrong and you need to steer your way out of trouble, you have the skill and control to act positively. If your favourite road includes fifteen great corners, why not actively practice your steering and maybe you might even enjoy it even more. What have you got to lose?
You're wrong about it. It's a learned skill. Many find it weird when it is explained to them, even though everyone who ever rode a 2 wheeled vehicle did it w/o even knowing it. There's no other way to turn. No matter what your input on the bike is (peg loading, throwing your weight around), if it turns it countersteers. But after people understand it, and practice it, they have a great tool and much better bike control because they apply it deliberately.
@@johnnyblue4799 Err, "It's a learned skill" but "though everyone who ever rode a 2 wheeled vehicle did it w/o even knowing it." That's a contradiction surely? I hope parents aren't teaching kids about counter steering when they are learning to ride a bike! But I accept that it is a skill that con be improved through knowledge and practice.
As you said, most people don’t understand countersteering. Even the presenter here doesn’t fully understand it. Countersteering works at any speed above 0 MPH. It is hard to perceive at very slow speeds as you also use countersteering to maintain balance while riding in a straight line. So, if you are doing a “slow race” for example where may be traveling slower than a walking pace, the counter steering movements required to maintain balance while going so slow, completely swamp the counter steering input required to initiate a turn at that slow speed.
@@LTVoyager that’s right although we planned for the presenter (that’ll be me) to ask the relevant questions in order for Mark to explain in detail about each element.
Cheers, Michael
@@bennettsbikesocial By “presenter”, I was referring to Mark as he made the statement about needing to be at walking speed or above for counter steering. That is incorrect and simply perpetuates the “magic speed” myth that most people, including most motorcycle instructors, hold in regard to counter steering. It is a fine point, I agree, but I believe it is important to kill this “magic speed” myth associated with counter steering.
At a slow speed when one turns the handlebars left for left and right for right without any lean angle and everything throughout the turn is vertical you are turning on the same contact patch in the centre of the tyre and thus no lean is used or necessary. So no counter steering. Its only when the contact patch moves over onto the sidewall of the tyre then are you using counter steering and a lean.
@@LTVoyager You are correct. I was one of those instructors. It was in the curriculum and for a while I accepted it w/o questioning it. Then I looked more into it and changed my mind.
@@rcraven1013 Physics is hard to understand and you need to understand physics well to understand the dynamics of two wheeled vehicles. You don’t understand it as evidenced by your comment and it is not likely I can explain it to you here. A motorcycle can’t turn without some lateral force. That is simply physics. If you are going in a straight line you will keep going in a straight line until acted upon by an outside force. If you have a strong wind from the side, then, yes, you could make a turn without leaning as the wind provides the lateral force. If there are no forces acting on the bike other than gravity, then the only way that you can use gravity to make a turn is with lean. As long as the force from gravity is acting straight down through the line connecting the contact patches of the front and rear tires, the motorcycle will not turn. Turning the handlebars upset this perfect balance by moving the front contact patches out from under the center of gravity. This allows gravity to then provide the lateral force needed to effect a turn. There is no other way except an outside force such as wind or someone pushing on the side of the motorcycle.
Speedway riders take counter steering to another level 😂
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not convinced the front wheel turns into the corner anymore after cornering at ~25 mph at lean. At 3mph you can full lock the bars to get your tightest turn, increas speed to 6mph and now you cannot full lock anymore because that extra speed/momentum makes full lock counter steer the bike back up, so the bikes happy place is about 80% handlebar turn. The handlebars seem to turn less and less into the corner as speed increases and at a certain point they're straight and will not and cannot point into the corner anymore, lest the bike counter steers back upright.
In a nutshell: I think the more speed the bike has, the more your bars turn away from the corner (once in the corner at lean) because your momentum keeps increasing and outweighing the gravity/cornering force, thus the handlbars' happy place moves away from the corner to compensate. Does knowing this help you ride better? Maybe, probably not. But the physics are interesting.
As a former, MSF instructor I would fail any student who couldn't master the art of,counter steering after the third class.
Master is a bit much to ask, don't you think?
@@johnnyblue4799 mastering counter steering, will make the difference, in making a turn or flying off a cliff .
When I took the MSF class the instructor asked if we could feel the counter steering. I did what everyone else did; I lied and said "yes". 1st gear at 7-10 mph and you're not gonna "feel" it even though it's happening. If you managed to get the bike around cones in the parking lot you "mastered" counter steering. You probably mastered it shortly after the training wheels came off when you were 5 years old. Developing proficiency and competance in handling your machine is a different story.
Many of my former students called and,thanked me for teaching them the technique of counter steering. I demonstrated by putting a spinning top on a table and moving the table. Law of physics.
I assume the positive and negative steering torque values indicate left vs right turning. It was interesting to see that every one of the four riders had a bias towards one direction. Was that a function of the course they were one? Or just a function of most of us preferring to turn one way as opposed to the other?
Good question and you are correct with the left vs right handlebar inputs. The left vs right bias is a function of the Figure 8 course which was shown in the video.
As an inexperienced rider I struggle to corner at the speed limit of faster roads and I am slow round roundabouts. (In many ways I think I’m afraid to lean especially as a guy who is 6ft6) What tips would you give me in how to corner with more speed and lean with confidence? Thanks
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. We're focusing on cornering confidence in the next episode touching on elements such as understanding (and building faith in) grip. Hopefully that'll help but please feel free to send your questions our way for a more specific answers.
Cheers, Michael
I have a thing for you to try. Finish you braking before the roundabout and get back on the throttle, just enough to maintain speed (whatever speed is comfortable for you in that turn). Use a higher gear, 2nd maybe, so the bike is not jerky. I think you'll find that not coasting through a turn gives you more confidence. If the roundabout is big and you enter it with closed throttle you'll have to get back on gas mid-turn. That unsettles the bike and is not confidence inspiring. Every correction you need to do through the roundabout will feel clumsy.
Keep you tire pressure correct (not max inflation and not too low either) and don't ride on squared out tires.
And as Micheal said... trust your tires. There's a lot more grip then you'd be inclined to believe. Of course, watch for sand, gravel oil spills... etc. Rain is not really an issue after the dust has been washed away. I actually enjoy riding in the rain.
All you need to do to understand countersteering is to take one hand off the bars (safely, of course) and turn. You will see and feel countersteering.
I find counter steering a 21 inch front wheel , is different than a 17 inch front wheel ,the effect appears to only be noticeable at higher speeds , and is harder to execute.
Can you show the route around the test course.
You only have to walk your bike and steer it away from you to realise the weight starts coming towards you even though you are steering the bike away from you.
Theres a great video on youtube of a guy who has rigged up a pushbike for the handlebars to only turn one way. You can see that the only way he can turn the bars, actually leans him and the bike over in the opposite direction.
thanks you great explanation 😃
You're very welcome. Hope it helps.
Cheers, Michael
Radias equals mph
Better to ride the right way for 10mins than 10k hours the wrong way xx
I've always thought of counter-steering as a two step process. First, you push the front wheel to the outside of the intended corner, making the bike start to fall over towards the inside of the corner. Then it immediately catches its balance automatically by turning the front wheel into the corner. Exiting the corner is the same idea - you turn the front wheel further into the corner, bringing it under the bike again, and so the bike settles back into an upright, straight ahead position.
Start the lean, then catch the lean. Rather like how we walk - first lean forwards, get off balance and start to fall, then use the spring of our step to balance that falling force so we maintain that forwards lean and continue being able to move. And when we stop, we first actually lean backwards slightly so we don't faceplant. All small amounts, but more noticeable when running or starting/stopping quickly or abruptly.
I got nervous when I saw the title. I was like there's not a method to steer a motorcycle and another method to counter steer a motorcycle. Physics says there's only one way to steer a motorcycle and that's using counter steering. I was kinda expecting something like I see in typical comment sections about how if the biker just knew how to counter steer he would have avoided the crash. And I'm thinking if he couldn't counter steer how the heck did he get around all those corners and make it to the crash site to begin with? Then you read this guy's résumé and I knew we weren't gonna hear something silly. But you did scare me for a minute. 😂
Will this still work on a Yamaha or Suzuki?
on a Yamaha motorbike...yes, but we tried it on one of their grand pianos and ended up in a ditch.
@@bennettsbikesocial It needed tuning.
Not if it's a Grand Vitara.
12:13 when a corner tightens you must apply the rear brake only and that will help the bike to turn more !
@@lensoprezole5322 It’s a good tip, and thanks for sharing, but it’s a little advanced for where this series is at right now I.e. episode 1.
I thought that the rear brake makes the bike want to sit up
@@steve00alt70 The bike will also slow down, thus decreasing the turning radius. But it's not all black and white. Sometimes just reducing the throttle decreases speed and also shifts weight to the front wheel, which is what you'd want in a turn. It all depends on your speed and the turn. If I need to brake I much prefer both brakes in most cases other than very slow speed.
@@johnnyblue4799 or trail braking
@@steve00alt70 Yeah, but that's different. You enter a corner on the brakes, carrying more speed and don't fully release the brakes. If you start braking mid corner because it tightens, that upsets the bike more.
What is the address and phone number for Mark the instructor and company name. Regards Robert
Why is there a honda logo ?
In thumbnail
Because Honda Motorcycles UK has supported this series, there's a message about the reasons why right at the end of the show but it's mainly due to our mission to make every rider safer by being better.
Hope that helps. Cheers, Michael
You only need to counter steer if you have too much weight over the front end. Get you suspension right and you should go round corners with one hand on the bars 🤷♂️
Reg Local on here is always worth a watch.
Nice content.. But it would be great if you could improve the colors of your videos.. They are really dull. At first glance the viewer gets an impression that the video has been recorded 5-10 years ago.
Not a very useful video.....living in America, we don't see a lot of corners 🤣🤣
Don't know where you live, they're all over the place where I live.
motorcycling equivelent of heel and toe.its a thing ,you can do it but no real relevance/point outside of a racetrack.
still wont stop the influencers/influenced wobbling on about it till the next thing.
(insert "real world" examples of how it saved youre life/helped you beat a guy on a pannigale when you rode youre cb125)
You're wrong. Countersteering is useful in everyday riding and it's not only for performance.
Counter steering is literally the laws of physics on how 2-wheeled vehicles turn. It's how bicycles turn and motorcycle turn on the street as well as the track. Counter steering is not some "magical" technique that makes you better on track. Coiunter steering is literally how you managed to navigate that curve on the way home. It's just so intuative that you didn't even know what it was called. Now you know the name and are having trouble grasping the idea that you've been doing this since the day you learned to ride a bicycle.
@@Isaac_132 i do understand the concept of how motorcycles steer they and i arnt talking about what automaticly happens when you lean a bike they are talking about consciously steering a bike by pushing on the bars which is a deliberate action derived from racing not how the vast majority of cycle and motorcyclists ride which is why they are talking about learning a new technique to people that allready ride,which is kind of evidence that it isnt really neccesary to think about doing it. unless you want to maximise your speed in fast direction changes
My real world example on a 125 a couple of years ago. Approaching a fairly tight right hand bend on a country road, I realised I was heading for the house on the left side of the bend. I quickly realised I was target fixating at the house and subsequently flicked my head far to the right to look where i should be going while making a deliberate steering input on the right bar to tip the bike over. Having done that I completed the rest of the corner with ease.
I believe having an understanding of both target fixation and counter steering saved me a nasty accident that day.
@@chrishocking7854 Imagine if you didn't know about countersteering and tried to correct by steering into the turn and stood the bike up...