Counter steering

This is what I have always told friends who are skeptical of counter-steering: on a back road with no traffic, get up to 25-30 mph. Take your left hand off the grip. What do you have to do to make the bike go left? Push the right grip to turn the front wheel to the left? NO! You will discover that you need to pull on the right grip, which is essentially the same as pushing on the left grip. If this little demonstration doesn't convince them about counter-steering, I can only conclude that they live their lives by what they "believe" rather than evidence-based science.

Bill,
Yes you can demonstrate the principle by riding thru twisties one-handed. However for the uninitiated or newby rider, I gotta say that there are some riders I'd rather not see doing technical curves with only one hand.
Having said that, it is instructive to try it one handed a bit. It's just that I like to keep it simple for the new students of the skill. Better to be saying push, push than confuse someone with push, pull.
Bob

Jumping in, from out of the blue

Throttle control before anything else; correct throttle control is the key.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWVYtsf43Y

Counter steering is a very hard concept to explain even to people who do it all the time and not realize they are doing. The name "counter steering" is counter-intuitive. But this video, while explaining something else ends up demonstrating counter-steering very, very well. It is entertaining and interesting to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZFdxEWpefI&

We all counter steer, it's impossible to do certain things without counter-steering, it's just, hard to explain

A trick I suggest to less experienced riders, is to stick their index fingers out, while holding the grips. Then as they approach a corner POINT with the index finger on the respective hand into the corner by pushing forward.

It is a simple exercise to raise awareness of what you are doing when you corner. Try it next time you ride, really breaks down the inputs.

PGlaves said:

Now there dear, don't you go telling stories.

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Unless they are true.

Bud said:

Unless they are true.

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Yes, the story is true.

want2tour said:

Bill,
Yes you can demonstrate the principle by riding thru twisties one-handed. However for the uninitiated or newby rider, I gotta say that there are some riders I'd rather not see doing technical curves with only one hand.
Having said that, it is instructive to try it one handed a bit. It's just that I like to keep it simple for the new students of the skill. Better to be saying push, push than confuse someone with push, pull.
Bob

Click to expand...

Whatever turns your crank.