technique...
I wrote a bloody essay on this and Sorry, we could not add your comment.
MCN, if you want people to contribute, fix your bloody forums.
Oh, so swearing about it and editing in your reply is the way to go.
Hang on. I'll be back with beer.
Right.
So how to countersteer. First you need a correct posture.
This changes depending on what bike you're riding but it basically means being
slumped a little, bending your elbows so your forearms are parallel to the
floor and ensuring your arms are nice and relaxed. That means supporting
yourself properly without weighting the handlebars too much - if you can't do
it, get to the gym and do some core exercises or get a more upright bike.
This position allows good control, good feel and importantly
means any bumps and jerks won't be transmitted into the bars.
So countersteering, also known and active steering and
probably some other names is complicated in terms of physics but really simple
to do.
Go to a car park. Ideally an empty one with no ice on it -
might be tricky to find.
Then you need to ride in a straight line using the riding
position above. You'll notice you have far more feel for the bike. Now try
nuding one of the bars at about 20mph. For argument's sake nudge the right hand
bar forwards and lean your weight to the right. You will start turning and as
you're relaxed on the steering it will automatically come back to steering to
the right.
What's happening? Well you're altering the gyroscopic axis
of the front wheel so the effect that normally helps keep you upright is now
helping send the bike over. UNLESS YOU ARE STUPID WITH IT YOU WON'T GO DOWN.
The tyre is also being guided onto the edge where is naturally steers the bike.
So really, just push the bar in the direction you want to
turn. You will have been doing this subconsciously as it's probably impossible
to turn at above 10-15mph without it so it will not feel entirely unnatural.
Once you get this it'll help you corner much safer as taking conscious control
allows you to pick safer lines into corners, for example. It also allows
execution of extreme swerves, etc that can save your skin.
Once you've got a grip on that, you can throw in peg
stabilisation - i.e. weighting the pegs to steady your line, consider throttle
control through the corners (i.e. opening the throttle slightly to maintain
speed as you're slowed by lateral cornering forces) and so on.
Be aware that fast cornering in this weather isn't advisable
as if you don't have ice, you have bloody grit everywhere so take it steady and
just experiment with the principle.
If you're riding through winter you'll get a much better
idea of how your motorcycle behaves at the limit of grip but at much safer
speeds so come summer you'll find yourself much better able to judge corner
speeds, assess the limit of grip and know what to do when you do inevitably
cock it up and exceed the grip for the situation.
Any part of this that doesn't make sense (I've had half a
beer by
