Posted by Rich_WI on April 04, 2015 at 10:48:28 from (50.50.95.159):
In Reply to: Question for Thinkers posted by Brad Buchanan on April 04, 2015 at 06:22:33:
Quoting Removed, click Modern View to see
While the wheels are acting like a gyroscope, they are not what makes the turn. In a turn as you describe above, what makes the bike go to the right is when you push the handlebar to the left, the bike drives out from under the rider causing a lean which is what makes the bike go right. After the lean is established, the rider is not pushing quite as hard on the bars so the bike actually is turning right but with still pushing on the bars. Throughout the turn, you need to keep pushing the handlebar left because the bike needs that correction since the rider is pushing against the seat (high side of the bike) making it want to tip over toward the outside of the turn. Once the turn is complete, you are easing off the counter steer push and the bike rides back under the rider and the riders force pushing the bike to the outside of the turn quits. Soon everything reaches equilibrium and the rider goes straight.
It should be noted, that during the turn, the handlebars do turn to the right. If they didn’t, the bike couldn't go around the turn with lean alone; it still has to turn around the corner weather its going 1 mph or 100mph. Don’t take my work for it though; wrap a coat hanger around the handle bars with the end pointing right at the gas cap. Now, have a friend drive and you look over his shoulder. What did you see? Neat, huh? Never knew your bike did turn right when you were giving it counter steer to the left, did you?
The wheels are like a gyroscope but that causes it to be harder to make the turn, not easier, nor is it the reason for the turn. Don’t believe me, test it for yourself. Take one of your kid’s bike wheels off the bike. Hold the axel in your hands and have someone spin the tire really fast. Now, try to turn the wheel. Now, wrap your brain around the fact that its a wheel that weighs 2 or 3 pounds, spinning maybe 10mph. Multiply that to 10 pounds spinning 50 mph.
FWIW, anybody that says counter steering works at low speeds has never rode a bicycle, much less a motorcycle. If you try to counter steer on a bike at slow speed (any bike, motorized or peddle) the bike will just ride out from under you and you will be on the ground. But don’t believe me, try it. Better yet, watch any 5 year old that just got his training wheels off. They don’t understand the lean part yet so they try just steering like they did with training wheels which is in effect the same as counter steering. Watch as they steer the bike right out from under themselves. You can try the same thing with your hog or dirt bike but you will fall all the same. Want to go right, pushing the right handlebar away will steer the bike left and it will go right out from under you. Why? The human body it not pushing to go straight through the turn and it isn’t pushing on the bike.
That Newton and his 3 laws, he was a smart fellow, wasn’t he? I don’t even think they had Harleys back then but he accurately predicted what would happen.
There is even a wiki page about this stuff and it likely does a much better job of explaining it than I did. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersteering They cover this a lot if you take a motorcycle safety class.
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