On Thu, 31 May 2007 07:14:51 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"thunder" wrote in message
news

It might help to explain, pushing left *initiates* a left turn. I think
everyone understands motorcycles turn by leaning, and pushing left is the
quickest way to get that left-hand lean. If you kept pushing left, you
wouldn't be turning, you would be on the ground, on the left hand side of
the motorcycle of course.

I found this one paragraph from one of your links quite clarifying.

"If we intentionally move the contact patch line from vertically beneath
the Center of Gravity, the bike will start to lean. For example, if while
riding the bike straight ahead, we press on the left bar the front wheel
points to the right. The front wheel tracks to the right (sometimes
called "out tracking"). So the weight of bike and rider is now to the
LEFT of it's "support" on the ground, the tire contact patches. Because
the weight is to the left, the bike leans to the left. It is important to
note, for a LEFT turn, we initiate a lean to the left by pressing on the
left bar, turning the front wheel to the RIGHT. This is often referred to
as COUNTERSTEERING: a turn to the left initiated by turning the front
wheel to the right."

I agree with the "initiates".

It is an interesting action though and may be readily experienced if you
ride straight and level at a constant speed, then very gently push one of
the bars without leaning or correcting in any other way. Push too hard and
you *will* have to take corrective action, otherwise you will go down.

Oh, well. Enough of that.

Oh no - your not getting out of this that easily. :)

"This is often referred to as COUNTERSTEERING"

Here is where I think the concepts are confusing.

Just for giggles, I borrowed the dirt bike from the kid across the
street and did some experiments on the straight and the S curves on my
road.

There is no way you can initiate a left hand turn by pushing the left
handlebar forward at speed going straight. It's not possible.

Now, if I lean left, I can control the turn by pushing the handlebar
up to maintain the angle of the turn and the angle of attack to the
curve. Just like a bicycle.

That is entirely different than initiating a left hand turn by pushing
the left handlebar forward.

And in case you are wondering what the neighbors thought of me running
up and down the road at differing speeds on a dirt bike at 6:40 AM and
turning right and left back and forth, don't worry about it. My
neighbors are used to the occasional slice of weirdness from me.

It's cheap entertainment. :)