Counter steer?

Don't know why people keep mentioning this as if its some sort of dangerous manouvre. Try it on a long sweeping corner and its very easy and obvious when it works. You're probably doing it anyway, just never realised.

I remember my instructor telling me about it and grinning like an idiot when I felt it working on my next corner.

Originally Posted by Philbo

push with your right hand to turn right, push with your left hand to turn left.
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im confused if you push with ure right hand you go left...... not right, now if you pull with ure right you go right or if you push with ure left you go right because the other arm move with the bar (pulling in toward you)

or am i totaly confused...

Eh? You don't decide to do it/try it!? Everyone does it. Difference is some people do it actively, others do it passively (depending on their understanding of it).

An easy way to prove this to those who passively countersteer is to hop on a quad bike with handlebars. First corner, you'll end up going in a straight line or veering in the other direction!

Originally Posted by barwel1992

im confused if you push with ure right hand you go left...... not right...

That's how it works at slow speeds, like Philbo said. Countersteering works at faster speeds.

Think of it this way. Have you ever played rugby..if you're running along and want to swerve suddenly? Imagine your bringing your left leg forward... instead of bringing it straight forward you deliberately swing it across your front, putting your left foot down in front of or even to the right of, your right foot. You'll be temporarily off balance and will 'fall' (swerve) towards your left.

The same sort of thing happens with countersteering. If you push on the left handlebar, the front wheel is pushed out to the right, to the right of the centre of gravity, so the bike falls over to the left - resulting in a turn to the left.

ahh right think i get you

QUOTE lukemillar "An easy way to prove this to those who passively countersteer is to hop on a quad bike with handlebars. First corner, you'll end up going in a straight line or veering in the other direction! "

yup been there done that lol had a quad for about a year 250 twin and did that the firsttime i went out on it.... then i found out how easy it was to slide and well corners were easy after that :P

Originally Posted by vjones777

That's how it works at slow speeds, like Philbo said. Countersteering works at faster speeds.

Think of it this way. Have you ever played rugby..if you're running along and want to swerve suddenly? Imagine your bringing your left leg forward... instead of bringing it straight forward you deliberately swing it across your front, putting your left foot down in front of or even to the right of, your right foot. You'll be temporarily off balance and will 'fall' (swerve) towards your left.

The same sort of thing happens with countersteering. If you push on the left handlebar, the front wheel is pushed out to the right, to the right of the centre of gravity, so the bike falls over to the left - resulting in a turn to the left.

The basic counter steering principles of deflecting the contact patch from beneath the centre of gravity work at all speeds. That's why you steer the way you begin to fall in order to keep upright at walking pace, not because you want to go in that direction, but because you want to move the centre of gravity back beneath you. If you were able to turn the handlebars fast enough the bike would still "fall" in the opposite direction, and then you'd need to steer that way to prevent yourself from falling off. It's only because at low speeds the turning forces are generally so small and our "positive" steering much more obvious than at higher speeds in far less tight corners, that we believe there is this magic switch over point when the gyroscopic forces start to have an effect on how far and how fast we can move the handlebars.

Steering mass distribution helps (at any speed) because the bars turn further in the direction of turn/lean if left alone. Which is why you have to maintain pressure on the inside bar to continue to corner at a constant lean angle, why the bike will straighten up if you just take your hands off, and why it's really hard to simply fall over.

As the others have already explained, you already know how to do it. Here's a video explanation of how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C848R9xWrjc