Taught conscious countersteering?

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Couldn't teach it, what a load of BS!! The whole separation between "riding technique" and "advanced riding technique" is a load of bollox brought about by a set of c***s too happy with the superior feeling of their IAM/ADI badge.

It's the only way to steer a bike, consciously or not, you ARE doing it!

Haha... saved me the bother of typing the same kind of thing.

FWIW, I think actively teaching newbies to countersteer is a bloody stupid idea and only encourages them to over-react to situations. It's all too easy for someone with insufficient experience to overdo the amount of pressure they put on the bars and end up on their ar5e when the front tucks. If they'd been left to just ride the bike they'd be in a better position to react, rather than have their heads filled with crap they don't need to know about.

As Chris said; everybody countersteers as it's the only way to get a bike round a corner, so stop thinking about doing it and just ride as normal.

[johnnyrod]

I think that's one of the problems with the swerve test? People chucking it down the road. In reality the bars move less than a degree so easy to overdo it. I'd disagree with "just get on with it" as I've seen plenty of experienced people who don't understand that they are doing it (and deny it even exists as well) and can't change direction much faster than if they were tipping into a tight bend. Beyond newbie stage it's well worth getting a proper handle on - maybe that's missing your point, not sure.

[yorkie_chris]

People bin it on swerve because they keep the brakes on and try to swerve

Taught it while doing IAM.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Haha... saved me the bother of typing the same kind of thing.

FWIW, I think actively teaching newbies to countersteer is a bloody stupid idea and only encourages them to over-react to situations. It's all too easy for someone with insufficient experience to overdo the amount of pressure they put on the bars and end up on their ar5e when the front tucks. If they'd been left to just ride the bike they'd be in a better position to react, rather than have their heads filled with crap they don't need to know about.

As Chris said; everybody countersteers as it's the only way to get a bike round a corner, so stop thinking about doing it and just ride as normal.

My thought on it is if they said to people when they'd passed their test "here's a tip for you mate, if you run hot into a corner, don't brake, just lean on the inside bar", I reckon they'd save a lot of crashes.

Oh and obviously have instructors who understand physics enough to make a reasoned response to someone asking why...

[andrewsmith]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Haha... saved me the bother of typing the same kind of thing.

FWIW, I think actively teaching newbies to countersteer is a bloody stupid idea and only encourages them to over-react to situations. It's all too easy for someone with insufficient experience to overdo the amount of pressure they put on the bars and end up on their ar5e when the front tucks. If they'd been left to just ride the bike they'd be in a better position to react, rather than have their heads filled with crap they don't need to know about.

As Chris said; everybody countersteers as it's the only way to get a bike round a corner, so stop thinking about doing it and just ride as normal.

Agree with Lozzo on this.
We wern't "taught" it as part of the lessons, but the two or three of us that were learning at the same (and doing big miles of 125's) were shown it as pillions on a very twisty stretch at the back of mine, then on the industrial estate near the centre.

Originally Posted by SUPERSTARDJ01

Taught it while doing IAM.

It was explained to me- followed by don't read into it too far as you do it

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

My thought on it is if they said to people when they'd passed their test "here's a tip for you mate, if you run hot into a corner, don't brake, just lean on the inside bar", I reckon they'd save a lot of crashes.

Oh and obviously have instructors who understand physics enough to make a reasoned response to someone asking why...

They would save a whole lot more by concentrating on teaching riders not to get into trouble in the first place, rather than prescribing one option that may not be the best solution to the problem.

I do understand why DAS don't teach it as part of the syllabus. It's not part of the test and if you start complicating things with the physics of how a bike works you will overload the pupil. Where do you want to stop? I mean, weight transfer, gyro effect......all equally important and things you must understand if you want to push a bike to it's limits, but none of them are as important as roadcraft, ie: reading the road, traffic and understanding hazards.

[johnnyrod]

True but you don't need to understand the complicated stuff, you just need to understand that if you push this then it goes there. We all know you can ride around gently half-asleep and be oblivious that you're doing it. Try to dodge a brick in the road and thinking you can do it with a bit of moving your weight around and you're going to run over a brick.

I do agre though that you're more likely to get yourself out of (stay out of) trouble by better observation and road skills than one (importnat) machine skill.

Oh look, a thread on countersteering that won't die. Shall we invade Poland?

[flymo]

counter steering is like our very own 'off side rule' . You always have been countersteering otherwise you would fall off.

Very rare I've ever found the need to adjust a line urgently while road riding, but on the track it came in very handy, almost essential in some corner combinations that you could force the bike to change direction much more quickly.

Pulling vs pushing, technically no difference and likely that you do both as I would be surprised if you are countersteering with only one hand on the bars! (although I've seen a one armed racer doing just fine against his two handed competitors). Personally I always found that pushing gently on the inside bar was easier to do precisely.