Countersteer - sometimes people don't understand it's not actually steering.

[Bloke]

Countersteer - sometimes people don't understand it's not actually steering. So I made this little video.

 

[dugandan]

"It's not about steering, it's about transferring weight -vertical arrow- as apposed to through the bar and pushing the bar away, which is clearly wrong... It's not one action and then you forget about it...

hmmm. That must be a track specific technique applied when you're the only one on the track? On the road, especially in traffic or in avoidance of obstacles I have learnt that a decidedly quick 'shove' one way or the other on the bars is often needed. Years ago I saw a rider move across 1/2 a lane in the blink of an eye. That's cool I thought. I discovered it was a practical technique and began to practice it myself, on manhole covers. I'd ride up to them aiming for the LH or RH edge, and pretend I didn't see them, then at the last minute I'd slam the bar forward and the bike would dive over across the width of the hole and then some. The first time was quite scary, I had the feeling that the front might let go, but it didn't. Of course you have to slam the opposing bar then to straighten back up. I began practicing on WIDE roads

I just practiced and practiced until it became second nature. One day I was riding over the Captain Cook bridge into the Brisbane CBD, in heavy traffic at 90km/h. I was keeping my distance a bit, as we do, and was in the LH wheel track of the middle of 3 lanes. I took my eye off the road for a second to look at "something" and when I looked back up there was a parking lot in front of me, a blizzard of brake lights. I grabbed as much brake as I could but it wasn't gonna happen, I was going to go into the boot of that car in front of me. I've done that in my youth following a car to a party one night and it wasn't fun.

Then instinct took over, I got off the brakes, and without allowing the suspension to stabilize, no time, slammed the RH bar and then just as quickly the LH bar. I found myself then between two lines of cars and going quite fast, I hit the brakes aggressively and eventually pushed my way back into the traffic. By rights I probably should have hit the cars on my left but practice had made me quick at standing the bike back up recovering to a straight line. the distance I covered laterally, wheel track to center of cars, was about the width of a manhole plus a foot. the distance I allowed extra in practice to fully clear the cover because you don't want to be aggressively maneuvering over a slippery steel manhole.

The technique works even when lent over in corners. I wouldn't push it, and it feels a bit unnatural, but I've avoided rocks and potholes with a quick hit to one bar. You'd think it would upset the throttle, but it doesn't, at least not after a lot of practice. naturally you can't be fully cranked over to apply it in one of the directions, it's the reason I'm happy to run chicken strips, that's my safety reserve!

RR Rear, shod with Metzeler Sportecs. Distinctive chicken strip with some bites taken out when the corners I were in gave me some surprises.



2017 hayabusa Rear, same tires. We don't practice on that, or push it through unknown corners