Countersteering
Friday 3rd August
Oh, and I practised conscious countersteering for the first time. It absolutely blew my mind… I hope it starts to feel more normal soon… sure I can do it… but it just feels, um, wrong.
If you haven’t tried it yet, do it.
I’ve countersteered a horse … by the weight-shifting method, not the leaning. If you lean and the horse doesn’t, you fall off.
JG
3 Aug 07 at 10:13 pm
Get yer knee down, lad.
Omally
5 Aug 07 at 12:51 am
What were you countersteering on? A unicycle? Bicycle? I’m guessing you mean you kept your body rigid and tried to everything by wiggling the wheel.
sweavo
5 Aug 07 at 10:01 am
oops.
*posts comment*
*clicks previous*
reads ‘bike’
sweavo
5 Aug 07 at 10:04 am
Yes… bike.
Pushing the left handlebar away from oneself to turn left.
I’ve _never_ managed to get the hang of countersteering on a unicycle - flip hips right to turn left, and would dearly like to do so… so I thought learning it on a bike first might help.
stu
5 Aug 07 at 7:22 pm
Yeah, the wikipedia page says you MUST do it since there’s NO other way to affect the equilibrium, and this used to be my point of view, but then if you remember bike/yike and rider are not rigid but can bend at the rider/saddle junction, then it’s possible to influence the centre of gravity simply by leaning.
I’m sure you countersteer all the time though - like when you had a BMX you must’ve got the BMX swagger thing going on.
Try riding through a puddle then turning, and examine your tyre tracks.
sweavo
6 Aug 07 at 8:49 am
Indeed… I sort-of agree on the bike front (not on a yike because you can do the ’swimming’ turn - aka the flexibility you mentioned)… but I’ve never _felt_ that I’m countersteering before. I need to ride more and feel a ‘normal’ turn vs. a countersteering turn.
Of course, it’s possible to turn on a bike without touching the handlebars… does _that_ involve countersteering or not?
stu
6 Aug 07 at 9:00 am
hmm, wish I’d read this earlier in the eve, tempted to go out and make a puddle and try riding non-handed through it and turning. But I won’t be trying it on my latest acquisition, what with it having the wheel about 2 inches off the centreline due to a bent fork!
With the bike, the process of leaning to the left intuitively seems to maintain equilibrium, but if you look at the turning moments, and rotational inertia viewing from the front or rear, then I think you can introduce a rotational impulse just by leaning. Kind of like the swimming motion but in a different plane.
sweavo
6 Aug 07 at 10:12 pm