Just in case anyone is curious about how it works.
Turning at speed, a motorcycle wheel is a big gyroscope. The rule of gyroscopic presession says that, when you put pressure on the rim of a gyro, it tilts as if the pressure was 90 degrees around the direction of rotation. So, you push on the left handlebar, which is exactly the same as pressing directly on the left rear of the wheel. 90 degrees around the rotation is the top of the wheel which tilts away to the right, taking the whole bike with it. In turn, as the bike leans to the right, the road applied pressure from the right at the bottom of the wheel. The wheel reacts by moving the rear (Again, 90 degrees around the rotation) to the left, turning the wheel and forks into the turn. The nice thing is that this takes but a few ounces of pressure to get a quick, sharp turn. If anyone here has ridden a 3 wheeler, you know how much musclepower it takes to just twist the forks to make a turn, so counter steering on 2 wheels is a lot like having power steering.
Last edited by Greybeard; 01/31/2005 4:44 PM.
