There always seems to be an element of mystery about countersteering in discussions between those who use it concsiously and those who don't. I'm confident that I can demystify it, but it's not likely to be a short post. If you have a short attention span, or are tired, you might want to read something else.
Firstly, let's clear up a few misconceptions.
Contrary to popular belief and the information in this link...
NickM said:
Something on this subject appears
here.
...countersteering has almost nothing to do with gyroscopic effect. Compared to all the other forces involved, the forces generated by gyroscopic procession are insignificant.
Nor is countersteering what one does to control a rear wheel slide. That's steering into the slide and is known as "opposite lock", as in, "Whoa! Did you see me opposite locking through that greasy patch?"
And countersteering isn't a technique you'll apply during the last-second evasion of a small obstacle such as a pothole. For that, you sort of throw the bike to one side beneath you, whilst you go over the object, then let the bike "catch" you on the other side. Or you bunny-hop.
So, if that's what countersteering isn't, what is it?
Well, Sheldon, as ever, is accurate and succinct...
Fab Foodie said:
...but his broomstick anaology doesn't tell the whole story.
Here's my take on it.
All bikes, when upright and in travelling forward, want to travel in a straight line. This is due entirely to the steering geometry. When riding, the handlebars tend to oscillate about the straight-ahead position, because the steering is self-correcting for anything which knocks it off-line. If you doubt this, find a way to lock your handlebars rigidly in the straight-ahead position and try to ride it. Actually, don't. You'll crash.
Now, let's look at steering input. Without considering which way the bike will turn, we'll turn our imaginary bars to the left. Don't imagine a large angular movement of the bars, 'cos that's not how it works. Something less than 10 degrees will suffice. Now, having turned the bars left, the front wheel moves to the left. Sadly for you, both your body and the rest of the bike want to carry on moving in a straight line and, although the rear wheel is still under you, the front isn't. It's somewhere to the left of your centre of mass. This means that you and the bike will now fall to the right. If you keep turning the bars to the left, you and the bike will continue to lean further and further to the right, so you ease up on the bars and let the steering do that self-correcting trick which it's so good at. Left to its own devices, the steering on a neutral-steering bike (one which will hold a line through a bend hands-off) will correct to a point fractionally to the right of straight-ahead and hold that line.
The bike is stable in this state, just as it is in a straight line. If you steer left again, the bike will respond by leaning further to the right. To lift the bike back out of the lean, you steer to the right.
So, countersteering is how you
initiate, correct or
end a turn. That's all.
Another point worth knowing is that the more forcefully you countersteer, the more quickly the bike will change its lean angle. It's slightly unnerving to think that you don't directly control the lean angle on a bike, but I'm afraid it's the truth. What you have
direct control over is the roll rate. That's "roll" as it's commonly understood in an aeronautical sense (roll, pitch and yaw), not the rate at which your wheel rolls along the road.
If, armed with this knowledge, you want to try conscious countersteering on a bycicle, it's best do to it at speed (yes, really: see the next paragraph) and in a wide open space, like an empty car park. Also, go for the heaviest, and heaviest steering, bike you can. Get up to speed in a straight line, then change your grip to hold the ends of the handlebars twixt thumb and forefinger. This will allow you feel whats going on. Then,
very gently, apply pressure to turn the bars without leaning. If you turn them leftwards, I guarantee that the bike will steer to the right. Doing it consciously like this will almost certainly feel very odd and the natural reaction is to ease off the pressure and let the bike resume its preferred straight-ahead attitude. Try it a few times to get the feel, then actually try making a turn, holding the bars naturally,
but very lightly to imcrease feel.
As several posters on this thread have said (myself included), bicycles and motorbikes steer in exactly the same way. The big differencs between them are, quite obviously, speed and mass. The faster you ride and the heavier your "vehicle" (that's you, the bike and anything you're carrying), the more important countersteering becomes. From personal experience, trying to get 300kg of bike, rider and gear around a bend at 150mph at full lean requires quite aggressive countersteering. Conversely, countersteering the same bike at town speeds requires quite a delicate touch. This is why its easier to practice at speed.
In closing, and having spent a long time typing the foregoing, my personal opinion is that active countersteering on a bicycle is rarely, if ever, necessary. It's nice to understand the mechanics, but anyone who rides a bike around a bend is countersteering subconsciously and that's almost always good enough. I doubt that many cyclists have experienced the "Arrgh! Please, please, PLEASE TURN!" feeling, unless they also ride motorcycles at speed. The reason that this discussion is more common among motorcyclists is that knowing about countersteering and practicing it can really save your skin.
[As I said, not a short post. Sorry.]
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