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From: svoboda@rtsg.mot.com (David Svoboda)
Subject: Re: Countersteering sans Hands
Message-ID: <1993Apr23.231213.29910@rtsg.mot.com>
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References: <1993Apr20.203344.8417@cs.cornell.edu> <gbnvgw@quantum.qnx.com> <1993Apr22.005308.11779@cs.cornell.edu>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 23:12:13 GMT
Lines: 35

In article <1993Apr22.005308.11779@cs.cornell.edu> karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr) writes:
|In article <gbnvgw@quantum.qnx.com> dagibbs@quantum.qnx.com (David Gibbs) writes:
|>
|>Yes, even when steering no hands you do something quite similar
|>to countersteering.  Basically to turn left, you to a quick wiggle
|>of the bike to the right first, causing a counteracting lean to
|>occur to the left.
|
|This sounds suspiciously like black magic to me.  If by "quick wiggle
|to the right" you mean that the handlebars turn toward the right
|before turning to the left, what is the input to the steering
|mechanism that makes this happen in the absence of the old
|"shove-shove"?

Well, as many a bored bike tourer can tell you, the way to steer
sans hans is to push your body off to the side you want to lean.
Say you want to turn left.  You push your body off to the left.
To do this, you have to push against something, and the only
thing to push against is the ground (through the bike).  Well,
the apple guy (Wozniak? or was that Churchill?) says that the 
ground will push you right back.  So, you pushed yourself off to 
the left by pushing on the ground to the right, and the ground 
pushed back toward the left.  Well, that push is on both wheels.  
The rear wheel doesn't care (unless you have serious bearing 
problems) (except of course on the Spagthorpe Dragonfly, which
had the revolutionary countersteering-contra-shaft-drive rear end), 
but the front wheel has trail.  If the ground pushes the front wheel 
toward the left at the contact patch, the trail will cause the 
wheel to turn to the right.  Hey, there we are.  No-hands counter-
steering.

Dave Svoboda (svoboda@void.rtsg.mot.com)    | "I'm getting tired of
90 Concours 1000 (Mmmmmmmmmm!)              |  beating you up, Dave.
84 RZ 350 (Ring Ding) (Woops!)              |  You never learn."
AMA 583905  DoD #0330  COG 939  (Chicago)   |  -- Beth "Bruiser" Dixon
