ramble
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
Yes, countersteering is real and it works. However it remains misunderstood by most who only seem to remember one aspect of it, the word itself.
Any attempt to highlight other points of cornering will be poo poo'd by doubting Thomas's. It's like, "the water is wet", "Yes, but the sky is blue, the sky is blue, who cares about the wet water, the sky is still blue".
Knowledge dispels fear.
Knowing how countersteering truly works, not what people think it is and what they continually parrot, may help.
A dramatic statement at the start of a discourse is a speech technique used to attract attention. Some are better than others
ie : good examples.
"I have a dream"
"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"
bad examples :
"countersteering is bollocks"
"You uncoordinated ****s haven't got a clue"
I taught myself countersteering before I even had heard that word.
I was beating intensive course students on my very first track session.
I was beating liter bikes who claimed it was because of my additional power that allowed me to rocket out of corners, in fact I was half the power and 10 kg more weight. I do know physics to an advanced level. I'm basically an ok rider. If I get half as good as I want to be, then I'll still be happy to be half as good as what I was aiming for.
I consulted Yoda-san and he said "give me those keys, look and learn, this is how you corner at the Kung Fu corner school"
Afterwards I enquired "Master, how is it that you can lean so far over"
He replied "Did you hear the peg grinding near your feet ? How is it that you cannot ?"
"Once you are in a turn under a constant radius. Your front wheel is turned in the direction of travel. This always happens."
That's all I really wanted to say, people misunderstand this point.
Read Twist of the Wrist II, it does mention actually that mid-turn there should be no pressure on the bars.
I think I was originally replying to someone that said they were holding the bar down during the corner.
Then I was referring to differing cornering styles. Not flip flopping BERT !
By pointing out differing cornering styles, this will help people learn.
There's basically a lot of different cornering styles. In terms of leaning there are 2 main styles :
1. The Keith Code "Get straight to the maximum lean angle" style.
2. The gradually lean in and only hold the maximum lean for a brief period style. (works well on the highway).
Then there's the 3 racing lines :
- qualifying line with wide entry.
- defensive line, tight on entry.
- racing line, in the middle to stay fast and cover the inside.
The road line :
- wide entry late apex and stays tight on exit. (safest way)
There's different braking techniques, I'm pesonally an early braker and early on the gas. THen there's the late braking, get all the weight on the front wheel all while trying to turn style, it does work for some corners really well.
Then you can drag the rear brake, and sometimes the front brake to adjust the pitching forces mid turn too.
There are many paths to Motorbiking Zen to get you into the zone of motorbiking nirvana.
I knew not to reply to this thread.
I knew there'd be scorn if I attempted to dare mention one thing additional to the "countersteer" mantra.
I need to change my username, the real Fast Freddy doesn't need this kind of heat, Fred is not my real name in fact.
Actually, you countersteer in the turn every time you need to adjust your line. If you didn't countersteer at all in a decreasing radius turn, you'd end up in the dirt.
Yes, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about steady state you unco deadshit.
"Counter steering is only to change lean angle"
That's what I said, what's your problem Bert and Chucker, apart from being super dense.