re countersteering faq please post leavitt cs umd edu mr bill writes mjs sys uea ac uk mike sixsmith writes mjs also imho telling newbies about countersteering is er counter productive mjs cos it just confuses them i rode around quite happily for years mjs knowing nothing about countersteering i cannot say i ride any differently mjs now that i know about it i interpret this to mean that you re representative of every other motorcyclist in the world eh mike rather presumptive of you imho in my humble opinion leavitt cs umd edu mr bill writes leavitt the time to learn countersteering techniques is when you are first leavitt starting to learn before you develop any bad habits i rode for leavitt five years before taking my first course msf erc and learning leavitt about how to countersteer it s now eight years later and i still leavitt have to consciously tell myself don t steer countersteer old leavitt habits die hard and bad habits even harder mjs sorry bill but this is complete bollocks you learned how to countersteer mjs the first time you rode the bike it s natural and intuitive sorry mike i m not going to kick over the can you not countersteer over mph stone that one s been kicked around enough for the sake of argument i ll concede that it s countersteering sake of argument only mjs msf did not teach you how to countersteer it only told you what mjs you were already doing and there s no value in that i didn t say there was no value all i said was that it is very confusing to newbies there s a big difference in knowing what s happening and how to make it do it especially in the extreme case of an emergency swerve and just letting the bike do whatever it does to make itself turn once i knew precisely what was happening and how to make it do it abruptly and on command my emergency avoidance abilities improved tenfold not to mention a big improvement in my normal cornering ability i am much more proficient knowing how to countersteer the motorcycle rather than letting the motorcycle steer itself that is when i remember to take cognitive command of the bike rather than letting it run itself through the corners whereupon i return to my original comment better to learn what s happening right from the start and how to take charge of it rather than developing the bad habit of merely going along for the ride bill you are kidding yourself here firstly motorcycles do not steer themselves only the rider can do that secondly it is the adhesion of the tyre on the road the suspension geometry and the ground clearance of the motorcycle which dictate how quickly you can swerve to avoid obstacles and not the knowledge of physics between the rider s ears are you seriously suggesting that countersteering knowledge enables you to corner faster or more competently than you could manage otherwise mike i m extremely gratified for you that you have such a natural affinity and prowess for motorcycling that formal training was a total waste of time for you assuming your total training hasn t come from simply from reading rec motorcycles however of the motorcyclists i ve discussed formal rider education with have regarded the experience as overwhelmingly positive this regardless of the amount of experience they brought into the course ranging from minutes to years formal training in this country as far as i am aware does not include countersteering theory i found out about countersteering about six years ago from a physics lecturer who was also a motorcyclist i didn t believe him at first when he said i steered my bike to the right to make it turn left but i went out and analysed closely what i was doing and realized he was right it s an interesting bit of knowledge and i ve had a lot of fun since then telling others about it who were at first as sceptical as i was but that s all it is an interesting bit of knowledge and to claim that it is essential for all bikers to know it or that you can corner faster or better as a result is absurd formal training is in my view absolutely essential if you re going to be able to ride a bike properly and safely but by including countersteering theory in newbie courses we are confusing people unnecessarily right at the time when there are far more important matters for them to learn and that was my original point mike
