re countersteering faq please post in article zen sys uea ac uk mjs sys uea ac uk mike sixsmith writes all of us that argue about gyroscopes etc throughly understand the technique of countersteering including all the ones who think that they countersteer all the way through a corner well all the way through a decreasing radius corner anyway this is really the only thing we disagree on maybe we should agree to disagree ok but i m right the official line here though i do have my doubts about it is that the front brake is applied first followed by the rear brake the idea being that you avoid locking up the rear after weight transfer takes place if that s the official line taught in those rider education classes you were refering to that also don t teach countersteering i have to question the quality of the classes the official line in msf curricula is as i described maximum braking is achieved by applying both brakes equally when the weight distribution is nominally even and both tires have equal normal forces and easing off on the rear to prevent locking it and increasing braking on the front as more traction is available to the front due to increased normal force due to weight shift the official line you have been taught seems ineffective on the face of it applying the rear brake after the front is not taking advantage of all the traction available to the rear at time and is halving the available braking power by using only the front at time saying brake until the tire just begins to slide is next to useless advice to a newbie he has to go out and slide the tire to find out where that is it also gives him zero information from which to develop a braking technique that changes as the braking and corresponding weight shift develop if you don t slide the tyre you have no way of knowing whether you ve achieved maximum braking or not i m not suggesting that you should always aim to brake as hard as you possibly can but if you want to find the limits of the machine you have to go beyond them not necessarily true chirping the tire indicates impending lockup on most surfaces and serves as a good guide to newbies to indicate maximum braking i agree that totally locking the front occasionally makes one a better rider but it is a manuver best saved for an experienced rider unless you have one of those outrigger bikes like code used to use in any case for maximum braking if as i suggested you aim to keep both wheels just on the point of sliding then you ll be doing exactly as you suggest true but from the point of view of how to best teach riding skills which is how this discussion started keep both wheels just on the point of sliding is nearly useless information you need to teach a technique or at least a strategy to achieve this ed green former ninjaite i was drinking last night with a biker ed green east sun com and i showed him a picture of you i said dod go on get to know her you ll like her the grateful dead it seemed like the least i could do
