Counter-steering applies a torque to the bottom of the bike.<p>For example: when you steer to the left while having lots of forward momentum, the contact patch of the front wheel wants to go left, so the bike starts rolling to the right, around its centre of gravity. Gravity itself, along with suspension, keeps the bike in contact with the ground even as it rolls over.<p>Once the bike is rolled over into a lean, it will start falling over, but if you leave it at that, it won&#x27;t simply fall on its side. The steering geometry (specifically, front-loaded steering geometry, you can look it up separately) wants to steer the bike back upright again, by steering into the turn slightly.<p>Depending on how much it&#x27;s steering into the turn, the bike will either turn quickly and come upright through the same mechanism as counter-steering, or it will turn smoothly in a circle if the steering exactly counteracts the centrifugal (&quot;fake&quot;) force. And if it&#x27;s not steering enough into the turn, then the bike will eventually fall over.<p>Counter-steering while leaned over in the steady state will increase the angle of lean, meaning later, more steering into the turn will be required to maintain lean angle, which will cause the described circle to tighten. Steering more into the turn while leaned over will cause the bike to straighten up.<p>Additional bonus: the width of the front tyre has a large effect on how much the bike straightens up when using the front brake. When leaned over, braking with the front has a torque effect on the steering axis: the contact patch is off to the side of the tyre, and if you&#x27;ve got a wide front tyre, it&#x27;ll have leverage over the steering. Braking will cause the road to push back on the side you&#x27;re leaned over on, which will cause steering into the turn, which will straighten the bike up. Steering geometry probably also affects straightening up on front brakes, but I&#x27;ve always noticed it far more on big bikes than ones with narrower, higher aspect ratio front tyres.