The Lazy Motorbike Instructional Video: Countersteering the Physical View.
Push the handlebar side where you want to go to...
Disrupt the balanced nature of your bike !
In this video we take a look at the physical process that takes place when pushing the handlebar.
A rotating wheel next to a stationary one, shows the difference in what happens with your input at the handlebar.
The wheel is suspended at one side on a flexible mount in a benchvise, and the other side is agitated by a rod which rotates in a bearing giving a fixed amplitude to the rotation of the agitated side of the wheels axle, simulating a fixed handlebar input independed of direction of movement.
The stationary wheel has no gyroscopic stabilizing and is easily moved and dislocated, giving you insight into the wobbly nature of a bike at slow speeds, where the rider has to take care of balance, and minimize steering input because the stabilizing forces of the slowly rotating wheel are to low to help you..
The fast rotating wheel has lots of gyroscopic momentum, and counters steering input in two ways, depending on the handlebar movement...
First we show the right way of countersteering by pushing down the "handlebar" in a down-forward rotation, just as if you try to steer a kayak by peddling backwards, the rotating wheel counters this "negative disruption" of its balance with a strong sideways momentum called precession.
The red arrow shows the backward motion of the agitating axle. You see the rotation of the axle is damped by the gyroscopic forces, and the wider tilting motion of the speeding wheel in relation to the stationary wheel on the other side (5 cm instead of 3,5 cm), this force can help you to get out of harms way really fast, but beware pushing to abruptly on the handlebar can disrupt the balance of the bike so quickly you lose the front !
Secondly we see what happens when the handlebar is agitated by bumps in the road (or wrong countersteering) which gives the axle a rotation in line with the rotation of the wheel itself, and now the gyroscopic force not only damped the imput on the axle (slower rotating of the axle) but also prohibited the full tilting of the agitated wheel, the sideways motion of the wheel is considerable less (about 2,8 cm instead of 3,5 cm) than with the stationary wheel beside it !
This latter gyroscopic effect is the force that keeps your bike running its course when riding whit loose hands, even through bumpy corners, so don't try yourself to help your bike with steering input in high-speed corners, the bike itself "knows" how to deal with it instinctly :-)
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