All bikes turn by countersteering. I guess. I’ve been studying how bikes turn a bit these days, well, a few weeks ago. I thought I’d put up a quick explanation for those who don’t know.
A bike (or any 2-wheeler, like a motorcycle) turns by falling in the direction you want to go. In order to fall you turn the front end to the opposite direction of the line of your center of gravity. So, say you want to turn left. Your CoG line is pointing straight forward. You turn the bike to the right. That makes the bike start to fall to the left and so turn to the left. However, in order to not just fall down to the left what we do is “chase” the falling bike by steering the front end back under it to keep it from falling. If we steer it entirely back under then we also stop turning. If we steer it so that it’s still slightly to the right of the CoG it keeps turning left. Get it? It’s kinda freaky.
This explains why if you find yourself suddenly right up against a curb or crack that you tend to fall into it before you can get out of it. It’s because you have to move your front end slightly TOWARD the obstacle before you can start turning away from it.
