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One of the Wright brothers has a quote about this (before they were airplane makers they were bicycle makers, the bicycle being the latest mechanical marvel of
by syncsynchalt 5y ago
One of the Wright brothers has a quote about this (before they were airplane makers they were bicycle makers, the bicycle being the latest mechanical marvel of their time). The summary of the quote is that the action is intuitive but nobody realizes (or even admits) that they're doing it:
> I have asked dozens of bicycle riders how they turn to the left. I have never found a single person who stated all the facts correctly when first asked. They almost invariably said that to turn to the left, they turned the handlebar to the left and as a result made a turn to the left. [...] I have never found a non-scientific rider who had particularly noticed it and spoke of it from his own conscious observation and initiative.
The existence of counter-steering is still controversial to some riders, to the point where machines like the "No B.S. Bike" were created to demonstrate it as a necessary effect: https://soundrider.com/archive/safety-skills/nobsbike.aspx https://soundrider.com/archive/safety-skills/nobsbike.aspx
- ksaj 5y agoAnother way to demonstrate it on a bicycle, you can do something pretty much every child has already done numerous times: ride without your hands on the handle bars (hands free). To turn, you lean in the direction you want to go. But what way does the handle bar turn when you do that? It counter steers! You will fall if it doesn't (which is essentially what the No B.S. Bike demonstrates).