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Riding a bike - did you know...

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    #61
    What's really strange and most people don't realise is that to walk forwards, you must actually walk backwards. Unfortunately, I can't find a YouTube video but the same is true in reverse so just Google 'moonwalk' and it will provide all the proof you need.

    And to speak, one must actually suck in the words from the air, exactly the opposite of what you'd think.

    What a crazy world.

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      #62
      To walk we actually have to fall forward and put on foot in front of the other. This is why it's taken ages for robots to walk like humans properly.

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        #63
        Originally posted by charlesr View Post
        l"Steering a bike is not just about moving the handlebars" - unless you want to steer very slowly by leaning your bodyweight (which has zero affect on a heavier motorbike), steering a two wheel bike is ONLY about moving the handlebars.
        As I said - people are confused about the handling characteristics at different speeds. Make your mind up as there are so many contradictions in such a short sentence above.
        How would you steer a penny farthing?

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          #64
          I've read a couple of pages of this and can't be arsed reading the rest but it is true.

          This thread is a little like counter steering in that in an attempt to simplify it, it's ended up twice as complicated as it should have been.

          The best way to describe why something is moving a certain way is usually to show it moving, had a bit of a look and this seemed to cover everything nicely.

          Something similar is doing by racing drivers in cars to get the same end result but the reason it happens is slightly different. I won't bore you with that one though.

          This hasn't really got anything to do with counter steering, but hell...it made me smile!

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            #65
            Hmmm... that video shows bikes going in the exact direction they are steered. When the bike is "counter steered" it also goes in the other direction until steered in the right direction, just increasing the turning circle. Thus, bikes go in the direction you steer them. Paint me stunned.

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              #66
              Originally posted by Dogg Thang View Post
              Hmmm... that video shows bikes going in the exact direction they are steered. When the bike is "counter steered" it also goes in the other direction until steered in the right direction, just increasing the turning circle. Thus, bikes go in the direction you steer them. Paint me stunned.
              Yeah exactly how I saw it. They aren't turning left to go right, they're turning left to go left slightly to give a better turning circle then they turn right as they wish to turn right!

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                #67
                Originally posted by smouty View Post
                As I said - people are confused about the handling characteristics at different speeds.
                I didn't mean bike speed, I meant speed of steering - if you just lean with bodyweight, it turns in very slowly and doesn't work at all on heavier bikes without violent movement.

                Did you try what I suggested? Be very careful when you try it, because you'll fall off if you aren't expecting the results.

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                  #68
                  On a related note, once while I was walking home from the office it was so windy that it seemed that for every step I took forward I took two steps back! I eventually got home by starting to walk back to the office.

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                    #69
                    And dogg thang and ouenben: pay attention. Pause it at 2:10. The bars are turned to his right, but the bike is leaning to his left. There is no way of going to the left without turning the bars to the right first. Ouenben: look at the way the bike leans when the bars turn.

                    I think I mentioned this already in this thread, but the simplest way of demoing this is to watch a kid on a bike with stabilisers. They are called stabilisers because they STOP THE BIKE FALLING OVER because the kid will steer the bars in the wrong direction (normally because they are used to a tricycle first). So they turn the bars left and the bike instantly flops over to the right and only the stabiliser stops the kid hitting the deck. At which point it becomes a tricycle and goes around the corner. When the stabilisers come off, the kid has to learn by trial and error to turn the bars the wrong way, unless someone tells them - which never happens because no one knows about it.

                    This is simple stuff people. This isn't a debatable point. It's fact. Not believing it is like not believing the earth is round.
                    Last edited by charlesr; 10-03-2009, 14:17.

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                      #70
                      I'm sure you're right in what you say but my god, this has to be the silliest thread ever!

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                        #71
                        Charles, please read the Wikipedia entry.
                        The part I think we are disagreeing on is - "It is important to distinguish between countersteering as a physical phenomenon and countersteering as a rider technique".

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                          #72
                          I'm just going to have to say I'm not getting this, Charles. In slo-mo, at that 2.10 point, what is staring me in the face is that the bike goes in the exact direction it is steered. Whether it's possible to lean into a turn without counter-steering, I can't say. I've never noticed it on a bike or motorbike but that's not to say I'm not doing it. But, when it comes to steering, that bike is going in the exact direction it is pointed in.

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                            #73
                            Originally posted by smouty View Post
                            It is important to distinguish between countersteering as a physical phenomenon and countersteering as a rider technique.
                            That sums it up perfectly for me! They're very different things even though the constituents are essentially the same.
                            Originally posted by charlesr
                            Did you know that on a bicycle or motorbike, to go left, you actually have to turn the handlebars to the right? True fact.
                            It does work but the above sentence itself is the problem really.

                            It's almost like saying that JFK was killed by Newton's third law of action & reaction. Essentially, it's true but it's probably more apt to say that he died because he was shot in most conversations.

                            Which ever direction you steer is the direction the bike will go in while the laws of physics state that your body will travel in the opposite direction. Either you balance those two things or physics does what physics likes to do and makes you fall like a fool...preferably while somebody with YouTube access is filming you.

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