Category: Control

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36. Aquaplaning – what it is and how to deal with it

Not much to say about this other than to add that tyre condition matters more than tyre type; worn centre grooves, squared-off profiles and under-inflation all seem to be factors associated with increased aquaplaning risk. far more than most riders realise whilst electronic aids Electronic aids such cannot restore grip when a tyre is floating on water. If you do detect the “light, floaty bars” don’t attempt to counter the movement aggressively; that’s a common instinctive error and will just destabilise the bike.

Aquaplaning – what it is and how to deal with it

When I originally wrote this tip almost twenty years ago, my main worry was winter weather. But in the last few years, torrential rain and standing water on summer roads has become just as common and it can be a real hazard. I don’t mean just ploughing into standing water and having the bike stop almost dead, or even finding that the puddle is actually a pothole, but the problem of aquaplaning. So this article explains “what is aquaplaning, how likely is it to happen, how do we recognise it’s happening and what do we do about it?”

Let’s start by explaining what aquaplaning is. I think the term has probably been borrowed from ship design. A ship has to push water aside in front of it, and when that vessel’s speed is sufficiently high, the water cannot get out of the way fast enough. So the vessel tends to rises up and ulimately ‘rides’ on the wave it’s created. That’s the basic principle behind high speed ferries.

Tyres do pretty much the same. When water is sufficiently deep and speed sufficiently high, the tyre cannot displace the water to the side quickly enough. A wave builds up ahead of the tyre’s contact patch and with just a bit more speed and the tyre rides up and ‘floats’ on its own bow wave. And that means it’s lost contact with the road surface, and the tyre has no braking or steering grip!

Here’s the good news. Whilst aquaplaning is quite common when driving a car – the barrel-shaped profile of a car tyre has a broad contact patch that pushes water ahead of it – a motorcycle tyre is U or V-shaped and the relatively long, thin contact patch cuts more effectively through standing water, much like a ship’s bow.

In my experience, aquaplaning is pretty rare on two wheels compared with four. In fact, if we do much motorway driving in wet weather, aquaplaning is quite common. But I can count the times it’s happened on a bike on one hand.

The danger seems to be a road surface just awash with standing water, where we we wouldn’t normally think twice about riding through it at a modest speed. It happened once near Brands Hatch, where the road is wide and flat – it’s an old concrete surface underneath the tarmac skim and so there’s no camber to clear the water, so there was standing water over a considerable length of road. The speed limit is only 40, so it seems that it’s the distance the standing water stretches that matters, rather than flat-out speed. I had a similar incident in the Ardennes in Belgium on a brand-new road that was ‘super-elevated’ – that is, cambered so that the entire road ‘banks’ for each corner. This seemed to trap the rain from a thunderstorm so that rather than flowing OFF the surface, it acted more like a channel of the water.

Hitting a short stretch of deep water doesn’t seem to create the right circumstances for aquaplaning. I suspect this is because the resistance of the water creates a sudden deceleration so there’s no chance for that wave to build. The impact will try to wrench the steering out of our grip, but it’s not aquaplaning. And, let’s face it, if we see a big puddle, it’d be a good idea to avoid it when possible, or slow down when we can’t as we’ve no idea what’s under it.

So watch out for shallow sheets of water, particularly after a thunderstorm or prolonged heavy rain. Look out for places where run-off from a field or an overflowing drain flows into the road. Motorways and dual carriageways are bad because two lane roads like A roads and country lanes normally have a crown that drains water to either side, but the carriageways on a dual carriageway are usually flat, Watch out too for standing water in truck wheel tracks. At speed, and with spray flying around, we may well not see the problem until the last second. So try to keep a good gap, and don’t go excessively quickly.

In my experience, the warning sign that the bike is aquaplaning is that it keeps going in a straight line, but the bars go light and floaty-feeling. They may even move from side to side. It’s a bit like riding on ice, but with one important difference – on ice, the first warning is often wheelspin but when aquaplaning, the rear wheel continues to drive the bike forward, presumably because the rear is often following in the trough cut by the front tyre. It’s front tyre grip that’s compromised.

If we suspect we might be aquaplaning, the best answer seems to be, as is often the case, to keep a relaxed grip on the bars – hanging on for dear life always makes things worse. Lock onto the tank with the knees to keep the weight off the bars and do nothing harsh or sudden. Once again, in my experience, if we simply roll off the throttle gently, the reduction in speed plus the extra loading at the front gets the front tyre to cut back down through the water to regain grip. But don’t apply the front brake – if it’s floating, it could lock. If it’s necessary to brake, use the rear gently. Don’t try to steer until there’s feedback through the bars telling you that the front tyre is back in contact with the road surface.

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35. Nine simple techniques to master Slow Control on a motorcycle

Articles which focus on the biomechanical inputs we make to ride motorcycles should not be subject to fashion or doctrine, but to physics. So there is very little that needs to be said about that aspect of the article, but in the last quarter century the trend has been towards motorcycles that are both more powerful, heavier and taller. Nothing there helps at walking pace. Nor does a too-abrupt ride-by-wire throttle.

What about new technology? I found using the rear brake essential to slow turns on a Honda equipped with DCT transmission and one new technology is throttle assist that add revs when the engine is about to stall and smooths abrupt throttle changes to keep the bike moving when the rider’s inputs are inconsistent. I’d say there’s a risk that it can give riders the impression that they are in control when, in reality, the electronics are compensating.

I neglected to mentioned linked brakes, where rear brake input introduces a small amount of front brake. It doesn’t negate the advice, but it does reinforce the need to discover how a new machine performs before discovering a difference mid-manoeuvre. Arguably, slow-speed control now demands more precision, not less. The techniques below are therefore not old-fashioned basics; they are core survival skills for today’s bikes, traffic and road conditions.

Nine simple techniques to master Slow Control on a motorcycle

If there is one area of bike control that really shows up our weaknesses, it’s slow speed control. We can fudge most things but slow riding topples a lot of riders. Look at the number of bikes around with bent levers, scrapes on the fairings and dinged silencers. It’s not only novice riders who trip up at slow speed. Many experienced riders have problems when they encounter hairpin bends, yet it’s the slow riding technique taught on basic training that’s needed. It’s not just the fear of looking like a complete prat when we topple off in the carpark in front of our mates that should worry us. We can save ourselves some much-needed £’s in repairs and resprays by using the correct techniques. And far from least of our concerns is that a low speed crash leaves us in a highly vulnerable state when other vehicles are around. So here are some Survival Skills tips, based on my practical Confidence: BUILDER post-test training course, that are easy to learn, simple to work with, and will sharpen up your own slow riding very quickly indeed. One safety warning – work on the skills in a nice, quiet and low-risk environment – an empty car park is ideal.

POSTURE: This is where it all starts because a poor riding position compromises everything else.

Firstly, get into the habit of keeping fingers OFF the front brake – it’s often easier said than done for experienced riders, but the first instinct when things start to go wrong is to grab the front brake. That stops the bike dead, which causes it to topple over if we happen to be mid-turn.

Next, don’t dangle feet either. I see that a lot, usually from less-confident riders, but it also seems to have become a fashion thing to ride around feet trailing on the ground. With our feet off the pegs, we no longer use our knees to lock ourselves onto the bike. There’s also a risk of stubbing a toe. At best that’ll give your ankle a painful wrench or even break it, at worst it can tip you off. Feet up, at ALL times when moving.

With feet on the pegs, make sure they’re in the right place, and that’s with the arch of the foot on the peg itself. If we have the ball of the foot on the pegs, we can’t reach the rear brake, which is absolutely vital to slow control. So position the left foot over the rear brake lever. It’s this failure to cover the rear brake that leads to riders using the front brake on slow control – and the sudden grab-and-topple when things go a bit wrong. Keep checking and re-checking the foot’s still covering the brake.

Then, with feet up and in the right place, sit forward towards the tank. We don’t need squeeze up tight, just close enough so we can brace our knees against the tank. It’s the legs that stabilise our lower body, then we can brace our back muscles to stabilise the torso. This ‘Brace Position’ allows us to keep shoulders, elbows and wrists loose, and keep our weight off the bars. Leaning on the bars destroys slow speed control. The lower the bars, the more difficult this is. Riding a sports bike at slow speed needs extra effort on the part of the rider.

To make accurate tight turns, we need to look along our path, and that means turning our head to look as far through the turn as we can. Being in the ‘Brace Position’ with loose shoulders helps the neck stay loose which makes it easier to look round. What we don’t want to do is look down at the road surface ahead of the front wheel. We may be worried about bumps and potholes, but if they’re already under the wheel, it’s too late. We need to pick up problems BEFORE we are about to ride over them and that means keeping the head turned.

SLOW RIDING IN A STRAIGHT LINE: Start with the absolute basics, because if we get this right, everything else gets a lot easier.

That means slipping the clutch. It is possible to ride a bike with a smooth engine slowly with no clutch at all – I can do it with my XJ6 easily. So why slip the clutch? Because if I rely on throttle control without slipping the clutch, I have to keep the throttle absolutely smooth. A slight tweak either way will change the bike’s speed and balance. What often happens is that we hit a bump, the throttle is twisted open, the bike surges forward, the rider shuts the throttle and simultaneously grabs the front brake. Down we go in a heap.

We spend a lot of time on basic training practicing slipping the clutch, but riders get out of the habit, so here’s a reminder and some ways to practice. Start by riding away from a standstill in a straight line but don’t let the clutch all the way out – keep it in the ‘friction zone’ as it’s sometimes called. How do we know we’re slipping it correctly? Two things. Firstly the bike will keep moving and won’t slow down – if it does, the clutch is too far in. Secondly we should be able to ‘blip’ the throttle without the bike surging forward – if it does, the clutch is too far out.

Get that mastered, then introduce the rear brake. Ride away in a straight line, keep the clutch slipping but after ten metres or so, gently press on the rear brake to slow the bike to a stop. Then repeat. Keep practicing until the stops are as smooth as the starts. And give yourself a mental slap if you fingers are on the front brake, because we’re going to need to keep fingers off the front brake as soon as we start turning. This exercise develops your rear brake control. Work at it till it’s automatic.

THE NEED FOR SPEED: Motorcycles are full of paradoxes. Here’s another. To make tight turns, riding more slowly is NOT the answer. The bike needs to LEAN and it’s MUCH EASIER to lean over when the motorcycle has forward motion – ride too slowly and it just wants to topple over. So let’s find the minimum speed that delivers stability. Ride off in a straight line, get the speed up to about 20 mph, then progressively roll off the throttle. Initially, the bike will feel good and stable, and will easily go in a straight line. Although all bikes are different, above 10 mph, the bike’s reasonably well-balanced. But as the speed drops and falls to single figures, it will become increasingly reluctant to go straight ahead, and you’ll find you need to ‘force’ it straight. Eventually, the bike starts to wander however hard you try to ride it straight. Note the speed where the bike loses stability. And keep fingers off the front brake.

START UPRIGHT, STOP UPRIGHT: It is possible to start from a standstill with the front wheel turned to full lock, and some trainers do teach this technique. But because the back wheel is pushing the bike in a different direction to where the front wheel is pointed, the bike tries to topple over. A rider with a reasonable sense of what’s happening can compensate by immediately getting the bike to lean as it moves but for someone with developing skills, it can upset the apple cart.

So there’s a much easier way. Begin ANY slow manoeuvre by getting the bike rolling in a straight line, get briskly to that minimum speed where the bike is stable, and ONLY THEN start turning. If you are having trouble starting the turn, don’t forget that even at brisk walking pace counter-steering actually initiates the lean. Only a tiny nudge is needed but it gets the bike leaning. And when we want to stop again, get the bike upright, ensure the bars are straight THEN apply the rear brake to stop (remember – toes on the rear brake, fingers off the front brake). Stopping upright means the bike is balanced. If we try to stop mid-turn, the machine will be leaning over, and that’s when we lose balance and end up in a heap.

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE TURNING: We’re always told to look “as far around the corner as possible” but where? What I do is look INSIDE the point that I’m aiming the bike for. That is, if there’s a kerb on the outside of the turn, I don’t look at the kerb but the road surface a metre inside it. The more we want to avoid something, the more it pulls our eyes towards it – if there’s parked car on the outside of a right-turn at a junction, that’s the last place I want to look. Find somewhere more positive. For example, rather than look at the car, I’d look at the centre line in the road, and use that as a ‘reference point’ to turn around. Anything distinctive on the road will do. A cats-eye, a discoloured patch of tarmac, a leaf or even a blob of chewing gum. Anything that keeps our eyes from looking at where we don’t want to go! And keep fingers off the front brake.

TURNING IN A FIGURE 8: The best exercise to develop slow turns is a nice big Figure 8. We practice turning in both directions, we practice changing direction, and if we’re to keep it reasonably accurate, we have to look right round. A common mistake by practicing riders (and some trainers too) is trying to ride too slowly (see above) and to try to turn too tight initially. That makes the exercise difficult, so we perform badly, which saps (rather than builds) confidence. Instead, start big and wide with plenty of speed. Focus on keeping throttle and clutch control smooth with the bars turned, and using the rear brake (NOT the throttle) to control speed. And keep fingers clear of the front brake. Get that head turned, and try to look one quarter of a turn ahead – 90 degrees. Try to find ‘reference points’ as just mentioned. You can use your own cones, but car park paint markings will do. Start by using the LENGTH of two cars as your goal for each circle. As control improves, steadily tighten the Figure 8 by LEANING, not by slowing down. It’s confidence with the lean that makes for tighter turns. Many riders try to ride the Figure 8 progressively slower as they tighten it, and of course that just means the bike stops balancing.

COUNTERWEIGHTING: Pull up and take a break. With the bike upright, turn the bars full lock to the left. Notice how the throttle and and clutch actually get more difficult to hold – the throttle’s stretched away at arm’s length and the clutch is tucked up in your stomach. That makes full-lock control awkward. Now, pop the bike on the side stand and put your feet on the pegs. You’ll have to ‘sit up straight’ to avoid falling off the bike. Notice anything about your grip on the bars? With your body the ‘wrong’ way for the corner, the angle of your arms and wrists just got a bit easier.

Now, here’s an extra wrinkle that I teach on my Confidence: BUILDER, Survival: URBAN and Basics: SLOW RIDING courses. Twist your backside slightly so your body and shoulders face slightly into the turn. You’ll find the first effect of this is to push the ‘uphill’ knee into the tank, bracing the body against the slope of the seat. The second effect is that because your shoulders are now more nearly parallel with the bars, your arms are at a much more natural angle, and the clutch and throttle are easier to operate. And last but not least, because your shoulders are angled, so is your head. In fact, you’re already looking into the turn. Just an easy extra twist of the neck and we’re looking that 90 degrees ahead. This is a REALLY useful tip for more mature riders who aren’t as flexible as they used to be!

COUNTERWEIGHTING ON A FIGURE 8: Go back to the Figure 8 exercise but now try to introduce this counterweighting (where we sit up on the bike and lean the ‘wrong’ way) together with the body twist. The easiest way to do this is to make sure there’s a short straight stretch between the two loops. Now see what happens when you tip the bike over further whilst keeping speed up (for balance) whilst counterweighting. You’ll find the bike turns tighter. And this is the counterintuitive key to slow control – speed gives the machine dynamic balance, lean angle gets it turning tighter… and leaning the ‘wrong’ way makes it lean more at the same speed.

TIGHT TURNS ON A SLOPE: Now halfway through the Figure 8, as your clutch and throttle control improved, you probably forgot the rear brake. When getting trainees to perform this exercise I have to remind them about every thirty seconds to keep their toes on the lever. But it’s our speed control. Why might we need speed control? What happens if the ground slopes – as the road does when making a U-turn over the top of the camber? The bike tries to pick up speed. So the answer is to drag the rear brake as soon as the bike turns over the top of the hill, before it angles down the slope where it would otherwise pick up speed. And as we turn uphill again, simply ease off the brake.

SLOW RIDING ERRORS: If you’re having trouble with slow riding, here’s a quick reminder of the common errors. Check you’re not making any of them:

Feet – dangling off the pegs
Toes – up on the pegs, nowhere near the rear brake
Knees – waving in the breeze so the body is unsupported and moving around, causing the bike to wobble
Fingers – covering the front brake, ready to make a sudden grab if the bike wobbles
Stiff elbows – the bike won’t steer
Neck / head / eyes – not looking where to go but under the front wheel
Too slow – the bike won’t turn at all
Not slipping the clutch – all the speed control is dependent on the throttle and if you shut it, the bike will stop dead and topple over
Leaning in – pushes the bike upright and an upright bike wants to go straight on

SUMMING UP: That’s enough for one riding article but this collection of techniques and tips works on any bike of any size. Work on the exercises, develop the skills and you’ll have everything you need for negotiating everything from standard DVSA bike test U-turn and slalom, for the slow skills needed to pass the IAM riding test, to negotiating mini-roundabouts on your daily commute, and right up to negotiating mountain hairpins on holiday. Master them before needing them on the road. Or do you want to discover you haven’t got the slow riding skills two-up on a loaded bike turning into a narrow, back-on-itself, downhill corner or junction?

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31. Posture – the key to smoother riding

Good posture remains the foundation of smooth, controlled riding — even with the increasingly-sophisticated electronics appearing on modern machines. Whilst electronics can help manage the bike, that does not replace the rider’s requirement to control the machine dynamically. In addition, posture affects vision and scanning: a stable, flexible upper body allows the head and eyes to move freely, enabling riders to gather information beyond the immediate front tyre, anticipate hazards, and react smoothly. Adjustable bars, pegs, and seats on some bikes allow do allow riders to fine-tune their riding position, balancing stability, feedback, and comfort but whether practicing slow-speed manoeuvres or riding the bike on the road, the principles of the Brace Position remain as relevant today as they ever were.

Posture – the key to smoother riding

In some ways, this article should have been number one, because our posture is hugely important to good control. Without good posture, so many riding tasks become tougher than they need to be, from slow control to emergency stops to cornering at speed. However, it doesn’t mean that every article written about posture is correct. For example, had anyone read this particular article on a website covering riding skills (the article seems to have disappeared recently) they might be forgiven for thinking they were doing it all wrong.

“Body Position – as many people will realise as they gain confidence and move around on the bike, the way you sit on your bike has a direct affect on the way the bike handles. Unfortunately many people never learn the correct way to sit. Sit close to the tank with your “groin” pressed against it! Lean forward and lie across the tank with your head behind the screen. Do not lean on the tank but allow your stomach muscles to support you so that if you take your hands off the bars you are still in the same position. You should try this when stationary to get a feel for it – just let go of the bars and let your stomach muscles do the work.”

Eh? How does anyone ‘sit close to the tank’ and ‘lie across the tank with your head behind the screen’ at the same time?

The only explanation I could come up with was that the writer – who’d apparently picked up this advice on a training course – had got thorougly confused. I would advice riders to sit forward on the seat (although not so close that “your groin is pressed against it” for improved slow control on tight turns. And getting tucked in behind the screen is something I’d do riding down a straight on the track. But both together? One buddy tried it on a Goldwing and pointed out:

“I could barely see over the dash, my elbows were behind my back and my wrists twisted at an awkward angle.”

So there’s a third issue – bikes and their riders aren’t all the same size and shape.

In short it was one of the worst pieces I’ve seen for a long time, and it’s no great loss that it’s vanished from the virtual library of bad advice.

About the only thing I agreed on is that posture IS important, so let’s try to understand how. Above anything else, we need to find a position that’s both stable and comfortable, that allows us to operate all the controls and see where we are going.

So let’s start with stability. We need to find a position where our legs support the upper body. Why is that, you might be wondering? It’s our arms and hands that do most of the work in controlling the bike.

The reason is that we need to be in what I call the ‘Brace Position’ to make effective inputs, whether we’re braking, steering or accelerating. And we need this Brace Position because our inputs make the motorcycle change speed and direction beneath us. Unless we’re connected to the bike, the bike may move without us when we want to stay connected – it’s not impossible to fall off the back of a bike when accelerating too rapidly. And conversely, there are time we want to move independently of the machine and unless we are braced effectively, it’s hard to do so – the technique of counterweighting on slow turns relies on us being able to shift our bodyweight one way as the bike leans the other. In particular, the brace position locks us in place to counter-steer effectively.

So the Brace Position starts at the footpegs. There’s always a debate about whether to ride with the arch of the foot (which means we can use the foot controls without moving them) or the ball of the foot (which lets us take more weight via our legs) on the pegs, but we’ll leave that to one side for the moment. Conventional footpegs are more or less under the hips precisely so we can take some of our weight through them – and that means we are not taking all our weight through our backside, although on a bike with forward foot controls that’s not possible.

But even on a Harley, so long as there is a there is tank over the engine – or a dummy tank like Honda’s NC series – there is another important connection point with the machine – our knees. Even without conventional footpegs, the knees provide the lower body stability that we’ll need in a moment. It’s also useful to lock the knees against the tank on a bumpy surface – that allows us to use our thighs as ‘active suspension’. Rather like a jockey’s legs working in harmony with a galloping horse, the forks and rear shock can move beneath us in partial isolation over big irregularities such as speed bumps, keeping the machine a little more stable as well as giving us a smoother ride on top.

Once our knees are gripping the tank, we can brace the muscles in our lower back, NOT the stomach muscles as that article suggested – if they are tightened, it’s probably a sign we’re tense. With the lower back stiffened, we can keep the upper half of the torso flexible. This is vital because it ensures we can maintain looseness in our shoulders, elbows and wrists. This is the third key element of the Brace Position, because it prevents us leaning on the bars because they are set low – as on a sports bike – or hanging on to them if they are more upright.

This need to avoid leaning on or hanging onto the handlebars and staying loose is not intuitive at all.

Leaning on the handlebars creates problems steering at speed – one arm MUST move forward and the other MUST move backwards if the bars are to turn, and the bars MUST turn if we’re to steer. Many sportsbike riders are amazed at how nimble their ‘slow-steering’ machines suddenly become when they start using the Brace Position on corners. Leaning on the bars also kills fine control stone dead on slow control too.

But leaning on the bars or hanging on too hard also tends to cause wobbles in a straight line. Common sense would suggest that we would need to actively point the bike in a straight line all the times by constantly correcting the steering. In fact, once rolling a motorcycle has dynamic balance – mass always wants to move in a straight line unless some force is applied to make it change direction and this applies to a motorcycle too. Additionally, the steering is designed to be self-centering and to correct itself if deflected by a bump. But riders detect wobbles or steering instability and believe that must hold on ever-tighter. In fact, it’s the rider’s own body movements, swaying around on the bike because they are not braced, which get fed into the bars and create the problem in the first place. When I talk about this issue on my Survival Skills advanced rider training course, I often get a blank or even disbelieving looks, which usually vanish when I perform a hands-off riding demo.

We also need to keep the elbows bent – here’s why:

a bent elbow acts as a shock absorber (just like bent knees) and allows the steering to shake. The moment we 'lock' the steering by leaning on the bars, we feed any bumps and shakes the bike generates straight back into the steering making matters ten times worse

a bent elbow allows us to steer using the leverage from the arms. If our elbows are locked, we are steering from the shoulders and back which is crude and tiring

Keeping elbows flexible is a problem with sports bike riders who lean on the bars with locked elbows, but in contrast, we can often spot novice riders on small bikes who are virtually sitting on the pillion seat. With their arms stretched straight out in front of them, the end result is similar – it’s difficult to turn the bars. Don’t forget that the wrists also need to be loose.

If we don’t have some ‘give’ in our arms, we also lose feedback from the front tyre under braking or when steering on a slippery surface. It’s a loose connection from shoulders to the bars that allows fine control over the steering. My tip to trainees is to remember the bars work like the tiller of a boat – they are for steering and not for hanging on to.

Here’s another poor piece of advice which you have possibly heard:

“Keep your forearms level with the ground”.

The rationale is that it puts the rider in the most ergonomically efficient position to turn the handlebars by moving them forwards and backwards. Think about that for a moment. The effort needed to achieve a level forearm depends on the height of the bars in relationship to our elbows. The taller the rider and the lower the bars, the more that rider will have to lean forward in a racing crouch to achieve that ‘flat arm’ shape, and that in turn will push the rider’s backside rearwards and change the position of the knees. It’s actually the need to position our knees and keep the upper half of the body flexible that pretty much fixes our elbow angle. The precise angle of the forearms is not so important as the fact our elbows ARE bent.

Of course, riders are all different sizes and shapes so there’s rarely going to be a perfect position for everyone on a single machine, but most bikes do have an envelope within which there is room to move around and find the position that suits each of us. Whilst many machines make it fairly obvious roughly where we should sit by means of cutouts on the tank and seat contours or humps, our precise position will depend on how we fit the machine. Unfortunately, few have any adjustability built-in, so it’s our bodies that have to adjust.

Do we ever change the ideal Brace Position? I’ll certainly adopt it for the short periods where I prioritise control, but at other times I’ll tend to prioritise comfort – that could be more of a crouched position for riding into a headwind on a motorways where my main aim is not pin-point control but minimizing fatigue.

Remember, it’s what we want to achieve that matters so it’s important not to look for any sort of ‘fixed in stone’ position but instead to understand why locking on with the knees to keep shoulders, elbows and wrists loose is important when fine work is needed. Once we understand that, we can usually find a working compromise which maximises comfort AND control.

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10. Counter-steering and motorcycle cornering

Has that much changed in the last twenty years since this article was first written? We’re told that motorcycles have gained better tyres, better suspension and stiffer chassis, but I’m not convinced. Jumping from a bike built in 2000 to a similar machine from 2025, you’d be able to ride it in much the same way. But go back from 2000 twenty five years to the sort of bikes we were riding in the mid-70s and you’re looking at a whole different ball game of dubious tyres, bouncy suspension and bendy frames. Even so, and despite increasingly sophisticated electronic rider aids, the fundamentals of how a motorcycle steers have not changed. If anything, the ability to steer decisively and accurately is more important now, not less, because bikes are so much mor forgiving.

Electronics can manage grip and stability, but they do not steer the bike; tyre construction can make steering lighter and quicker, but it does not remove the need for precise inputs. In fact, modern machines often demand better steering control; hesitant or inaccurate steering still cause problems, but now the rider is far more likely to run out of space rather than grip.

Counter-steering and motorcycle cornering

You’d think there would be enough explanations of counter-steering out there on the web, but the same questions and misunderstandings turn up over and over, so each time I find myself answering those questions as well as dealing with the misunderstandings and arguments. So here’s the ultimate Question and Answer primer on counter-steering from Survival Skills advanced rider training. The basics of steering a motorcycle are covered in the first few questions, but I answer more specific questions in more detail, as well as covering the objections futher down. If all you really want is a quickfire explanation of what counter-steering is, and how to do it, then you really only need to read the first couple of questions and their answers.

Q – How does a bike go round a bend?

A – Here are the basics:

to corner, a bike needs to be leaned over
to lean over, the bike needs to ‘roll’ from the vertical
counter-steering generates the roll that makes the bike lean
once leaned over, the bike will turn in a big circle (rather like an ice cream cone)
for a fixed radius of turn, there will be only one lean angle that matches a particular speed
That is really all we need to know. But in a bit more detail… in motion, a motorcycle cornering needs to lean – it balances the tendency of machine and rider to fall over under its own weight to the INSIDE of the turn against the force of momentum which makes the bike’s mass try to go straight on which makes the bike want to fall over to the OUTSIDE of the turn (what’s often known as centrifugal force). [Pedant alert – this article got quoted online, and one critic had nothing to say except to say: “Centrifugal force… a motorcycle would have to be pretty imaginative to balance itself against an imaginary force… people giving a “scientific” explanation of how something works would be well advised to understand the science first.”

Hands up, I’m guilty of using a “populist” term for something that people ‘feel’. But, just to keep him happy, I’ll quote someone who posted a response: “I’m a scientist who uses a centrifuge on a daily basis. I have a very simple definition of centrifugal (sic) force. It is simply momentum (Newtonian mechanics) constrained by rotation”. Thanks, Alistair. [/Pedant alert]

But to reach that lean angle in the first place, we have to make a steering input by turning the handlebars.

Q – Why is it called counter-steering?

A – Because we are applying a force to the bars which turns the front wheel right to go left, and turns it left to go right! The easiest way to remember what you need to do is that you need to PUSH the side of the bars in the direction that you want to go – ie:

you PUSH the LEFT handlebar to go LEFT
you PUSH the RIGHT handlebar to go RIGHT
For this reason it is sometimes called ‘push’ steering, and you might also hear it called ‘positive’ steering. But it’s most commonly referred to as counter-steering and they are all the same thing.

Q – Anything else that I MUST know?

A – Yes, three things:

first of all, a motorcycle in motion is straight line stable. That is, hands-off, it will always try to go in a straight line. This stability is built-in, to ensure that the bike recovers from hitting bumps or gusts of wind, particularly at high speed. This is hardly ever mentioned during explanations of counter-steering, but it’s a key point because it also means that the bike tries to pick itself up out of a corner. And that’s why we need to keep a reduced counter-steering pressure on the bars to maintain our chosen lean angle and line around a corner.
second, this self-righting tendency also means we rarely have to counter-steer OUT of a bend – we simply release ALL the pressure on the bars and allow the bike to steer itself straight. We really only have to apply an opposite counter-steering input when flicking the bike from one lean angle to the other, such as in an S bend or when taking evasive swerving action.
thirdly, the LONGER we push on the bars, the greater the lean angle the bike will achieve :: fourthly, how HARD we push on the bars affects the RATE of roll. In other words, if we only want to lean the bike slowly into a bend, then a gentle pressure on the bars suffices. But if we need to change direction quickly, then a rapid rate of roll is required and that means a much firmer push on the bars.
So to sum up:

push right, go right… push left, go left…
push longer, lean over more
push harder, change direction faster
reduce the pressure to hold the chosen lean
remove the pressure to allow the bike to return to the upright position
Now, if you want, you can stop there because that really is all you need to know! But if you want to see the sort of questions that people ask about steering, read on!

Q – How does counter-steering work?

A – You may see a very simple demonstration with a spinning bicycle wheel, which suggests it’s down to gyroscopic forces. In fact, that’s not the full answer – gyroscopic force contributes but the major forces (some 30 to 40 times stronger) are inertia and camber thrust. Let’s say we want to turn left. Counter-steering and applying a push to the left end of the bars turns the front wheel to point the right. This sets off a cascade of events:

the angled front tyre’s contact patch pulls the front wheel to the right
but momentum always makes the mass of the bike and rider try to go straight on so that the centre of gravity of the bike is no longer directly above the line on which the bike is supported between the tyres – the bike will fall to the LEFT
because the bike is leaning to the LEFT, the front tyre also leans to the left, even though it’s pointing right
the contact patch of the front tyre is out of line with the steering axis and friction on the tyre swings the front wheel into the corner – the bike is leaning left and the front wheel is now also pointing left
now the machine will turn left
In effect, the bike ‘trips up’ on its own front wheel. The final ‘balance’ which the bike settles into differs from machine to machine but nearly always requires a reduced counter-steering pressure on the left-hand bar to keep the bike steering to the left.

That (leaving out all the maths!) is what happens in a nutshell.

But again, keeping it simple, counter-steering generates the lean that makes the motorcycle follow a curved path and then a reduced pressure keeps it turning on our chosen line.

Q – Any advice on where/how to practice?

A – Find a straight, empty road or large carpark – you really need around 50 metres minimum length for this, and ideally around 20 m width too, so an EMPTY carpark is ideal. Don’t try it when Sainsburys is busy or down your local high street. Keep well away from any other vehicles.

Get up to a reasonable speed – around 20 – 25 mph is fast enough for a first attempt if you are in a car park. Change up to 2nd gear, if you hang onto first gear and shut the throttle you’ll get a big wobble with engine braking. Brace your knees against the tank, a reasonable grip (not a death grip) on the bars and keep elbows loose. Remember – the amount of effort needed to turn the bike at low speeds is negligible, nor do you need to turn the bars very far. Make sure you use a VERY GENTLE push – the amount of force needed is only that required to push an empty bottle over – not very much. Just use one push on the first few runs so you can learn how much force to use. Practice doing this a few times until you start to get the feel for it.

Increase the speed (if you have room) and feel how the effort needed gradually increases. When you are comfortable with the amount of effort involved, try a left – right manoeuvre, then a mini-slalom. This is a valuable exercise to repeat regularly or when you get a new bike to ensure you can steer accurately.

Next find a nice straight clear road and try counter-steering in a gentle slalom at slightly higher speeds. Don’t frighten car drivers by doing it in front of them. As you get more confident, you’ll be able to steer the bike harder and at higher speeds. It’s much easier to experiment on straight roads to start with. Move onto bends once you’ve got the feel. It’s best to start on a corner you already know, one with a good clear view, and one that’s not too fast – something around 30 – 40 mph is ideal. Ride round it a few times just to refamiliarise yourself. Stay at a speed and on a line that feels comfortable, away from the extremes of the kerb and the white line – remember we are trying a new technique and need leeway for errors.

Make sure your posture is nice (wrists and elbows loose, knees gripping the tank), approach the corner as normal, getting your braking done in a straight line before you get there to get the bike settled. Remember to turn in on the power, and to keep the power on gently through the corner. Finally, making sure the road is empty, try counter-steering – just as the road curves at your normal turn-in point, talk to yourself and tell yourself to push right, go right (or push left, go left). Remember, it’s a very gentle pressure and even so, you’ll almost certainly find that you turned along a much tighter line than you expected (hence the advice to only do in a bend where you can see there is no traffic).

Q – I understand counter-steering and use it all the time – but I find when the bike is leaned over I have to keep a force applied to the bars to keep it on line

A – This is the effect of the self-centering steering geometry. Most modern bikes are set up to be straight line stable to cope with bumps and gusts of wind which kick the front wheel to the side. This means a small amount of steering effort is required to hold a steady line against the bike’s natural tendency to straighten up. It also makes for a nice, controlled feel mid-corner. Some of the 1980’s bikes with 16″ front wheels oversteered – as they began to lean, they suddenly ‘flopped’ into corners. Very unpleasant.

Q – Somebody told me I need to oversteer into a corner if it tightens

A – I think they probably meant ‘counter-steer’. Either that or a confusion of terms! Oversteer is the tendency of the bike to deviate from a CONSTANT radius turn by turning tighter into the turn without rider input. You may still be applying a force to maintain a constant radius turn, but it is not called oversteering! In fact, pushing the left bar through a left turn to keep the bike on line, we’d be correcting for UNDERSTEER – if you didn’t the bike would run wide.

Q – However hard I push, I can’t counter-steer.

A – You’re almost certainly leaning on the bars. Your arms need to work like opposing pistons – as one goes forward to push, the other has to come backward at the same time or the bars cannot turn. You can push as hard as you like but if you’re leaning on the bars, you’re cancelling out your own effort. Try to brace your knees on the tank and stiffen your brake to keep your weight off them.

Q – Someone told me you can pull instead of pushing

A – Counter-steering means we turn the bars opposite to the direction you wish to turn. This is usually achieved by pushing on the inside bar, but it’s perfectly possible to pull on the outside bar too. It gives extra leverage at high speeds or when a very rapid change of direction (such as a swerve) is needed.

Q – Do you push DOWN on the bar, or AWAY from you or what? All my bike does is go the wrong way.

A – First off, push AWAY, don’t push DOWN on the bars – you need to turn the steering around the pivot point of the steering stem. Think what plane the bars move in – if you push down you only try to bend the handlebar. When riders have problems steering sports bikes, it’s almost always because they are leaning on the low bars andpushing down rather than turning the bars. The answer is to bend the elbows so as to turn the bars rather than try to push down.

Q – At what speed does counter-steering work?

A – counter-steering works at speeds above a slow walking pace. The faster we go, the greater the effort needed to steer the bike. At 20 mph, we can barely feel the necessary pressure. When I do my counter-steering demos at around 25 mph, such a light push is needed I demonstrate by using just one finger on the bars. At normal road speeds, the pressure needed goes up and it’s easier to feel what’s happening. On the track at 100 mph, it becomes increasingly hard work to steer.

Q – I can honestly say that I have never consciously counter-steered in my life and thus far I seem to have survived. Nobody worried about this counter-steering malarkey when I learned to ride 30 years ago, and it was never taught on training courses.

A – Well, whether you think you do, or whether you think you don’t, you do counter-steer. And so was everyone thirty years ago. The physics behind counter-steering apply to all bikes, regardless of age, size of front wheel or width of rubber. Older bikes certainly handle differently to modern bikes, but counter-steering has been known about since the earliest days of the 20th century. In fact, it was first described by the Wright Brothers when they built bicycles.

The reason some experienced riders believe they don’t counter-steer is simply because the amount the bars actually turn at road speeds and lean angles is tiny, it needs little pressure, and the actual steering input is very short-lived. Unless we are consciously looking for it, counter-steering is unconscious.

The reason is wasn’t taught is because it wasn’t in the police syllabus, so it never got transferred to CBT either. I used to teach it on DAS courses back in the mid-90s because it helped trainees improve their steering, and I cover it on post-test training. I’m yet to find someone who hasn’t benefited from counter-steering if they weren’t already using it.

Q – The notion of deliberately turning the bars in the opposite direction going round a tight bend is just not on

A – Well, whether you think you do, or whether you think you don’t counter-steer, you do. But if you don’t want to try out and practice something you’ve read on a web-site (and I can understand that) then get someone to demonstrate how it works. Any competent instructor should be able to explain and get you using counter-steering.

Q – I’ve been told you can’t counter-steer a cruiser / I’ve been told you can’t counter-steer on a scooter / I’ve been told it’s a sportsbike technique

A – ANY motorcycle counter-steers. Scooters, 125s, sportsbikes, tourers. Even cruisers and choppers where the bars are at shoulder height. It even works on a bicycle. Be careful on scooters and other lightweights though, they steer very rapidly because they weigh very little!

Q – These techniques are race stuff. Counter-steering is something you only do on trackdays and sportsbikes.

A – See above. The more skills you understand and can use, the better. It doesn’t mean that your knowledge obliges you to ride fast, but if a corner tightens, or you need to swerve to avoid a collision, then the techniques to change direction hard and in control are very useful indeed.

Q – I tried counter-steering just the once and scared myself silly – I nearly lost control, so that was the only time

A – Well, whether you think you do, or whether you think you don’t… etc etc. But it sounds like you pushed too hard and scared yourself! Be warned, you really do NOT need much effort to generate a surprisingly rapid response. Be gentle whilst trying it out.

Q – Turning the bars the opposite way will make the bike very unstable and it’s actually hard to do at speed. I steer by weighting the footpegs.

A – As above. Pushing down on the footpeg to steer can ONLY have any effect if the rider isn’t sitting rigid in the seat. Pushing down on the left peg tends to push our body in the opposite direction. Once again, the main problem is that we’re trying to move the bike’s not-inconsiderable mass via the very short lever of the footpeg. The lighter the machine, the more effect it can have but it’s most effective combined with counter-steering. Now even a heavy bike can be made to roll very quickly, and a quick roll means a rapid change of direction.

Q – I’m inclined to continue to rely on my instincts – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

A – Same answer – you’re counter-steering whether you realise it or not. But the benefit of properly understanding how a motorcycle steers is that you can improve your riding by being more fully in control of it. Aside from sharpening up your lines around corners and giving you more space to steer round them in, counter-steering is also very useful is making the transition from upright to full lean angle VERY quickly, which if you consider it is a good ‘get out of trouble’skill. It’s vital mid-corner to be able to change line when you realise the bend is tightening up. Counter-steering stops you running wide. It’s also a good collision avoidance technique.

Learning about counter-steering myself dramatically improved my own bike handlng skills on rural roads, and reduced the risks in town too.

Q – I steer by leaning into the corner.

A – Ah, the old chestnut. Sorry, it’s almost (but not quite) impossible! Us racer, trainer and author Keith Code has built a bike with a second pair of fixed bars to prove this, a report on which you can find (at least as I write) at http://www.popularmechanics.com/popmech/out/0102BOODWFAP.html

Once holding the fixed bars, the rider can only affect the bike by shifting his body mass to one side or the other. A quick bit of Newtonian physics will show that if we lean to the LEFT, the counter-effect is that the bike will lean to the RIGHT. Equal and opposite forces and so on. Peg weighting does exactly the same thing.

Now when the bike shifts away from upright, because we’re not holding the real bars, the front wheel is free to pivot around the steering head. They ‘wiggle’ momentarily in the opposite direction, then swing slightly into the corner, and now the bike rolls around in a curved path. With a bit of practice, it is possible to make some semi-controlled changes of direction through body steering. The fundamental difference is that we can apply far more force via the bars than we can by leaning our body mass. The important point is not that body steering doesn’t work (because it sort-of does), it’s the very slow RATE OF ROLL (and hence slow change of direction) and the relative the lack of control.

So why do many experienced riders claim they turn by leaning? Quite simple. Without realising it, as they lean into the corner they are pressing on the inside bar, and so quite unconsciously they are counter-steering.

Q – Most of the time I’m riding I don’t think about counter-steering. Am I doing something wrong?

A – Nope. Most of the time I’m riding I never give counter-steering a thought either, but it is a good thing to work on consciously from time to time. That’s so that when we arrive in the midst of an “oh sh!t” situation, we use counter-steering positively without having to think about it first.

It’s like being able to brake to the point of locking the front brake at will – its not something I do in everyday riding, but just every now and again it comes in useful.

Learning new skills is all about giving yourself that little bit of an edge. But I quite take your point about not doing it on the advice contained in a website – to be perfectly honest given the amount of discussion and partial disagreement this subject always raises, I’d be a bit wary too.

Q – So what advantages are there to counter-steering?

A – Well, if I haven’t given you enough positives already, the main plus is that once we know how it works we can choose WHEN to use it consciously and positively. For example, if we can change direction faster, we can keep the bike upright deeper into a corner. By taking this later apex line, we can see further and have a better idea of where the road goes. The later apex gets the bike upright sooner, and we can get back on the power earlier, getting better drive out of the bend. corners. Not least it allows you the option to keep away from potentially dangerous extremes of position to either side of the road – in other words it gives you more space to choose from on the road.

Q – But all we really have to know is that we ‘push left to go left’ and ‘push right to go right’. Correct?

A – Correct – which is why I said you could stop reading after the first few paragraphs. Counter-steering is a fundamental bike control technique, and from a purely practical point of view, about as straightforward a technique as anything else we do whilst sat on contradictory, non-intuitive motorcycles. But it helps enormously if we can get the technique as automatic as using the brakes or throttle.

Unfortunately the theory is counter-intuitive and that’s why so many riders have real problems accepting it’s how bikes steer.

Q – Haven’t we done this all before?

A – Yes, many times, and no doubt instructors after me will continue to have to explain counter-steering to disbelieving riders.

Q – This is all too much for me – my head hurts

A – These things are much easier to demonstrate than to explain! Check out my cornering courses!

Posted on

07. What’s the goal of post-test training?

This article was first written over twenty years ago and lightly updated since, but the central question it poses remains unresolved: what should post-test motorcycle training actually be for? While machines, testing regimes and training organisations have evolved — with ABS, traction control and more formalised “advanced” pathways now the norm — newly qualified riders still emerge with gaps in confidence, control and understanding.

“Do they know what they’re doing, do they know why, and are they managing risk?” is as concise and useful a training lens as any modern coaching framework. It also aligns neatly with contemporary human-factors thinking, even if I did not label it as such at the time.

The tension between rider-centred skill-building and training aimed at meeting an external standard has not gone away. If anything, it has become more important to challenge, as technology increasingly masks weaknesses rather than addressing them.

What’s the goal of post-test training?

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the goal of training after passing the motorcycle test. Obviously we want to improve the skills and knowledge that a rider gained on basic training. But what does that really mean in terms of what we deliver? Are we looking for perfection? Or should we be looking for a pragmatic approach to riding?

When I moderated a riding skills forum, we regularly used to get requests for help with a riding issue. In one instance, the request came from a very newly qualified rider on his new motorcycle:

"I passed my test 2 weeks ago tomorrow and am really a complete novice as I'd never ridden before I started my training which was basically 3 lessons. Anyway I bought a 6 month old Thundercat as my first bike after a lot of worrying that the bike was too powerful for a 1st bike. I want to know what tips you can give to a new rider... I'm really struggling with a few things in particular:

1. setting off I'm not sure what revs to use, and find it hard to keep the throttle steady... I panic that the the front wheel is going to fly up and throw me off

2. turning into a side road I was taught to use 1st but it just doesn't feel right as I'm very jerky on the throttle

3. which brake should I use? For example on country lanes if I want to slow down from a speed above 30 ish, is it the front? I worry that wheels are going to lock and start sliding"

Now, it should be pretty obvious that we have here a rider who has clearly identified some major problems with his ability to control the machine. So I responded with a series of practical suggestions.

I referred the rider back to some of the exercises he would have performed on CBT including some very simple straight line stopping and starting exercises to help get used to the clutch on the new machine. I also advised him to use a slipping clutch when turning into side roads (what would have been taught for the U-turn exercise, so nothing new) and a reminder about basic braking technique (front first, rear second, then a progressive squeeze of the front to slow at the required rate). I also suggested that the rider look for some personalised training to fix the problems sooner rather than later.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one with advice. I generally try not to criticise other people involved in rider training too often but in this case the response of one of our IAM observers made me blow my top. He started by offering some useful – but theoretical – advice, but then qualified it by saying:

“Unless you really do feel that you can’t manage I would delay any extra training until you’ve been riding 5-6 weeks or so. You’ll be amazed at how different it will be then and you’ll get more out of any training you do.”

Of course, there’s a very big assumption there. And that’s that our wobbly novice is still in one piece after that period.

And then he suggested that at the end of this learning period the new rider would then be in a position to benefit from advanced training with the IAM.

As I’ve said many times, there are two ways of approaching rider training:

a pragmatic ‘improve what’s weak’ approach
building standard skills to test against a set riding standard

Either are valid in certain circumstances. But which is more appropriate here?

I think the answer is pretty obvious. A client-centred course, of the sort offered by the Survival Skills Confidence: BUILDER one-day training course, is more likely to address the novice rider’s needs.

The mention of the Thundercat dates the event, and since then I’ve been told “ah, but the IAM has changed a lot”. That is undoubtedly true, there has certainly been a drive to improve standards and consistency but what hasn’t changed is that the organisation still promotes a brand of training style of riding which has passing the test as its goal.

At the risk of provoking a chorus of “he would say that, wouldn’t he?”, if you think you have a problem with your riding, ask yourself where you’ll get the better support; from an independent trainer who’s prepared to focus the training on YOUR needs, or from an organisation that commits you to pursuing their own goal?