Category: Technique

Posted on

37. Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Some newer motorcycles are now fitted with rear-view cameras and blind-spot warning systems, often using flashing lights or screen icons to indicate nearby vehicles. These can be helpful additions, particularly in poor visibility, but they do not change the fundamentals of rear observation. Cameras flatten perspective (as I’ve discovered with car interior mirrors) and can still leave lateral blind areas unobserved. Blind-spot warning systems are advisory only: they may not detect motorcycles, cyclists, or fast-closing vehicles, and they cannot judge intent or timing. Riders should treat these systems as prompts, not permissions. They may reinforce what the mirrors are already telling us, but they are no substitute for correct mirror use combined with a properly timed shoulder check. Good situational awareness remains a rider skill, not a software feature. Don’t delay or omit a shoulder check because “the light didn’t flash”. In short: these systems supplement situational awareness; they do not create it.

Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Around three years after I started riding I demolished my beautiful Honda 400-Four in London. How? I was looking back over my right shoulder when the driver on my left cut across the one-way system in front of me. I was still looking the wrong way as I hit the rear of the car. Not surprisingly, I have been a bit cautious about timing shoulder checks and even mirror checks ever since. But what makes for good rear observation? There’s a lot of confusion out there. Why? Several reasons. What learners are taught changed dramatically as recently as 1997, and advanced groups tend to take a different approach anyway. And of course riders of all flavours forget what they learned. And then there’s the faulty thinking that what’s taught on test is “just for learners”. Throw in some dubious magazine articles, the wonders of YouTube and the internet generally, and the result is almost as many ideas about rear observation and what’s ‘right’ as there are riders. So I’m going to apply a slightly different approach – I’ll review the reasons riders get confused, then rather than say “this is what to do”, we’ll look at just WHY we need to know what’s around us to come up with some better answers.

WHERE DID THE CONFUSION COME FROM – At the time I started as a motorcycle trainer, the old DSA motorcycle test actually required that test candidates had to make a full ‘look-behind’ rear observation. Using mirrors wasn’t good enough – that’s why test candidates used to take the mirrors off for the test, to force themselves to look behind. Before slowing or braking, before indicating and before turning, test candidates as late as the mid-90’s were required to look right back over their shoulder.

Even more unbelievably, the test candidate had to look over the RIGHT shoulder before turning LEFT. I will categorically state looking right before turning left is almost completely worthless. More than anything else, it was probably being trained to make this rearward check that convinced a lot of riders that what was learned for the test was a complete waste of time!

In fact, I agree this check was pointless AND dangerous. Even if we manage to avoid dragging the bars around with us, causing a wobble, looking right back over the shoulder takes time. A couple of seconds. Even at urban speeds, that means we’re covering a considerable distance – twenty to thirty metres – looking the wrong way. It was exactly this kind of look that led to my own crash.

It sounds pretty unbelievable now because even a half-decent set of mirrors will gather much the same information as this old-fashioned full turn of the head, in a fraction of the time. But it was only with the introduction of Direct Access in 1997 that the DSA finally realised motorcycles had been fitted with mirrors for decades and allowed test candidates to use a combination of mirror use combined with more judicious blind spot checks. I still remember being informally ‘tipped-off’ to this change by the examiner. Mind you, even the IAM weren’t consistent on this – I have a older (but not THAT old) version of the IAM book that shows a rider doing the full-on look-behind check captioned as ‘the lifesaver’. That’s not what would have been taught on basic training since 1997.

GET THE BEST FROM THE MIRRORS – Mirrors are there for a reason – to find out what’s behind us. Whilst some mirrors still give a good view of our elbows, most can be set up to give reasonable rearward view. Set them up to give the best coverage – I tend to have the offside mirror up to give a more ‘wide angle’ view, whilst the left is angled behind – after all, I rarely need a view of the pavement. But I can change that on motorways or when in London to deal with multiple lanes going the same way. Mirror extenders that bolt-on between the mirror and mount can improve the view on some bike. Don’t forget, mirrors are convex. That offers a wider angle view but distort distances, making vehicles appear further away than they really are. Be cautious on a new machine until you have got used to judging distance and speed. Mirrors should be checked often enough that we’re not taken by SURPRISE! One tip – I avoid aftermarket mirrors if I’ve broken one because original mirrors are generally optically superior and balanced even if they do cost. Cheap mirrors often distort view and vibrate. I think it’s worth spending the extra.

SHOULDER, HEAD or BLINDSPOT CHECKS – Even the best mirrors have blind spots – so do the fancy rear view cameras as it happens, even if they eliminate the one between the shoulder blades. A police car once tried to hide when I was on my GSX-R750, and it’ll certainly hide another motorcycle, which should make you wonder why other riders persist in following in another bike’s wheel tracks. We can usually ‘clear’ this blind spot by tucking in an elbow (it’s how I let the police driver know I’d spotted him) or rocking our head from side to side.

The others are over the shoulders to the the left and right. Vehicles can lurk in this blindspot so we have to be careful when turning into side roads, manoeuvering round roundabouts or changing lane on one-way streets or dual carriageways. There is only one solution to blindspots (hence the term blindspot check) and that’s a physical turn of the head (hence the term head check) to see what’s alongside us and in the mirror’s blind area. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of confusion about just how, when and where:

riders who get confused about the difference between the full-on look-behind observation and a chin-to-shoulder blindspot check and may – usually during an advanced course when memories of the bike test resurface – try to look too far round

riders who say that ANY head check is dangerous

in the middle is conventional advanced practice, where newly-qualified riders can be actively discouraged from making a blind spot check – the argument is that if mirror checks are frequent enough, nothing can sneak up so relying on ‘mirror history’ (that is, remembering what we saw in the mirrors a moment ago) will be good enough but having been surprised often enough by vehicles – usually motorcycles – that had slipped into my blind spot unnoticed, I’m not convinced

Remember, it’s not a full-on look behind, simply a turn of the head sufficient – chin to shoulder – to see into the blind area (hence the term shoulder check). Anything further back should be visible in the mirrors. So head, shoulder and blindspot checks are more or less interchangeable.

A further advantage to a physical head movement is that it might alert another driver that you are about to do something.

MIRROR BLIND SPOT CHECKS – So how do we make them? Let’s start by asking some key questions:

what am I looking for – the presence (or absence, come to that) of other road users

why am I looking for it – the reason we are looking is to decide if there might be a conflict between what we want to do and what the other driver might do

where am I looking for it – the clue is in the name, we’re filling in the gap between peripheral vision and what we can see in the mirrors, very roughly backward from the line of our shoulders, hence the ‘shoulder check’ name

when am I looking for it – simple enough, before we move away, signal, change speed or change direction

Gathering this information is called taking ‘Rear Observation’ in the language of basic and post-test training. So to sum up we combine:

a rearwards look right behind ONLY when moving off

regular and sensible use of the mirrors

'shoulder checks' (sometimes called 'head checks') which are looks into the blind areas to either side

By doing so, we develop what’s called ‘Situational Awareness’.

WHICH WAY TO LOOK – Since the old DSA system of looking right when turning left completely confused many riders, I tell trainees just use common sense:

look in the direction you are about to move - right before moving or turning right, left before moving or turning to the left

look into any space that's big enough for another vehicle to squeeze into (and don't forget that could be a cycle or a scooter!)

THE REAL LIFESAVER – Probably the most important shoulder check, and one that fully deserves to be called a Lifesaver, is a final blindspot check that confirms it’s safe to take up a different position. It’s usually over the right shoulder before turning right into a side road, but it could be to the left too – for example, before exiting a roundabout after a right turn, and I’d check before turning left too. Many trainers say it’s unnecessary but I remember where I might have overtaken you when I was a courier, and there are cyclists to consider too. It’s also important to check before changing lanes on one-way streets and multilane roads, or where lanes merge back together. The lifesaver CONFIRMS our other observations. The key point is timing. We must make this check BEFORE we start the manoeuvre. If we’re already halfway into a manoeuvre and then look, it could be too late. So, the term ‘lifesaver’ really explains WHY we carry out a shoulder check!

COMBINING MIRRORS and SHOULDER CHECKS – Understand that a shoulder check is NOT a substitute for a mirror check, nor vice versa (whatever you might hear about mirror history). Whilst we often only need the mirrors to discover what’s behind us, it’s important to check the blind spot when we need to know what’s alongside. To save time, don’t make two separate observations, but combine the two – look in the mirror and then turn the head a little further to make the blind spot check. It takes just a fraction longer.

MOVING OFF FROM THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – There is one exception to the ‘only turn the head enough to see into the blind spot’ idea, and that’s when moving off from the side of the road. On CBT and on the Module One and Two parts of the DVSA bike test, the test candidate IS expected to ‘take rear observation’ before moving off, and this is the full-on, right behind look. It’s safe enough at a standstill. (And as a reminder, if you’re reading this before taking the bike test, you MUST look behind you ANY time you ride the bike in the off-road areas! You’re even supposed to look behind before pushing the bike out of the imaginary garage. On Mod One, if in doubt, look behind.) Nevertheless, on the road I would still combine this check with mirrors – check the mirrors first, THEN make the final check behind. But which mirror? If the road behind is straight, then looking in the right mirror before making the final rearwards check makes sense. But if the road curves to the LEFT behind, the right mirror won’t show anything useful and there’s a risk that we won’t see anything looking over the right shoulder either. When I was a basic instructor, one of the examiners had a habit of getting the trainees to pull up on a left hand bend (probably because it was the only place where there was room to stop for the ‘move off again’ exercise rather than any malicious intent) and it wasn’t unknown for a trainee to look over the right shoulder and not see anything. The curve in the road meant the car coming up behind was behind their left shoulder. A check in the LEFT mirror was therefore a very good idea.

PRACTICE – Work on rear observation so that it becomes automatic. Constantly ask yourself what is behind you – if you don’t know at all times, you need to improve your rear observation! But be aware that just looking isn’t enough. We need to understand what we’re seeing and be ready to act on that information – situational awareness. And there’s one final caution to add. Be certain it’s safe to look away from the road ahead, even if all that’s needed is a glance in the mirrors. This is often forgotten by new riders – like myself all those years ago – and not emphasised enough by trainers. We must time rear observation carefully, and any time there’s something more interesting going on in front…

…then keep your eyes ahead. If I’d known that, my 400-F might have finished the journey in one piece.

 

 

Mirror and blind spot checks – when and when not to!

Around three years after I started riding I demolished my beautiful Honda 400-Four in London. How? I was looking back over my right shoulder when the driver on my left cut across the one-way system in front of me. I was still looking the wrong way as I hit the rear of the car. Not surprisingly, I have been a bit cautious about timing shoulder checks and even mirror checks ever since. But what makes for good rear observation? There’s a lot of confusion out there. Why? Several reasons. What learners are taught changed dramatically as recently as 1997, and advanced groups tend to take a different approach anyway. And of course riders of all flavours forget what they learned. And then there’s the faulty thinking that what’s taught on test is “just for learners”. Throw in some dubious magazine articles, the wonders of YouTube and the internet generally, and the result is almost as many ideas about rear observation and what’s ‘right’ as there are riders. So I’m going to apply a slightly different approach – I’ll review the reasons riders get confused, then rather than say “this is what to do”, we’ll look at just WHY we need to know what’s around us to come up with some better answers.

WHERE DID THE CONFUSION COME FROM – At the time I started as a motorcycle trainer, the old DSA motorcycle test actually required that test candidates had to make a full ‘look-behind’ rear observation. Using mirrors wasn’t good enough – that’s why test candidates used to take the mirrors off for the test, to force themselves to look behind. Before slowing or braking, before indicating and before turning, test candidates as late as the mid-90’s were required to look right back over their shoulder.

Even more unbelievably, the test candidate had to look over the RIGHT shoulder before turning LEFT. I will categorically state looking right before turning left is almost completely worthless. More than anything else, it was probably being trained to make this rearward check that convinced a lot of riders that what was learned for the test was a complete waste of time!

In fact, I agree this check was pointless AND dangerous. Even if we manage to avoid dragging the bars around with us, causing a wobble, looking right back over the shoulder takes time. A couple of seconds. Even at urban speeds, that means we’re covering a considerable distance – twenty to thirty metres – looking the wrong way. It was exactly this kind of look that led to my own crash.

It sounds pretty unbelievable now because even a half-decent set of mirrors will gather much the same information as this old-fashioned full turn of the head, in a fraction of the time. But it was only with the introduction of Direct Access in 1997 that the DSA finally realised motorcycles had been fitted with mirrors for decades and allowed test candidates to use a combination of mirror use combined with more judicious blind spot checks. I still remember being informally ‘tipped-off’ to this change by the examiner. Mind you, even the IAM weren’t consistent on this – I have a older (but not THAT old) version of the IAM book that shows a rider doing the full-on look-behind check captioned as ‘the lifesaver’. That’s not what would have been taught on basic training since 1997.

GET THE BEST FROM THE MIRRORS – Mirrors are there for a reason – to find out what’s behind us. Whilst some mirrors still give a good view of our elbows, most can be set up to give reasonable rearward view. Set them up to give the best coverage – I tend to have the offside mirror up to give a more ‘wide angle’ view, whilst the left is angled behind – after all, I rarely need a view of the pavement. But I can change that on motorways or when in London to deal with multiple lanes going the same way. Mirror extenders that bolt-on between the mirror and mount can improve the view on some bike. Don’t forget, mirrors are convex. That offers a wider angle view but distort distances, making vehicles appear further away than they really are. Be cautious on a new machine until you have got used to judging distance and speed. Mirrors should be checked often enough that we’re not taken by SURPRISE! One tip – I avoid aftermarket mirrors if I’ve broken one because original mirrors are generally optically superior and balanced even if they do cost. Cheap mirrors often distort view and vibrate. I think it’s worth spending the extra.

SHOULDER, HEAD or BLINDSPOT CHECKS – Even the best mirrors have blind spots – so do the fancy rear view cameras as it happens, even if they eliminate the one between the shoulder blades. A police car once tried to hide when I was on my GSX-R750, and it’ll certainly hide another motorcycle, which should make you wonder why other riders persist in following in another bike’s wheel tracks. We can usually ‘clear’ this blind spot by tucking in an elbow (it’s how I let the police driver know I’d spotted him) or rocking our head from side to side.

The others are over the shoulders to the the left and right. Vehicles can lurk in this blindspot so we have to be careful when turning into side roads, manoeuvering round roundabouts or changing lane on one-way streets or dual carriageways. There is only one solution to blindspots (hence the term blindspot check) and that’s a physical turn of the head (hence the term head check) to see what’s alongside us and in the mirror’s blind area. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of confusion about just how, when and where:

riders who get confused about the difference between the full-on look-behind observation and a chin-to-shoulder blindspot check and may – usually during an advanced course when memories of the bike test resurface – try to look too far round

riders who say that ANY head check is dangerous

in the middle is conventional advanced practice, where newly-qualified riders can be actively discouraged from making a blind spot check – the argument is that if mirror checks are frequent enough, nothing can sneak up so relying on ‘mirror history’ (that is, remembering what we saw in the mirrors a moment ago) will be good enough but having been surprised often enough by vehicles – usually motorcycles – that had slipped into my blind spot unnoticed, I’m not convinced

Remember, it’s not a full-on look behind, simply a turn of the head sufficient – chin to shoulder – to see into the blind area (hence the term shoulder check). Anything further back should be visible in the mirrors. So head, shoulder and blindspot checks are more or less interchangeable.

A further advantage to a physical head movement is that it might alert another driver that you are about to do something.

MIRROR BLIND SPOT CHECKS – So how do we make them? Let’s start by asking some key questions:

what am I looking for – the presence (or absence, come to that) of other road users

why am I looking for it – the reason we are looking is to decide if there might be a conflict between what we want to do and what the other driver might do

where am I looking for it – the clue is in the name, we’re filling in the gap between peripheral vision and what we can see in the mirrors, very roughly backward from the line of our shoulders, hence the ‘shoulder check’ name

when am I looking for it – simple enough, before we move away, signal, change speed or change direction

Gathering this information is called taking ‘Rear Observation’ in the language of basic and post-test training. So to sum up we combine:

a rearwards look right behind ONLY when moving off

regular and sensible use of the mirrors

'shoulder checks' (sometimes called 'head checks') which are looks into the blind areas to either side

By doing so, we develop what’s called ‘Situational Awareness’.

WHICH WAY TO LOOK – Since the old DSA system of looking right when turning left completely confused many riders, I tell trainees just use common sense:

look in the direction you are about to move - right before moving or turning right, left before moving or turning to the left

look into any space that's big enough for another vehicle to squeeze into (and don't forget that could be a cycle or a scooter!)

THE REAL LIFESAVER – Probably the most important shoulder check, and one that fully deserves to be called a Lifesaver, is a final blindspot check that confirms it’s safe to take up a different position. It’s usually over the right shoulder before turning right into a side road, but it could be to the left too – for example, before exiting a roundabout after a right turn, and I’d check before turning left too. Many trainers say it’s unnecessary but I remember where I might have overtaken you when I was a courier, and there are cyclists to consider too. It’s also important to check before changing lanes on one-way streets and multilane roads, or where lanes merge back together. The lifesaver CONFIRMS our other observations. The key point is timing. We must make this check BEFORE we start the manoeuvre. If we’re already halfway into a manoeuvre and then look, it could be too late. So, the term ‘lifesaver’ really explains WHY we carry out a shoulder check!

COMBINING MIRRORS and SHOULDER CHECKS – Understand that a shoulder check is NOT a substitute for a mirror check, nor vice versa (whatever you might hear about mirror history). Whilst we often only need the mirrors to discover what’s behind us, it’s important to check the blind spot when we need to know what’s alongside. To save time, don’t make two separate observations, but combine the two – look in the mirror and then turn the head a little further to make the blind spot check. It takes just a fraction longer.

MOVING OFF FROM THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – There is one exception to the ‘only turn the head enough to see into the blind spot’ idea, and that’s when moving off from the side of the road. On CBT and on the Module One and Two parts of the DVSA bike test, the test candidate IS expected to ‘take rear observation’ before moving off, and this is the full-on, right behind look. It’s safe enough at a standstill. (And as a reminder, if you’re reading this before taking the bike test, you MUST look behind you ANY time you ride the bike in the off-road areas! You’re even supposed to look behind before pushing the bike out of the imaginary garage. On Mod One, if in doubt, look behind.) Nevertheless, on the road I would still combine this check with mirrors – check the mirrors first, THEN make the final check behind. But which mirror? If the road behind is straight, then looking in the right mirror before making the final rearwards check makes sense. But if the road curves to the LEFT behind, the right mirror won’t show anything useful and there’s a risk that we won’t see anything looking over the right shoulder either. When I was a basic instructor, one of the examiners had a habit of getting the trainees to pull up on a left hand bend (probably because it was the only place where there was room to stop for the ‘move off again’ exercise rather than any malicious intent) and it wasn’t unknown for a trainee to look over the right shoulder and not see anything. The curve in the road meant the car coming up behind was behind their left shoulder. A check in the LEFT mirror was therefore a very good idea.

PRACTICE – Work on rear observation so that it becomes automatic. Constantly ask yourself what is behind you – if you don’t know at all times, you need to improve your rear observation! But be aware that just looking isn’t enough. We need to understand what we’re seeing and be ready to act on that information – situational awareness. And there’s one final caution to add. Be certain it’s safe to look away from the road ahead, even if all that’s needed is a glance in the mirrors. This is often forgotten by new riders – like myself all those years ago – and not emphasised enough by trainers. We must time rear observation carefully, and any time there’s something more interesting going on in front…

…then keep your eyes ahead. If I’d known that, my 400-F might have finished the journey in one piece.

Posted on

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?

Posted on

33. Eleven tips for riding in the dark

This article was obviously written before the advent of modern LED lighting, and this has a significant consequence. Low (dip) beams don’t ‘throw’ their light any further ahead than old-school halogen beams, but they do project this high (main) beams rather further. That can encourage riders to use that high beam to ride faster — I’ve heard riders claiming just that. But remember, that low beam won’t support that higher speed, particularly given something I’ve noticed — the sharp low beam cut-off from LED headlights. The actual safe reaction distance is often much shorter than main beam reaches, and that’s a serious issue when we meet an oncoming vehicle with its own ultrabright LEDs. At the same moment we’re dazzled, we dip our own beam and our view of the road ahead vanishes. I’ve also observed that whilst high beam illuminates far ahead, peripheral areas are left in comparatively deep shadow; the sort of shadow that may hide a wild animal. My brother has just fitted auxiliary lights to his own bike for precisely this reason.

I also talk about upgrading lights. Rather bizarrely, motorcycles are outside the legislation restricting the use of LED bulbs to vehicles fitted with a headlight designed with an LED bulb as original fitment. So in theory, you’re good to go ahead and fit an LED to replace an older halogen. Just one problem. Many cheap LED bulbs on the market have poor beam patterns, others are actually dimmer than the halogens they replace. My brother has experienced both issues out in the US. And legally, replacement LED bulbs should be e-marked for use on the road. A buddy of mine bought a ‘road-legal’ Osram LED bulb sold as a straight replacement for motorcycle use, but found the bulb was NOT marked. It appears that it’s not road-legal after all.

Eleven tips for riding in the dark

Once a year, the summer evenings draw in and from October through till March we are often riding in the dark, often to and from work. Once we lose the long daylight hours, how can we sharpen up our night riding? Here are eleven ways to deal with the darkness.

Avoid dark visors – whilst useful riding directly into a low sun, half an hour after sunset they are a liability. They flatten shadows, making it more difficult to spot potholes and damp patches. Whilst it is possible to swap to a clear visor, a far better option is an internal sun shade (but keep it clean and scratch-free) or wear shatterproof sunglasses which can be taken off when the sun goes down.

Fit a new visor – this should be obvious; if the visor is at all damaged, fit a new one. It’s always amazing at how those tiny, almost invisible scratches make it harder to see at night. If I need to replace the visor, I nearly always do it for autumn so I have the best possible vision through the winter. Keep it clean and scratch free. A few years back RiDE advised against using furniture polish claiming it “can make the plastic go brittle”, but for the last twenty years I’ve followed the advice of an Arai helmet technician who should know what he’s talking about, cleaning my visor with Mr Sheen. Spray on, cover with a damp tissue, leave for a few minutes, then wipe off and polish with a soft cloth. The film of wax helps rain drops bead up and run off, and protects the visor from grit and bugs, which lift off the surface more easily – the result is less damage to the antiscratch coating. It’s worked so well that the last visor outlived the helmet. But do avoid Rain-X – it is intended for glass and destroys the antiscratch coating and should be avoided.

Check, clean and adjust the lights – check all bulbs actually work – it might sound obvious but as soon as dusk falls, I see plenty of riders with a missing tail light. Ensure the headlamp lens is clean (the inside too if you can reach it) then get the headlamp aim right. Illuminating tree tops won’t help us see but will annoy drivers coming the other way. Too low and we won’t pick up hazards till too late.

Upgrade the lights – a 60/55w halogen bulb is the legal maximum, but check that’s what is actually fitted. Some twin headlight set-ups use low power 35/35w or 45/45w bulbs. Check your alternator output but most bikes over 250cc will cope with a single 60/55w bulb. If you have twin headlights, be a little more careful. If, after fitting, you detect no more light it may be you need to fit a relay – some Hondas need this. An easy upgrade to a standard 60/55w bulb are Xenon bulbs – they are a legal 60/55w but offer higher light output – up to 150% according to the advertising – and having tried them they are definitely brighter. Avoid the ‘bad weather’ blue/yellow bulbs if riding on unlit roads. They look cool, and might help to distinguish a motorcycle in urban traffic – see my Science Of Being Seen project – but despite the claims, they really reduce the light output. And don’t fit aftermarket HID kits or LED headlight bulbs. They are illegal if not a standard fitment, and many screw up the focus of the beam too. If you have 6v electrics M&P sell 25/25w and 35/35w halogen bulbs in a variety of fitments which should be a direct replacement for your standard bulb. They also do halogen fitments for bikes with 12v non-standard fitments.

Dawn and Dusk – riding at dawn and dusk is particularly difficult. Something riders tend to forget is the sun. Near the horizon it can be blinding, and during winter it spends more time there than usual. We can anticipate the problem. Shadows reaching towards us show the sun is ahead of us, so if we’re about to ride into the sun, expect to be dazzled. It would be a good idea to slow down early (rather than hit the brakes when we realise we can’t see anything). When riding into the sun, look for road signs to warn of junctions and other hazards. When riding OUT of the sun, we can see clearly but drivers looking towards us are blinded, particularly at junctions. Be particularly careful if the road surface is wet – the combination of direct and reflected light can be absolutely blinding. Immediately after the sun has set comes the most difficult driving time – twilight. The eye is adjusted to the lighter sky, which makes it difficult to see where the shade is deep. Take extra care.

Riding under street lights – where roads are well-lit, it can be almost as easy to see as in daylight, but where the lighting is not so good, we need to pay attention to areas in deep shadow and to remember that other drivers’ lights will be concealing us so we’re harder to spot. But don’t be tempted to ride on main beam “to be more conspicuous”. The glare from the light obscures the bike behind it.

Riding on unlit roads – this presents another challenge althogther. We’re limited by how far our lights show the road ahead, but don’t forget – it doesn’t matter how good our lights are, as soon as we need to dip the main beam, our long view will be cut short. No matter how good the lights, set your speed to ride well within the ‘distance you can see to be clear’. Look as far ahead along the route as possible – don’t just concentrate on the patch of light but search out road markings and signs to help work out where the road goes. Even in the country, it is very rarely pitch black and we can often get a clue where the road goes from the outlines of hedges and trees – but like these clues in daylight just don’t rely too much on them. Other vehicles lights will often give an idea of where the road heads. A glow ahead will usually be warning of a junction or roundabout. A single light often marks a side road. We can try to position to ‘see and be seen’ but remember that our lights probably won’t stand out from vehicles behind us. There’s some evidence that twin headlights can be mistaken for a car a lot further off. There is no point in blaming the SMIDSY driver, and trying to make eye contact in the dark is pretty pointless. We need to be ready to take evasive action. When other vehicles are approaching, try not to look directly at the beams, but to the left and the nearside edge of the road. Having a good idea of what lies ahead comes in useful. A line of tiny lights appearing over a crest is a truck. Dip lights early because the driver sits high above his own lights. Another biking annoyance is sitting right behind the car ahead, when our higher lights shine straight in the back window of the car and blind the driver. But if there are no reasons not to, use main beam – an astonishing number of riders seem to use just dip! Don’t forget that it also warns drivers ahead and out of direct line of sight of our presence.

Learn about cats-eyes and reflective marker posts – if they’re on the road, use them. Amber cats-eyes mark the right edge of the road, red mark the left edge, green ones are found where you can leave (or others join) via a sliproad. White cats-eyes separate lanes. Similarly, white marker posts will always be found on the right, red on the left. If white cats-eyes in the middle of the road get closer together, we’re approaching a hazard – it’s the same as the hazard line. Learn the difference in markings between lanes and slip roads – that will help you avoid the crash I had years ago when I ran off the A1 late at night in heavy spray. Following the left kerb, I went up a slip road leading to a Little Chef and ended up on my backside sliding over wet grass. Kerbs can and do disappear into side roads, bus stops, drive ways and ditches. Watch out too for awkwardly positioned central islands and width restrictor ‘pinch-points’ installed as traffic calming. They are often poorly marked and hard to spot at night.

Avoid ‘advanced’ positioning – a more ‘middle of the road’ line will give us room for manoeuvre if we don’t read a bend correctly, but avoid the temptation to turn in too early. Nor do we want to be braking hard approaching bends – the headlight beam will dive as well as the forks. Get off the brakes and on the gas before steering, so the machine and beam are levelled out before we have to steer. On left-handers, the beam will tilt to light up the outside of the turn and dazzle on-coming drivers. But the part of the beam illuminating the nearside will move back towards us, which doesn’t help in seeing where the road goes. Although most bikes have a reasonable spread of light allowing us to see round corners to some extent, a few – like my old CX500 – are focussed like laser beams. It made a thirty hairpin alpine pass a ‘never-to-be-forgotten’ experience. To see around corners, dip often has a better spread than main beam. It’ll also work a bit better coming over the brow of a hill than main beam. We can get a bit of extra light on dip by using the headlamp flasher button to illuminate main beam too. But only for a second or two – any longer will melt the fuse! And avoid accelerating until it’s clear where the road goes next. The slow-in, late turn ‘Point and Squirt’ approach works just as well in the dark as it does on blind corners – because effectively a dark corner IS a blind corner.

Dealing with cars on main beam – a common problem is encountering a driver with headlights blazing on high beam. If we dip our own lights promptly when we see the lights of a vehicle coming the other way, it’s usually enough to get the other driver to return the courtesy. If they still forget, a quick flash of main beam usually wakes them up. But in some cases, the problem is a car with badly-adjusted beams or which is heavily loaded.

If we’re not seen, we might be heard – even though it’s technically illegal to use the horn in a built-up area between 11:30pm and 7:00am, if I thought a driver hadn’t seen me, I know what I would do!

If you need some help on getting used to riding in the dark, why not check out the Survival Skills ‘Basics’ course? We start just before it gets dark, ride through the twilight and into full darkness to see how our perception of the road changes and have a chance to employ the strategies in this article.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

26. Cornering Problems 3 – Five tips to understanding cornering dynamics

Were I re-writing this article today, I would still emphasise that on real roads, with uneven surfaces, limited visibility, and the very real possibility of needing to find a new line mid-corner, finishing deceleration early and rebalancing the suspension before steering remains the most reliable way to maximise grip, reduce workload, and free up the rider’s full attention to staying on the road, no matter what issues the corner throws up unexpectedly.

What has changed is the current fad for trail braking. Unfortunately braking into a corner leaves the rider entirely vulnerable to abrupt changes in surface grip, something that has actually deteriorated dramatically since the piece was written. If a rider loses traction braking in a straight line, it’s no big deal even on a non-ABS bike so long as the rider recognises what’s happening, and releases then reapplies the brakes. The bike remains upright.

When braking while leaned over, the front tyre is already using grip to generate lateral force (cornering). Adding braking demands longitudinal grip at the same time. If available grip suddenly drops thanks to a polished surface, stone chips or a pothole, and if the front tyre can no longer satisfy both demands, something has to give — and it is usually cornering force first. If we’re lucky, the result is a slide. If we’re not, the tyre lets go. Basic ABS can do little about this since it only modulates the braking force, not the lateral force. The role of cornering ABS is also poorly understood. Since trail braking depends on reducing speed to tighten the line, if the braking force is reduced to preserve traction, the bike will continue to roll into the corner more rapidly than the rider planned for, and that added speed means a wider radius turn. The result is that the bike stays upright but “drifts wide”. In short, when cornering ABS intervenes mid-corner, it prioritises preventing a fall, not holding trajectory.

Cornering Problems 3 – Five tips to understanding cornering dynamics

Why do riders get themselves in a muddle on corners? In my experience as a rider coach offering Survival Skills post-test rider training, much of the problem lies in the lack of training in cornering at basic level. One of the key issues is a lack of understanding of just important it is to get a motorcycle ‘set up’ well in advance of a corner, particularly when a new rider has a car driving background. Powered two wheelers simply don’t work the same way. Whilst the dynamics of cornering are the unique and fun part of riding a bike, they are also the source of many scary moments and crashes.

The key to getting cornering dynamics right is to arrive at the point where we need to steer with the bike settled on the suspension. This means that we need to be travelling at the right speed in the right gear with the brakes released, and with the the suspension balanced thanks to a slight rearward weight transfer that’s effected by a gentle application of throttle.

Forget any articles you may have read about how ‘bikes turn faster on the brakes’. It’s mostly a misunderstanding about what’s happening.

Here’s the first point to understand – as any powered two wheeler slows, it will automatically turn along a progressively tighter line just so long as the lean angle stays the same. So if we brake into a corner, the bike will spriral into the corner more quickly.

But here’s the second. If we go into a corner on the brakes, it affects the steering geometry. Whilst they may look outwardly the same, race bikes and road bikes are set up rather differently. Race bikes – or even a road bike set up for the track – are usually set up to turn on the brakes. The steering head angle is likely to be different, and compared with a road bike where the suspension is designed to absorb bumps, the suspension on a race bike will be very stiff. Track tyres are also a different profile and construction. stiffer. If we brake into a bend on a road bike, with its relatively soft front forks and tyres, the compression of the front end will make the machine sit up in the corner and try to go straight on. If you don’t believe me, try applying the front brake mid-corner and see what happens. Better yet, don’t try it and just trust me when I say it’ll sit up. That’s the force we must resist if we turn in to a corner on the brakes. Rather than working with us, the bike is working against us.

We CAN compensate by adding extra steering input, but that pushes us closer to the limit of grip – see the previous article. And in fact, a bike with a standard road set up on road tyres will handle most sweetly with the forks unloaded by a little throttle.

Of course, we need to slow down approaching a bend so the steering dynamics impose a simple rule – we need to get OFF the brakes and back ON the throttle before we begin to change direction.

Sounds easy? Yet we all get it wrong on occasion, so here are five cornering issues we need to think about.

Suspension dynamics – to soak up bumps, the front suspension on a road bike is fairly soft but when decelerating (either with a closed throttle or with the brakes) the forks compress. This compromises their ability to soak up the bumps. If we hit bumps in a straight line, this is uncomfortable but relatively relatively unimportant in terms of machine stability unless we are really hard on the front brake, but the bumps will cause the tyre to compress and rebound, which compromises front end grip – it’s why the ABS sometimes kicks in when braking hard on a bumpy road. But as soon as we are leaned over, there is a real downside to hitting bumps. Not only does the front tyre lose traction if the suspension’s not moving freely, but the more we’re leaning, the greater the tendency for the bumps to try to ‘kick’ the front end sideways. Even with ABS, we’ll know all about it if we hit a series of ‘stutter bumps’ with the forks compressed midway through a bend. The track is relatively smooth. The road isn’t.

Steering dynamics – if we’ve finished decelerating (either with a closed throttle or with the brakes) and we’re gently back on the power, then the front forks extend again, Now the vast majority of road bikes set up for the road will steer with minimal input from the rider. If we carry brakes INTO the corner, we have to compensate by adding extra steering input which pushes us closer to the limits of stability.

KISS and ‘keep things simple, stupid’ – even when road riders try to avoid braking into the first part of the corner, a common fault is leaving everything a little too late. So we’re arriving at the bend and trying to get OFF the brakes, ON the throttle AND steer all at the same moment. Not surprisingly, the timing often goes awry, and the rider enters the corner still playing catch-up. Starting just a few metres earlier, then performing each task in succession – off the brakes THEN on the throttle THEN steer – we only have to perform one task at a time. We’re far more likely to complete each stage and turn in to the corner back on the power.

A change of mental focus – where do we look on the approach to a bend? Most people will say “at the road ahead” but in fact we’ll be looking DOWN at the surface and OUT from the corner towards the point we might run out of road – it’s a natural tendency to look where we DON’T want to go. If you don’t believe me, analyse your own riding. You might be surprised but it’s really not at all instinctive to look around the bend and away from danger. So we should make it a lot easier by ensuring we’re comfortable with our approach speed good and early. A planned approach to a corner that sorts our deceleration – and thus our speed – in plenty of time is what frees up our ability to lift our view and look up and around the corner. Why does this work? If we are happy to get back on the throttle, we MUST be sure we will make it round the bend. We’re often told we SHOULD look further ahead. This is HOW. It’s almost impossible to open the throttle when we’re worried we’re going to run out of road.

Margins for error – last but not least, we simply must have some space to deal with misjudgements. We are performing a complex mental calculation every time we approach a corner – we have to judge the radius of the bend, work out the speed and lean angle that will match that corner, assess where we need to steer to follow the bend… and we can only achieve that if we correctly estimate how much we need to slow down. It’s easy to misjudge both our initial braking force and the corner entry speed. By AIMING to get our deceleration finished early, we leave ourselves some extra space in case we find we need to lose a little MORE speed.

All this and more is part of the Survival Skills advanced rider training ‘Performance’ courses, focusing on better cornering skills. If you’re serious about understanding how your brain functions as well as how your machine performs underneath you, why not check them out?

Posted on

21. Cornering Problems 1 – Lean or Brake?

Everything in the article still stands. However, a modern complication worth noting is that today’s rider is no longer dealing solely with human drivers. Many cars now use lane-keeping assist, collision avoidance braking, and steering interventions that attempt to keep the vehicle rigidly centred in its lane. These systems may trigger braking or steering inputs that are unpredictable from a rider’s point of view. And here’s something to think about when trying to hold a wide position approaching a left-hand bend (in the UK) we’ll be close to the centre line and if a vehicle appears coming the other way, the driver’s instinct may be to edge left. At that point the lane assist feature may kick in — I had that happen myself on a narrow road. When I steered towards the grass verge to make maximum room and the lane assist feature detected this as me leaving the lane and attempted to steer me back again. It’s worth thinking about, since relying on other road users to “make space” is less reliable than it once was.

Running our of road or losing control in a bend is a primary cause of bike-only accidents in the UK and also in many other countries. The problems start when riders run into the corner too fast. So an oh-so-common question is: “when I’m running into a bend at speed and see I’m running out of road in my lane, is the proper response? Should I lean more? Or should I be braking?”

The answer, as it is so often when we’re talking about motorcycles, is: “it depends”; there is rarely a ‘one size fits all’ solution. I’m going to suggest three options, explain the advantages and the risks of each, and then you will hopefully have a better understanding of how to make a sound choice in your own emergency.

I’ll take a moment to remind you of Keith Code’s ‘Survival Reactions’. In his ‘Twist of the Wrist’ books, US rider coach Keith Code explained how Survival Reactions are unplanned and unwanted reactions to a fear of personal harm. Examples are freezing, over-braking and target fixation. Typically they put us deeper in trouble rather than helping. Survival Reactions are triggered by a failure to predict the problem. When caught by SURPRISE!, and suddenly find ourselves in a mid-corner emergency, even if we have had excellent training, the fact is we’re unlikely to react any more effectively than a rider with only basic skills.

Recent research into crash avoidance suggests the answer is not more skills training but a better understanding of both what can go wrong and which strategies give us a chance to get out of trouble. This is effectively what Survival Skills has been teaching since my first course in1997, and I’ve more recently discovered it’s known as ‘Insight Training’. So to have a change of getting out of trouble mid-bend is that first we need to understand how errors happen, second we need to be know which strategies can to get us out of trouble, and thirdly we have to look at the road ahead to see just what COULD go wrong rather than believe we’re going to get things just right. This is the ‘No Surprise? No Accident’ approach to riding.

Here are two other things to remember:

:: the bike is almost always better than the rider – with the exception of some cruisers with limited ground clearance and my forty year-old classic on skinny skinny tyres, modern bikes will almost always lean beyond the point where the rider is getting uncomfortable

:: the front tyre almost always has more STEERING grip than we’ll ever use – even on wet roads, it’s rare to lose front end grip simply by steering. It’s not impossible and I have done it, but most cornering crashes result from mixing lean angle with braking. Or simply running out of road, of course.

Here’s a quick reminder of counter-steering, because that’s one of two skills we need. Push left, go LEFT. Push RIGHT, go right. Push harder, ROLL quicker, and change direction FASTER. Many riders put very gentle inputs into the bars and the result is glacially slow changes-of-direction, which won’t help one bit of we’re running out of road. Remember – trust that front tyre to grip, use positive inputs and steer the bike quickly.

So what are the three options I talked about?

Option A:- KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STEER

As I’ve just mentioned, most of us arrive in a bend with lean angle in hand. So that being the case, we can can usually exploit it:

:: keep the thottle gently open to keep the steering neutral and avoid loading the front tyre with decelerating forces

:: look through the corner towards the way out (the ‘exit’ of the bend) and NOT at the problem in front of you

:: push HARDER to add an extra counter-steering input to generate extra lean angle to make the turn on a tighter line

All we need is lean angle in the bank.

Option B:- SIT UP, BRAKE AND LEAN AGAIN

If there’s space we may be able to:

:: counter-steer the bike upright

:: use both brakes hard in a straight line

:: counter-steer to lean the bike over again at the reduced speed

This solution has been recommended in some books on advanced riding, and I’ve also been told personally on a training course that it’s the ‘correct’ response to an ‘in too fast’ issue. However, from experience, I’d say there is rarely room to apply this approach on the road. On a left-hander, it almost guarantees we’re going to run into the oncoming lane, and on a right-hander there’s little room before we run off into the hedge or over a cliff. In fact, if we want to get the MAXIMUM straight line space across the lane, we have to turn the bike at a tangent across the corner FIRST…

…and if we can do that, couldn’t we just keep steering?

Option C:- SLOW DOWN IN THE TURN

Slowing down IN the turn is the option most often frowned but in fact motorcycle cornering dynamics is on our side. When leaning, if we keep the lean angle fixed, the bike will turn on a progressively tighter line as the machine slow without us having to add any extra lean angle.

So we can slow in one of three ways:

:: roll off the throttle – straightforward provided we don’t slam it shut and destabilise the machine, a smoothly closed throttle will create engine braking and thus deceleration, but it does depend on the bike. Big twins will slow quite dramatically, small capacity two-strokes will barely decelerate at all. Mid-sized four cylinders like my 600 are in between. The gear matters too – rolling the throttle closed in a high gear will provide less engine braking than a lower gear, which is a good reason for not rolling along a twisty road in a high gear at low regs.

:: apply the rear brake only – if engine braking isn’t providing sufficient deceleration (and I wouldn’t try to force more deceleration via a downchange at this point – tt’s no coincidence many bikes now have slipper clutches to prevent lock-ups on clumsy downshifts on a closed throttle) we can apply the rear brake. This has always been the advice on UK basic training, but with the throttle already shut, we’re already creating a braking force via the rear wheel and even a modest amount of rear brake can take us over the limit of grip. It’s not too much of a problem if we have ABS but it’s still best not to trigger it if possible – most riders react in surprise when the ABS kicks in and let off the brake again. .

:: apply both front and rear brakes smoothly and progressively – modern tyres deliver far more edge grip, and unless we are already sliding the front tyre into the corner, then there IS grip left at the front for a small application of front brake. This is the concept sometimes called the ‘Traction Pie’, where the tyre splits its grip between braking and steering. If we’re braking upright, we’re using some tyre grip for braking but none for steering. If we’re rounding a corner at constant speed, we’re using some tyre grip for steering but none for braking. Between the extremes we can ‘mix and match’, just so long as we don’t bang the brakes on suddenly – that makes most road bikes sit up and go straight on. With both brakes on, even lightly, we’ll lose speed more rapidly than with engine braking along, and the bike’s line mid-corner will tighten more rapidly too. I’ve been told that this is not a technique for novices, but in reality it’s not as difficult to master or as risky as usually claimed.

So here’s how we use both brakes combined with bends:

1 – BRAKING INTO THE CORNER (trail braking) – we brake conventionally before entering the bend, but as we enter the corner, but progressively ease off the brake pressure as the lean angle increases. This sorts out a bend that we’ve entered too fast.

2 – BRAKING MID-CORNER – now we’re cornering conventionally off the brakes but mid-bend we apply the brakes lightly and as the speed comes down and the lean angle reduces, we brake progressively harder. This allow us to deal with a bend that tightened up or an encounter with a hazard such as a stopped vehicle that was out of sight when we entered the bend.

Whenever we enter a bend it’s important we avoid being caught by SURPRISE!

Some years ago, I nearly put my GSX-R750 in the River Exe when I discovered the fast left-hander ahead was actually a sharp right-hander. Having changed direction I was about to run out of room and even as I was saying to myself “lean more, don’t brake”, I hit the front brake hard which stood the bike up – I was lucky that there was some run-off into a riverside viewing point. With some progressive braking mid-bend I’d have got round without the drama. But what that anecdote should tell you is that even mid-lean, the tyre gripped when I braked!

Two final tips. If we release the front brake suddenly mid-corner, the bike will topple into the bend – ease it off progressively. If we need to come to a complete halt, turn the bike at the last moment to get it upright – this will prevent us stopping off-balance and toppling over.

To sum up, practicing quick steering and mid-corner braking is a big help when we need to make mid-corner corrections, but the real benefits come when we begin to plan ahead to deal with a bend that doesn’t go where we expect, and to hold ready in our heads the understanding that we may need to tighten our line on ANY bend. Pre-planning for the Worst Case Scenario helps prevent the panic reactions that cause crashes.

Of course, some people will read this and say that the proper answer is “don’t go into a bend too hot in the first place”. Whilst that’s useful in hindsight, it’s not much use until after we’ve RECOVERED the error, is it?

We all make mistakes, sooner or later. That’s why it’s well to know how to get out of trouble just as much as we try to use ‘better biking’ techniques to keep us out of it.

Posted on

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!