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From: Spitzer%pco@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: MOTORCYCLE MYSTERY
Message-ID: <4550@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Aug-83 10:53:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.4550
Posted: Thu Aug 25 10:53:00 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Aug-83 02:48:03 EDT
Lines: 22

From:      Charles M. Spitzer    <Spitzer%pco @ CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS>

This is not the appropriate forum for this, but you have presented a
popular misconception. The easiest, fastest and safest way to turn a
motorcycle at speed is to turn the handlebars. It is called
counter-steering, and is taught as a high-speed emergency maneuver to
aviod obstacles in your path.

On the subject of why a cycle turns the opposite way from a turn of the
handlebars, there was a long write-up on this subject in the magazine
Road Rider about 2 years ago by some physics professor. The conclusion
he came up with was:

A front motorcycle wheel is not flat on the bottom. Therefore when the
handlebars are turned, it presents the side of the wheel opposite to the
turn to the pavement. This causes the front wheel to slightly tilt. The
side of the wheel forms a conic shaped form, with the apex of the cone
at the center of the circle formed by the rolling cone. This causes the
cycle to turn on the perimeter of the circle

Charlie Spitzer
Spitzer%pco-multics@cisl