2Wheeltips

    What was the first thing you thought of when you heard the words “counter steering”?  I remember what ran through my mind; is that even possible?  What a counter intuitive thing to try and figure out.  You want me to go barreling down the highway and turn the bike by “counter steering?”  So I did a little research into this mysterious technique and honestly, I got more confused with every article, explanation, and video.  To my amazement I found that the ability to perform counter steering properly was pretty much written off as something that comes naturally.  The general consensus was if you can ride a bicycle down a hill, then you already know how to do it. 

I’m sorry, but that’s not going to fly, especially experiencing some close calls of my own and after speaking with a few newer riders, listening to their definition of counter steering and watching some of my friends lean their 800 pound cruisers through the turns.  Even at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation classes, they preach that you should look, lean and roll on the throttle as you take the turns, but what does that mean? 

As I gained my experiences riding, I found myself pushing the envelope a little more as time progressed by upping my speed in the turns and tried just leaning the bike more.  I simply did this because that’s what all of my instructors had been telling me.  But to just lean the bike didn’t improve my cornering ability; it just made the bike lean more in a wide arc that usually resulted in me having to slow down through the turn or worse, crossing the center line.  For me, this was completely unacceptable.  I needed to find out what I was doing wrong, I didn’t like making the same mistakes over and over, I wanted to improve my riding skills, and become a safer rider at the same time. 

The answer came to me like a bolt of lightning during a practice session in a parking lot while trying to do some slow speed turns.   I began forcing my bike to lean more by pushing hard on the grip down on the side I was trying to turn the bike.  In other words, it was like I was trying to push the bike to the ground to get it to lean over.  It takes a lot of time to master [this technique] and is part of the progression in Ride Like A Pro, but this was the answer I was looking for. It was the “lean” and the counter steer all in one.  As I turned my bike in sharp turns, I was actually performing the equivalent of a counter steer and my bike was making sharp turns so tight I was surprising myself.  The simplicity of making the bike do the work, without having to use the weight of my body to get the bike to roll and turn to the left and right was a huge find. 

The proof came when I took the bike out and began riding through some nice curved roads.  I slowed the bike to a comfortable entry speed and looked through the turn.  I rolled on the throttle and pushed the bike under me without leaning my whole body with the bike by pressing down on the grip in the direction of the turn.  I realized that I was extremely comfortable throughout the entire turn and looked for more situations to try out my new found technique.  The beauty of my new find was that the curves and turns were less threatening to me.  I was also surprised to discover that I seemed to have a lot more lean in reserve than before learning this, and the turns that would scare me before, were easy to navigate.

If you can, imagine yourself straddling a bicycle standing upright with your feet flat on the ground.  Now picture yourself lightly pulling up on the left grip while pressing down on the right grip causing the bike to lean. The only difference between that and counter steering is that your press is down and forward in the direction of the turn.  The harder you press, the tighter you will turn.  One thing to keep in mind is that while performing these techniques, keep your muscles nice and loose, as it enables you to perform them so much more smoothly because remember, “Smooth = Cool”.   A death grip on the handlebars will do nothing but impair your ability to react quickly and fatigue you a lot faster than normal.  You want to keep your eyes level with the horizon (tilt your head to do this), which is one reason why simply leaning your body doesn’t work so well because it’s nearly impossible to keep your eyes level with the roadway while leaned all the way over.  I found that trying to keep my spine perpendicular with the road surface or my shoulders parallel allows me to work the bike beneath me, again, allowing the bike to do the work. 

Once you have found what works for you with counter steering, you’ll find that you are less fatigued when riding the windy roads, and even lane changes become easier.  You can snap your bike to different lines and avoid obstacles that much more efficiently.  Learning to counter steer correctly makes riding much more enjoyable.  It will also improve your ability to ride safely.  I hope this answers the question of what counter steering really is. So get out there and work on your counter steering.

    Have you ever been watching television where they show the camera view from the police cruiser while the cop is talking to the person he has pulled behind when suddenly the cop either narrowly escapes being struck or is hit by a passing motorist?  Or have you ever walked down a hall and caught the eye of the person coming towards you and before you know it, you are both doing the hallway shuffle in an attempt to get around each other?

 Although you may not have given much thought to the dance you do every now and then, it may have crossed your mind to wonder “how the heck, with all those lights going, did that person not see the cop car on the side of the road?”  Believe it or not, the answer is quite simply that the person did see the cop car, as you saw that person in front of you in the hall.  You looked at some part of that person, usually their eyes, and focused on them as you approached.  The driver simply locked his (or her) focus on the cop car and drove directly at it.  Our mind works in strange ways, but subconsciously when we focus on something, we tend to move in the direction we are looking at whether we are walking, driving a car or riding a motorcycle. 

When it comes to riding as beginners, we tend to over-think what we are doing because it is a new experience.  We know the dangers and listen to all the horror stories.  We focus on the things that we know could hurt us because these are the things that we want to avoid; a patch of gravel, a curb, or a vehicle we are trying to avoid. 

In Proficient Motorcycling©, David Hough states that one of the most common reactions a motorcyclist will make when confronted with a vehicle making a turn in front of them is to simply steer the bike directly into the very car they are trying to avoid.  I have seen it myself while riding on my very first group ride and have seen it plenty of times since.  We are all victims of it at some point especially when we first begin riding.  What makes all the difference in the world is realizing what it takes to get out of those habits of focusing on what you want to avoid.

Next time you are driving your car and making turns, pay close attention to what you are physically doing.  What becomes apparent is that you start looking through the turns and you aren’t focused on the things in front of you.  If you see something that you need to avoid, you pick a path around what you want to miss.  The difference between driving a car and riding a motorcycle is that it has become second nature to most of us as we drive our cars.  An example of what happens when you become fixated is to watch a very green driver trying to park his (or her) car in a parking lot when they have absolutely no clue as to how to perform a simple task.  It may take them twenty tries to get the car parked because they are so focused on the car next to them that they keep parking too close or crooked.  

The best technique I can suggest for eliminating target fixation is to understand the benefits of it by performing u-turns in a parking lot at slow speed.  It’s just like the u-turn box that you practiced in the basic rider course, but this time we aren’t going to set a perimeter.  You are simply going to find an area large enough to give you plenty of room to do some slow speed turns.  Ride forward in first gear and when you are ready to make the turn look over your left shoulder and pick a target behind you off into the distance, the further away the better.  Using clutch and throttle control and if you need to, drag the rear brake a little, initiate the turn while maintaining focus on that point.  The trick is to do this u-turn without shifting your focus away from your target.  Eventually, you can begin using the area that you would normally drive down and try avoiding the painted lines in your u-turn.  What you will find by continuously practicing these maneuvers is that knowing how using target fixation in a positive way allows you to understand when it is happening in a negative way.  In addition, when there is an obstacle in your way, you rapidly shift your focus from that obstacle to the new path that you need to take; whether it’s to get around a pothole or avoid a collision, you learn that the bike really does go where you want it to.  The same technique is used while turning at high speeds.  Looking through the turns, looking as far ahead of you and where you want to exit the turn, and not concentrating on the curb, centerline or oncoming traffic, prevents you from focusing on that one point closest to you and riding directly for it.  You will realize just how eliminating target fixation on the things you want to miss is guaranteed to make you a better rider.