Counter steering

[klaviator]

The Alabama Motorcycle Safety Center has put on a gymkhana in March most of the previous years.  I went to three of those.  They normally had a number of motorcycle cops show up.  They were real impressive to watch.  Here's the last one I went to:
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/you-only-live-twice.1042598/page-45

[Stig / Major Tom]

Yes, ride safely. Call it whatever you want, countersteering, looking where you want to go, or whatever, but the single best way of helping yourself ride safely is this: SLOW DOWN.

Closely followed by: Keep your head on a swivel and increase your situational awareness, have an escape route, and never take anything for granted.

Did I mention, SLOW DOWN"?

Yep, from the newspaper in my town - too much speed causes most bike wrecks - followed at some distance by left turning cars.
Bikes just flat riding off the roads.
Still, too many words here.
respectfully - KISS
Slow down and "Don't hit the 🐱!"
Stig

[PaulF]

\

Many riders who "ride by instinct" but don't understand what they are really doing end up doing the wrong thing in an emergency and crash when there was no reason to crash.  Braking and steering are the two most commonly screwed up skills out there.  I do think about countersteering when I'm out practicing on a twisty road.  I sometimes practice avoiding things on the road with hard countersteering.   By practicing it, countersteering is instinct when I need it.  Many riders do run off the road in a curve when all they had to to was countersteer or they run into something in the road that could easily have been avoided. 

I see discussions about braking on forums all the time and it's obvious a large percentage or riders are pretty clueless on that as well.  They brake "by instinct."  That may work in normal situations but not in an emergency.  Now that there is ABS on most new bikes that is no longer as big of an issue.  There is no mechanical device like ABS to save those who can't steer. 

OH, and I forgot another important skill:  Look where you want to go.  Instinct is to look at what you want to avoid.  This is a skill that must be understood and practiced or it won't happen in an emergency.

That's good.    

[hypophthalmus]

He was going under 50. I consider that to be a pretty easy pace for that kind of road.

He WAS being pretty cavalier about staying in his lane. But it actually almost looks like if he hadn't reacted to the truck at all, there might have been no accident. As soon as he saw it and reacted to it (which was quite a ways off), he started pushing himself closer to its path.

This definitely wasn't an unavoidable accident. He could have trivially drifted back into his lane and all would be fine.

And there is no doubt in my mind that this is a demonstration of incorrect steering technique. That's what all that wobbling was about it (which again, started with the truck pretty far away), and the video later shows it clearly in slow motion.

Instincts will get you most of the way there, but you have to understand what's going on and practice it consciously in order to push your ability to take tighter, faster turns and to react properly in a dangerous situations.

[hypophthalmus]

On a completely different note, target fixation is a thing for musical instruments too. It can cause you to make mistakes, or play as you hear it in your head, exactly the way it works on motorcycles.

[klaviator]

He was going under 50. I consider that to be a pretty easy pace for that kind of road.

He WAS being pretty cavalier about staying in his lane. But it actually almost looks like if he hadn't reacted to the truck at all, there might have been no accident. As soon as he saw it and reacted to it (which was quite a ways off), he started pushing himself closer to its path.

This definitely wasn't an unavoidable accident. He could have trivially drifted back into his lane and all would be fine.

And there is no doubt in my mind that this is a demonstration of incorrect steering technique. That's what all that wobbling was about it (which again, started with the truck pretty far away), and the video later shows it clearly in slow motion.

Instincts will get you most of the way there, but you have to understand what's going on and practice it consciously in order to push your ability to take tighter, faster turns and to react properly in a dangerous situations.

This was a totally avoidable accident.  I agree that he wasn't going too fast......well he wouldn't have been going too fast if he knew how to countersteer.  I think his instincts are exactly what got him into trouble, that and a lack of knowledge.  Almost all non riders and a fairly large percentage of riders think that you steer right to go right and steer left to go left.  So when he saw the truck part of his instinct tried to turn the bars right and part of it to turn left.  I used to tend to do the same thing.  When I was a fairly new sportbike rider in Southern California I used to fight myself in the curves making it seem like the bike didn't want to turn.  It never caused anything like what was in the video but at one point I got so worn out on a ride trying to keep up with friends that I decided to quit group rides for a while.  I went out and thought about what I was doing and practiced.  It didn't take long before I was riding much better.  I know I normally rode much faster than the guy in the video.

[hypophthalmus]

When I was a fairly new sportbike rider in Southern California I used to fight myself in the curves making it seem like the bike didn't want to turn.

This was basically my experience. I didn't try to make it turn by turning the handlebars like in the video, but when it was necessary to make sharper, faster turns it was like I was stuck.

It took deliberate practice to push through that limitation, and it took an understanding of what's going on in order to deliberately practice it. I don't need to stop and think about what I'm doing or how it works to avoid the cat. I've already taken the time to work it out and choreograph the movements, so now it's just by default how I get around.

[eamartin]

"  I took the MSF classes and was told the proper way to handle emergency situations....."

I too took the basic rider course some years ago after many years of riding, thinking correctly that I was probably doing many things wrong.  Afterwards, though,  I began to think about the the class instruction regarding countersteering (push left to go left and all that).  It occurred to me that countersteering really doesn't come into play until the machine is up to speed (not sure what speed, probably depends on machine) and that if you push left at 3 mph you'll go right.  This was not explained in my particular class and could confuse a newby.