On Jan 21, 2:43*am, "vaughn"
wrote:
"Derek Copeland" wrote in message

...

So try making a slow turn to the right on a bike while holding the
handlebars to the left! Don't blame me when you fall off though!

* *This is getting rather far afield and has little or nothing to do with
flying, but turning a motorcycle is not as simple a process as you may
think. *Those who have any time on heavy motorcycles instinctivly apply
pressure to the handlebars OPPOSITE to the direction of the intended turn..
Because of the gyroscoptic precession of that big, heavy front wheel, this
tilts the bike, and it is the tilt that does the actual turning. *To roll
the bike back vertical and stop the turn, you apply handlebar pressure INTO
the turn.

Yes, except it's nothing to do with being heavy or precession. It
works just the same on bicycles or even on things with no rotating
wheels at all such as those snow scooter things with handlebars
attached to a ski up front.

It's all about moving one or both wheels sideways out from under the
center of gravity. The CoG is trucking along in a straight line so to
establish bank for a left turn you shuffle the wheels over to the
right of the track the CofG is taking.

The gyroscopic precession does help too, but it's not essential.


Of course, when you are moving too slowly for that front wheel to act as a
gyro, the rules are reversed.

No, it's the same, just more subtle. At low speeds you need less bank
angle for a given turn radius (just as in a glider), so the initial
"roll in with opposite steering" phase is much shorter. Once
established with the bank angle you want, you then need much a much
larger out of turn control input (i.e. turning the handlebars left in
a left turn) to prevent the bank angle from increasing further.

Vaughn *(About 100,000 miles on the same BMW)

Bruce
(117,000 km on his current 1995 BMW R1100RT,
130,000 km on previous 1986 K100RT,
30,000 km on previous 1982 R80RT (gateway drug),
~100,000 km on prior assorted Hondas (CBX550, CBX400, XR600, XR250,
XL350)