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The following was posted by Tabby in the "Strange Tire Grip Fact" post and got me thinking. Instead of taking the thread off topic I thought I would start a new one. See the below quote from Tabby about what is happening when you countersteer the bike into a corner...
"No! the front tire is NOT sliding during a countersteer input. It is as Stromper noted. After the desired angle is reached, countersteer pressure at the handlebar is decreased or ceased. Then the bike is in a steady state of cornering, that is dependent on the loading of the tires/chassis that the rider wishes to maintain. Yes, some bikes, because of the way they are designed, may need a certain amount of handlebar pressure to maintain a given cornering arc, that doesn't mean they are in a constant cornersteer mode.
I am talking about pavement riding, and not dirt riding. The videos that we used to show as part of the previous MSF curriculum, used to show that process quite clearly. Once the "CS" input ceased levering the tire out from under the bike, the tire returned to what might be called a camber steer position with the appropriate steering head angle needed to maintain the desired arc."
As far as cornering and countesteering goes, I am a rookie who has done a handfull of track days, and only riding in B group with Fishtail, so if this sounds a little dumb bare with me.
As you already know...One of the first things I noticed as I learned to corner was the most important thing is looking in the right places. I do this by getting the correct body position, then sticking my head/neck out and focusing on certain points further out (where I want to be not where I am) as I am leaning and rounding the turn. What happens when I do this is everything naturally falls into place and the bike goes just where I want it to. The problem is I have noticed that one of the natural things I do is after I counter steer and once I am in the turn, I either almost completely let go of the bars (Not really letting go but you know what I mean) or sometimes even feel my self pulling on the inside ever so slightly and steering into the turn. Its strange cause its all subconcious and seems to happen naturally as I go through the turn since my body wants to go where my head and eyes are pointing. Is steering back into the turn slightly a bad input that will come back to haunt me later?
It feels really good and the bike seems to handle as it if its reading my mind, but is this the type of input they are trying to teach us to avoid when we are told to be as gentle as possible with the bars? The instructors seem to be constantly reminding us of that and I am thinking its because we have a natural tendancy to do what I am describing but not supposed to. Does anyone else notice they do this? Maybe I am doing something else wrong and this is happening to compensate for it?
I could be thinking too much but I like to be aware of what I am doing so I can spot bad habits before they develop. In everything I do, learning proper technique right from the beginning usually helps big time in the long run. Any input from the more experienced guys would be greatly appreciated.