Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hmm...I countersteer at low speeds (maybe I've forgotten what it is!). I push/lean at high speeds, the wheel is turned slightly away from the direction I am turning, at low speeds it is turned heavily towards it, but I lean my body in the opposite direction of the turn to keep it balanced for very tight turns, such as u-turns. For highspeed turns I lean into the turn with the bike, unless I am making a quick swerve and my body stays mostly straight.

Am I missing something?

Different bikes behave differently. Ron and I realized this during an unnecessarily heated discussion about countersteering a while back. I made the observation that I "handlebar steer" my bike at speeds as high as 25mph, while the general "rule" is anything above walking speed (I guess I must walk fast! ). The longer your bike is the faster you will go before countersteering kicks in, in most cases (gotta love disclaimers!).

I like the way the VT motorcycle licsense manual says it: "Push the side of the handlebars that you want to go, push left, lean left, go left"

Yep , that's exactly what you want to do .
Regards, Wizzard

So longer bikes start countersteering at higher speeds. I guess that means that some of those choppers may not countersteer until 40 or 50 mph LOL, no wonder you never actually see anyone turn a chopper without duckwalking on the various chopper shows on TV.

Also should mean that my CX500, which has a pretty short wheelbase should countersteer at a pretty low speed.