Downhill countersteering techniques

[bluegoose]

Much like most of my other hobbies, I am a self-taught cyclist. When I first learned how to golf, my buddies said "It's kind of like baseball, only lower". When I first got on a bike, my buddies just made sure I knew which side of the bike was supposed to stay on the pavement. Downhill steering technique never came up.

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who rides motorcycles. He was telling me that when steering a motorcycle you actually push on the handle bar on the SAME side as the direction that you want to turn. He called it countersteering. This sounded totally counterintuitive to me, but just for kicks I decided to try it out. To my amazement, it worked like a charm on a road, especially on the downhills.

Upon further inquiry, it turns out most serious roadies do this for their downhill steering. The "counter" part of the countersteering comes in the form of a slight hip rotation on the saddle in the opposite direction as the turn.

I've been trying this for a couple of months now and I feel much more stable while downhilling.

My question is - Do you guys do this and is the idea the same for serious mountain biking downhillers?

[Archaea]

Somebody has talked to me about this, and when I remember I do it; otherwise, I'm not certain.

[Quisqueyano]

My downhill steering technique follows 2 principles that seem to work very well.
1-Where the head goes, the body follows. I proactively point my head where I want to go.
2-be sure that your foot opposite the direction of the curve is in a down stroke. perpendicular to the road.
Other than that,grip it and rip it. If I don't feel comfortable, I do not feel bad about slowing down. I am not in a race and getting home minus gravel under the skin is a priority of mine.

[creekster]

OK, just a report on my own efforts on this. I tried to focus on this and I think the following:

1. It is only discernible as an effect when you are turning at relatively high spoeeds.

2. It is counter-inuitive to think about but intuitive and natural in practice. You proabbyl do this already without really realizing it because you are steering against your bike/body lean. Perhaps if you were going very fast you might do it more consciously.

ANy other thoughts?

[bluegoose]

Good points. I agree that if you over think it, it seems counter-intuitive. But in practice, most people probably do a form of countersteering. Although I think counter"steering" may be a bit of a misnomer. Its really more of a lean into the turn, as most road bike turns at higher speeds involve little or no actual turn of the handlebars and more of a lean in the direction of the turn. The counter turn of the hips is more to keep your body weight centered over the saddle and frame.

[SteelBlue]

I put my weight on my outside foot which is in the down position and some weight on the bars on the turn side. Is this what you mean? I remember reading it in a magazine last year and feeling the same as you did when I tried it.

[DirtyHippieUTE]

Actually... you have to counter-steer on almost all turns if you think about it.

The way a bike turns isn't the way a car turns. The only way to get a two wheeled vehicle to turn is to get it to lean into the turn. If the bike didn't lean into the turn then you would always tip over the other way (centrifugal force).

The faster you go, the more you have to do it. The trick is to do it well...

When riding a street bike (motorcycle) anybody can take an easy curve, even at speed. The guys who can take the hard curves at high speeds are the ones who know how to manipulate the bike so that the center of gravity shifts to the inside and actually pulls them thru the turn.

The difference between counter-steering and leaning is just the way you get the center of gravity to move. If you just tip the top then you're still counter-steering in a way (even though you don't notice). But if you can get the bike to make that shift at the lower center down near the hubs, it's much more stable and will pull you thru the curve faster.

It's dificult to explain but when you do it, you know it.

As far as downhill mountain biking goes... It's not so much a factor. Every time I've raced DH it was all about big drops and obstacles. I never felt that there were any real tight corners that didn't have a nice rut and a little burm (sp?).