Quote:
Originally Posted by
Spinner Dan
I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on steering on loose dirt trails (not necessarily on the MX track but just the loose gravel forestry tracks that is the domain of our bikes).
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I'm not really the guy to explain this, but.....
Positive steering (or Counter steering as it was known) works because the rubber on the inside of the tyre (in a lean, so the inside of the turn you are making) travels slower than the outside, it's called the rolling cone effect, this is part of the physics that make the bike change direction.
On dirt, you don't have constant contact with the ground and where you do, it's all moving, so while people experience what looks like positive steering in corners on Enduro, MX or Speedway tracks, this is a move that is responding to the turn, preventing the rear washing out, rather than inducing it. On the road, it is the counter steer that induces the turn. This is where you felt the front was about to wash out - it probably was!! You get the turn by bearing down on the bars and hold the steering in the direction you want to go.
Using knobbly tyres on the road you get to see this demonstrated, I see it always on worn TKCs. I can counter steer to induce the turn, but then it requires some weight on the bars to push the bike around the corner. Almost a case of steer out of the corner to induce the turn, then into the corner to bring the bike round. The TTR600 was like this always on the road, especially roundabouts.
So while positive steering works perfectly on road bikes, with lots of rubber in contact, as you move to more aggressive tyres, the effects are not quite as obvious.
The good thing is, it all really happens without any though - the more you think about it , the hard it gets sometimes.