Re:It Takes Two Neurons to Ride a Bicycle (2004)
by einstok on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @09:38PM
(#16219894)
If you are going straight at a constant speed and you turn the handlebars clockwise your front wheel is going to go to the right. The center of mass will want to continue forward due to the momentum of the bike. Now your bike is leaning left.
Re:It Takes Two Neurons to Ride a Bicycle (2004)
by aidenn0 on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @10:30PM
(#16220092)
When you turn the wheel, your wheels move to the right.
Inertia keeps your center of mass moving straight, so your center of mass is now to the left of the wheels.
Think of it as the ground pulling the wheels out from under you.
Re:It Takes Two Neurons to Ride a Bicycle (2004)
by aidenn0 on Wednesday January 24, 2018 @02:16PM
(#16225456)
Also, there is no fixed correspondence between turning the wheel and leaning, because in this case you do move your body. Think about when you are in a car and someone turns sharply to the right. At first you lean left, but then you unconsciously right yourself.
Similarly on a bike, if you turn the wheel right, you will eventually either fall over, or turn to right (which will happen with an unconscious lean). Since the correction to lean-right is usually not done consciously, and happens very quickly most people don't realize there is an initial lean left.
Does this help to explain the fixed correspondence between steer and direction of turn? (For example, to someone who doesn't believe counter-steering is a thing.) The physics of the lean seems easier to decompose than the physics of counter-steering.
I am interested in finding a way to describe counter-steering so that it's obvious, similar to the way you described the horizontal force vs coefficient of friction.