Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work

As someone who can ride aggressively without handlebars, you counter steer even without touching the bars. [VIDEO]

I watched a YouTube video[0] demonstrating this recently. It was definitely surprising to me and is just something that is done without thought. [0] [VIDEO]

Balancing is hardly anything to do with the gyroscopic effect of wheels. You balance by steering the bike under the centre of gravity. Veritasium : [VIDEO]

Most people would be surprised, but I’m happy to assert most of the things we do with an expectation of causal effect are superstitions. While people don’t generally understand bikes [0], in this case superstition would be more about people building them like in any of the [0] illustrations (or e.g. saying “I need suspension/carbon fibre frame” without knowing what those are for) rather than not being aware of how the laws of motion stop it falling over — except for bikes with trick steering, average people aren’t even going to bother asserting a causal mechanism for motion: [VIDEO] [0] [LINK]

Indeed. I like this clip where they show bike steering to the left, without its front wheel ever going to the right side of its original path, by only leaning and no countersteering. [VIDEO]

> The bike counter-steering example clicked instantly with me, but I guess not many people have an intuition about that. I rode for decades before learning this and I think most other cyclists are not aware as well. Veritasium did a video on this: [VIDEO]

You can't turn a bicycle or motorbike without counter-steering, so these people are just not turning their bikes? It's not possible to not countersteer as the bike would lean to the wrong direction and you'd turn the wrong way (since you'd have been initiating a countersteer, afterall). Are you seeing people just manhandle the bars the wrong way in emergencies? I could believe that. [VIDEO]

related content: Would it even be possible to turn left if steering right would be blocked? "Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work" [VIDEO]

Beautiful article. There's a similar neat video, "Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work", where they fix the steering so the handlebars can only be turned left, and people then aren't able to turn left. [VIDEO]

You will love the interesting video, "Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work" by Veritasium - [VIDEO]

Beautifully illustrated and brilliantly explained. Derek Muller (Veritasium) on YouTube has a related video diving into the mechanics of bicycle riding. It shows what happens if you prevent the rider from performing the countersteer before leaning into a turn [1]. [1]: [VIDEO]

Veritasium did a video where they stopped him from counter-steering and couldn't steer anymore. [VIDEO] He might be wrong, and just didn't know enough, but he is usually researching his videos very well and I would be surprised for him to be wrong about this.

The gyroscopic effect is not necessary, and it has been demonstrated both in reality and in simulation [0]. The central principle behind why a bicycle is self balancing while in motion is the fact that it self-steers in the same direction that it is leaning, which counteracts the fall [0][1]. [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]

Here's a good video showing how a bike actually works, and the relation between steering and leaning: [VIDEO]

More on the physics of how bikes work, Derek Muller from Veritasium demonstrated what happens if you lock the steering of a bike: [VIDEO]

No that's not true. A bike just naturally steers into its fall. Veritasium made a video about it: [VIDEO]

> You only think you understand how a bicycle works, until you learn to ride one. I realize this is just for motivation in a subtitle, but people generally don't grasp how bicycles work, even after having ridden one. Veritasium has a quite good video on the subject: [VIDEO]