Hanging off

[Busdriver]

Here's my two cents worth.

The reason you turn the bars right to go left and left to go right is due to the gyroscopic effect of the front wheel. When you try to change the plane in which a gyroscope (your rotating front wheel) is turning, the effect of any control input is felt by the gyro 90 degrees after the control input.

By turning the handlebars to the left for instance, causes you to turn the forks to the left. Imagine those forks rotating 90 degrees in the direction of rotation of the front wheel. (If you put your hand up in front of you, and pretend it's your forks you'll see what mean) You will notice that the imaginary rotatation of the forks now has them cantered to the right. Any thing attached to the gyroscope will then canter or lean to the right. The opposite thing happens when you trn the bars to the right.

Any questions. If you are still confused, I suggest studying "Rotary Wing Theory of Flight" (Helicopters).

Next weeks lesson will be on how hanging off lowers your centre of gravity and the effect this has on the "thrust vectors" and hence your rate of turn or turn radius. <i></i>