There are many schools of thought on just how to steer a motorcycle. While all of them may appear to work, some are more effective than others, and for any to work they must include, conscious or sub-conscious, counter-steering

What the Dickens is counter-steering? Let's look at the term itself. Counter; opposite to. Steering; to change direction. Counter-steering means to steer opposite to the direction of the turn.

Now this may have quite some effect on your survival reactions. Think about it. To turn a left hand corner, you have to push the handlebars to the right. To turn the bike right, you have to push the bars left. To the part of our minds that is designed to keep us alive, this simply does not compute.

Especially when we consider that it is only on two wheeled vehicles that this is the case. After all, you don't counter-steer a car now do you!? Well, I hope not anyhow... What you need to understand is that you are already doing this whether you are conscious of it or not, and if something is being done sub-consciously, you're simply not in control of it.

To help clarify all this, there is one question you have to ask in relation to changing - "is lean a result of steer, or is steer a result of lean"? When you steer the bike does it lean, or when you lean the bike does it steer? The correct answer is; when you steer, the bike leans. Well done.

For those riders who are leaning into corners out of habit, and those who consciously practice body-steering, I have a few questions for you. Question One: How many contact points do you have with the motorcycle? Answer: At least five (two hands, two feet, and your derriere). Question Two: How many of those points are connected to something that pivots? Answer: Two (your hands). So, your only contact points that can change the position of, or move something on the bike, are your hands on the handlebars.

What this means is that when you lean or body steer, you are relying on the change of your body weight to steer the bike. If this is the case, you must be changing the distribution of weight via your contact points with the motorcycle, which moves the one thing to which you are connected that pivots, the handlebars. If you lean to the right, then your weight will shift to the right, putting weight on and therefore pushing away anything you are holding with your right hand.

This means that when you have been leaning the bike, you've actually been counter-steering it without even realising you've been doing it. As a matter of fact, without counter-steering, the motorcycle cannot make it around a corner. If that's the case, it makes sense to use the skill more directly so that it is more effective, don't you think? Remember, if it's not conscious for you, you're not in control. You can't change something that you don't know you're doing. Last issue I made the statement that counter-steering is the only real method to steer the motorcycle. If that's true, then how exactly do you do it?

Quite simply, all you do is push the inside handlebar in the opposite direction of the turn. If you're turning right, then push the inside (right) handlebar to the left and vice versa for left hand turns. This is really all the bike wants from you to complete the steering action successfully. However, when a rider changes from unconsciously using his body weight to get around a corner to steering the bike correctly, it usually takes more than one try to get it right. At first it feels unnatural and downright dangerous. One of the reasons for this is your body position on the bike and how it affects the steering action.

To help me explain this, go and sit on your motorcycle right now in your normal riding position and grab the handlebars. If your seating position is like most riders, you will notice that as you do this the angle of your arm to the ground would probably be around 20 or 30 degrees to the road surface if you measured it.

When you consider the angle at which the steering head runs (which determines the way the handlebars can pivot) you will notice that it doesn't really put you in a position to exercise a great deal of force when turning the bars. Now, try to turn the handlebars back and forth and see how much force it takes. You will most likely notice that as you try to push the handlebar to steer it, you will end up pushing the bar down rather than slightly forward which is what is actually required to steer the motorcycle. To better use the steering of the bike you need to place the direction of the force as close as possible to 90 degrees to the angle of the steering head. Now, drop your elbows down by hunching your back slightly, seeing how close you can get your forearms to parallel with the ground, and then try to move the handlebars. What happened? You should have noticed that the handlebars moved easier with less force.

If you're not pushing the handlebar in the correct direction, you're actually trying to push the whole bike down instead of turn the bars, and it will not respond with the speed and accuracy that you can gain with the correct method of counter-steering.

In my column in Australian Motorcycle trader this month: where do we use this new found skill? Have a look