Originally Posted by BCRider

So many of us learned to ride when young that we learned to control the bike by leaning our shoulders into the turn and/or the "trick" of looking into the turn and the bike just somehow follows and steers correctly because we've trained out shoulders and arms to do what needs to be done with these aids rather than to conciously learn to use bar pressure to balance and steer the bike. Now that's all fine and dandy for those that know now to ride and have taught themselves and ridden this way all along. There's legions of folks that do so.

But it leaves us with difficulty in trying to train someone else since the link between the shoulder and head twisting doesn't address the need for proper use of bar pressure in a direct manner. This is the important aspect that goes unsaid because so many ride on instincts leaned so long ago that they don't even realize that they are pushing on the bars to make the bike turn so they don't communicate that to the struggling new or low time rider.

Anyhow, I'm sorry for all the counter steering rants in this thread. And I apoligise to anyone that thinks I've attacked their ability to ride. It's just that I've seen far too many motorcyclists hurt or killed because they didn't understand how this works. I even had a couple of close calls myself early on before a big light bulb suddenly switched on. And nothing in the world is more frustrating than steering like you think you should but the bike is doing the opposite of what you want... especially with a huge drain ditch under one of your footpegs that is reaching for you.... I guess this is why I'm so passionate about this aspect of riding both here and in the motorcycle world.