Letters
LETTERS
Being steered right— or wrong?
For years I've been trying to figure out how some people can turn a motorcycle without countersteering. I had never read anywhere that it is the only way to turn a bike. Just as you said in your June Editorial. “Countering The Steering Myths," I was lead to believe it was an option. So I thought I was a “natural." But after many failed attempts in empty parking lots, I came to the conclusion that it is in fact the only way. Period. Thanks for pointing us in the right direction on this confusing subject.
Stephen Mariani
Tappan, New' York
After reading your editorial, “Countering The Steering Myths," in the June issue of Cycle World, I think it very commendable of you to take the initiative to inform us bike riders of one of the most formidable and effective defensive weapons available to us. You are absolutely correct: You must impart a velocity to the handlebars to the left in order to lean the bike to the right. However (remembering a 40-year-ago Physics course). I feel you are incorrect in your statement that centrifugal force is the reason. Instead. the law of physics that causes this phenomenon is precession, commonly called gyroscopic action, which is the physical law that allows us to remain upright on a twowheeled vehicle. Without this law, there would be no two-w heeled vehicles—everyone would forever need training wheels.
The law, simply stated, is: A force applied to the end of the rotational axis of a rotating body is transferred to a point 90 degrees in the direction of rotation from the applied force.
I feel that centrifugal force cannot be the result of countersteering, since in order to to have centrifugal force, the bike and rider must already be into a turn.
Countersteering takes place before you are in a turn. Regardless, though, whether you or I am correct in our analysis of this phenomenon, the important fact is that it works.
Donn W. Hilterbrick Diamond Bar, California
You are, of course, correct—gyroscopic precession does pla y a part in the steering of a motorcycle. But its mention deliberately was omitted from the editorial for two reasons. I) Precession is not the only phenomenon responsible for causing a motorcycle to steer the wa y it does. If the wheels on a motorcycle were absurdly tiny, the amount of gyroscopic action would be just short of insignificant and the bike would be absurdly unstable. Yet it would still be necessar y to use countersteering to make the motorcycle turn. And 2), the editorial's purpose was to enlighten a misinformed readership—in the most straightforward. unintimidating way possible—on a matter of life-and-death importance, not to conduct a lesson in Ph ysics.
When I read your editorial about “Left is left, right?," I said. “This guy is nutsF' I did, however, decide to go out and very gently pull on the handlebar and see if the bike would go in the opposite direction. Well, did you know that if “crow" is prepared right, it ain't half bad? My God, it w'orks just like you said.
I still had one problem, and that was how to get countersteering to become a natural reaction real soon. So what I do know is to lean slightly in the direction I want to go and push against the side of the handlebar I am leaning against, in hopes that my brain will associate pushing in the direction I want to go. I am telling you this in hopes that it would be a tremendous service to your readers to know about this push-left-go-left, push-right-go-right concept.
John D. Foster
Los Angeles, California
Short and to the point
Your April comparison of the K 1 OORT and the Gold Wing con-> firmed two things I've known for some time: The K100RT exactly matches my idea of what a touring bike should be; I wouldn’t own a GL on a bet.
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Peter W. Swanson Ramona, California
It a woyale scwew-up
Re: the bike photo on page 30 of the June, 1 985 Cycle World. I guess Cagiva is really turning Ducati around, as the text states. But the name and model? ITADUC OMS3C? Really? What about the ITADUC OMS3B?
Seriously, I'm of Italian descent, but I can't read the lettering behind the bike’s front turn-signal.
ITADUC doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. Maybe they’ll get things “turned around.”
Jon A. Barletta Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania
It’s apparent by your superb photography and accompanying article that Ducati lives and is producing a familiar machine under
a new name. I guess Ducati was barred from reusing its old name, but I like the new one. I recognize it to be the Italian-accented answer to the stranger’s question, “Hey! What kinda bike is that?” And the Italian guy, he say, “Wha, dissa bike here?
It a Due.”
James Michael Annandale. Virginia
iißouG arillo oíorlq aril bavoJ snul srl) Jo 0£ sgßq no sIIiM airlT .sbiJiß gniynßqmossß srlí bnß ni bißwioJ qsjg ß 2>hßm ylnißtiss '(ißbnsgsl ¿irlílo noiiingossi iuo\( .¿drißrlT .supißm A.J. Alberti, Secretary Ducati Owners Club of Canada Toronto, Ontario, Canada You 're not going to get upset just because we made one lousy little tnistake, are you? After all, nobody's human.
Intruder as muzak
Poor Suzuki. Is all they are capable of making anymore imitation Harleys such as the Intruder? This
bike comes off like the versions of hit songs that are piped into the supermarkets: a dull, bland imitation of the real thing with all the class removed. Though I am a Harley rider, I can tell you where the real Japanese bikes with class arelike Yamaha’s V-Max or Honda’s Interceptor, bikes that can stand on their own instead of being the genuine imitation wanna-be.
Dean A. Davis
Watson, Illinois E9
