Counter balance at about 20 and below, lean into the turn above that is what I've always heard and done. YMMV

 

Is counter leaning the same as counter culture?

 

It's a buzzword, like counter steering, for motorcyclists who never really learned how to ride a bicycle.

 

Curiosity got the best of me and I looked up counter-leaning. I'm not really sure if it's the actual definition, but it was described as leaning the bike, but keeping your body upright and lean away from the turn. Kind of the opposite of what MotoGP racers do when the lean their body way down into the turn.

This was the explanation which made sense -

"Through the tight cones, they counter lean when the speed is slow, through the curve at the end, they hang off the inside to increase ground clearance.

At anything over about 15mph, you can hang off the inside because you have enough momentum and load on your tires, below that speed, you could do it, but you would have a hard time picking the bike up again to go straight. You would probably end up in a quickly decreasing radius curve and eventually fall off the inside. This happens sometimes in racing, where the rider hangs off the inside and actually falls off.

At slow speeds, counter leaning keeps a more vertical load on the tires and maintains balance where there is less lateral load.

The situation where this feels more natural, to counter lean, is pulling out of a side street where you have to make a relatively sharp turn at low'ish speeds. You probably could avoid counter leaning in this situation, but you would have to be reasonably hard on the gas and committed, with a lot of lean, and there is a good chance you would lose traction on the rear wheel."

So not the same as counter steering.

 

Like others said, I do all the above without giving it much thought. I push the bars, pull the bars, lean sometimes, sometimes I throw my knee to the side and catch air to pull the bike into a turn. When I start to think about what I'm doing it all starts to fall apart.

 

This is the most accurate statement about it, at least for me. If I consciously try to think when leaning, I it mess up. If you have been doing it for years, you don't really think about it.

 

My Softail has limited cornering clearance, so I lean my body to the inside on fast corners to avoid dragging the undercarriage. Comes from my old days of riding sport bikes.


The "counter leaning" is apparently done in VERY slow speed maneuvering, so, yeah, I probably do that to, but don't really think about it, I just do it.

 

I might "counter lean" and don't know it. But can see the benefit on a slow tight turn.

Everybody "counter steers" whether they know it or not. You have to. It isn't something that you decide to do or not. "Hey I'm going to try that counter steering technique, next time I'm out on the bike." (Hey goofball, I have news...you already were, every time you rode). It's physics and it is what you do when your going any speed faster than about 10-15 mph. Don't believe me? Go out and consciously try to turn your front wheel in the direction of the turn/curve (curve going left, turn wheel to the left). Or just going straight down the center of your lane, try pointing your front wheel toward the right to go toward the curb. Now when that didn't work and you're still not convinced (I know some of your are really thick headed), try pointing your front wheel to the left to run into the oncoming lane.

Your bike steering isn't like your car steering.

 

If I had to think about what I was doing when i am leaning I would probably fall off.

 

Damn, I'm confused now. Here's as simple as I can make it...

Counter Steer - Push the handlebar a fraction of an inch on the side you want to turn towards. This will initiate a very quick lean, which you then assist by shiting your weight into the turn.

Counter Leaning - When turning at slow speeds and the bike starts to lean, you may need to lean in the opposite direction to prevent it from falling.

Passengers - Trust the rider and mirror what he does.