I used to freak out taking a heavy dirt bike down wild rutted hills. My mate said, just relax. Ever seen a bike ride itself down the hill after the rider fell off, just loosen your grip and it will do the work. He was right.
My bike did it too, I climbed a mountain and it got almost a sheer drop. Decided I should bike down. This tree invested mountain. I was 12. I remember the feeling having both brakes locked and still accelerating towards a log on the ground. I hit it went over the handle bars and took off about 30 feet because of the drop and hugged a tree ..and then fell 4 feet and walked back up got the bike and carefully went downhill, not on the bike.
@@zobuss5533 there are two types of kids, those that make a fuss over any injury, and those that say "yeah nah I'm fine" - and they actually are fine - after falling off the roof of a two storey house.
Sorta, i was laying on the ground when i fell the 4 feet. for a minute or so no idea how long. Then sorta staggered up the mountainside got the bike and made my way down. To be honest i have no idea how i walked it off, i just remember shaking my head because i was dizzy and it hurt and thought about how my father said it was a bad idea and i should have listened.
In case anyone is wondering, its because the wheel will naturally spin if trying to go forward from an angle. The wheel itself is on a "wheel" which is the pivoting from handlebars. When you push a wheel from not straight on, it rotates. So push the wheel at an angle and the handlebars rotate to equalize. Do this continually and it stays upright. Pushing forward yields less resistance when wheel is facing the direction its being pointed so the spin settlles with the wheel facing the direction that takes least energy to remain in. Thats why locking the handlebars doesnt work cause the wheel naturally wants to spin in the direction along the angle of where the bikes facing.
It applies to all bikes from kiddy cycles up to huge cruiser motorcycles. It also applies to leaning scooters like the Piaggio M3P. They have two front wheels but the lean steering is the same.
Now that you mentioned it, I'm watching the video again and noticing the effect. Especially the second one where the bike goes down hill, it's really amazing how the front wheel is steering itself.
Ever wonder why the steering wheel of a car can self center? Actually, cars can also utilise this effect by having the front wheel's pivot-point slightly tilted forward.
When I was little I would push it forward, let it ghost ride, and then run as fast as I can and jump back on it. One of my funnest childhood memories, made me feel so awesome
@@BloopTube how tho, i could put my feet on my handlebars but i could never pedal with no hands. too scared to try, i thought any slight bump would YEET the bars in one direction and flip the bike.
@@KreepKarnagei dont really pedal with no hands either, only doing it when like i forgot to put on a hat at winter before i started riding. I feelt like you need to steer tge bike somewhat, but you should not be tense.
It's the entire equation once you're going fast enough. Bicycles don't turn by turning the handlebars, they turn by using the side of the tire which has a smaller diameter, you lean to turn. At speed the steering effect destabilizes a bike which is why a lot of motorcycles have steering stabilizers that help keep the handlebars straight.
the front forks have a curve to them so they want to straighten up naturally, like cars are design with camber so they try to straighten up when turned.
Yep, also the part here where they lock the handlebar he was going really slow and basically forced falling over. The worst Veritasium video I`ve ever seen.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 It's not required, though. A curious person bult a motorbike with a geared brake rotor rotating in reverse with a speed that compensated precession forces. It ran with the feel of a normal bike. Steering geometry does the heavy lifting, not precession.
WOW the first shot of the bike riding down the hill sent me right back to my childhood... In hindsight, I didn't take very good care of my first bike LOL
Similar effect can be seen with motorcycles. If you get the “death wobble”, just let go and it’ll fix itself in a second or so. Theres a bit more to it I think, but that’s the main thing
@@pzgamerchYou're taught to use 'soft hands' in certain circles when you get a death wobble. The wobble means you're still going forward, so stopping the steering column in place will immediately throw the bike out of equilibrium and therefore balance.
@@bluelemonade415 - pilot induced oscillations - relax and it will ride itself out - unless you designed it to be "unstable, necessitating a higher frequency control loop...
Its called caster angle. The contact patch of the tyre is actually behind the steering axis. If you project a line through the steerer tube it will fall in front of the wheel. This is the axis the steering pivots around. By having the wheel behind the steering axis, it basically self centres like a wheel on a shopping cart.
It’s called positive caster. The angle of the forks put the steering axis ahead of the tire contact patch. This allows the front wheel to self stabilize. If the steering axis was perpendicular to the surface it is rolling on, any deviation in parallel between the front and rear wheels would cause the front wheel to turn hard left/right.
The reason why the wheels steer is because of the caster. Bikes of any kind generally have a positive caster (tilted back). This is also why your car will straighten itself after a corner when you let go of the steering wheel. The gyro contributes to slowing the tipping of the bike which drastically helps the response time of the caster regardless.
if you’ve ever ridden a bike without touching the handlebars, this is how that works as well. when you want to turn, you just lean your body slightly and the self-steering will turn in that direction to try to keep the bike upright. it’s the same principle as those electric self-balancing two-wheelers (like segways and hoverboards etc) with two parallel wheels, where you lean forwards and backwards to control how fast it should go
It's still a gyroscope at work. Two of them. Allowing them some degree of movement lets them work together to keep the bike upright. The bike is not "steering" anything; the two linked gryoscopes are just trying to keep themselves aligned. If you look into ship stabilisers you'll find it's essentially the same system.
If it were gyroscopic, changing the density of the wheels should significantly alter their movement, with ultra lightweight wheels almost falling over. I doubt that happens in reality.
This effect is a direct consequence of the angle of the front fork. Since the projection of the steering axis is always in front of the contact patch of the tyre when ever the bike starts falling to one side a self-aligning torque is created
The gravity-defying wheel trick is caused by a physics phenomenon called “angular momentum”. I don’t know enough about physics to provide a proper explanation, but I think the basic idea is something like this: while an object is spinning on an axis, its range of motion becomes limited since the total energy within the system cannot change. This is the principle that explains why gyroscopes work, how rifling stabilizes a bullet’s trajectory, and more. Look it up if you like (if you’re actually good at math unlike me lol).
The steering column angle is responsible for this after a certain speed. It will do the opposite in reverse and tumble. It's the "castor" angle of the wheel, which ironically, doesn't work like actual castor wheels at all, but visually resembles them.
It's obviously not one or the other, it's both. Bikes at low speed are significantly harder to balance because of the reduced gyroscopic force. Motorcycles at high speed can lean to significant angles because of the increased gyroscopic force. You could never lean on a bike without the gyroscopic force.
@@SM-dt1pr You obviously have never ridden a motorcycle. If you ever rode a motorcycle you'd know the steering effect DESTABILIZIES you at speed, which is why so many motorcycles have steering stabilizers to reduce it as much as possible. Turning on a bike is achieved by riding on the side of the tire which has a smaller diameter, NOT by turning the handlebars, the handlebars stay totally straight. It's the gyroscopic force that allows you to turn at speed, the steering effect only stabilizes a bike at low speeds. I guarantee you could weld the handlebars on a bike to stay straight and be perfectly stable at speed.
Lean increases surface area ie more friction so the bike turns sharper. Centrifugal force is what keeps the bike from falling over and is generated from the turn itself. You also don't initiate a turn without counter steer, the bike will naturally lean itself and you can add more for a sharper turn.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049I don't think a bike would remain stable with welded handlebars at speeds. One bump or dip should cause chaos. Same reason you don't stiff arm a bike or it'll death wobble.
I love your format of question, this is what you think is the answer, this is why that’s wrong, and this is the actual answer. I know you have a video that dives into this framework, and since I have watched it I have really appreciated your teaching style. Thanks!
Gyroscopic forces still play a part, not because it directly stops the bike from tipping over, but because it helps to turn the front weel in the necessary direction as the bike tilts. It's a combination of that and the castor of the front wheel.
I'm 25, and I still haven't learned how to ride a bike because of my intense anxiety. But this has helped calm some of those fears of falling over -- as long as I'm going a sufficient speed of course, heheh. Maybe I'll take my bike out once the weather gets nice again where I live.
What Braiden said above, and get a good friend to just support a little with the hand on the saddle. Best is a silent friend, wich does not give constant advises. Because riding a bicicle quickly will get a subconsciohs action. If you get relaxed, the bike and your body knows what to do to stay upright. Good luck, and a healthy good life to you! 😊
That's only half the explanation. When the bike steers in the direction it is falling it begins to follow a curve. The centrifugal force on the bike in that curve pushes it back upright. That's why the faster the bike is, the more stable it is. The centrifugal force (actually acceleration) formula is v²/R. It is proportional to the square of its speed.
We need someone to weld the handlebars of a bike straight and ride it, if you're going fast enough it will be stable with no steering effect. Steering effect is a low speed phenomenon only, it destabilizes a bike at high speeds which is why so many motorcycles have steering stabilizers to prevent it. Once a bike is going fast enough you're stabilized by the gyroscopic effect of the wheels, turning is done by leaning the bike onto the smaller diameter part of the tire, and the handlebars stay straight the whole time.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 you are very confidently incorrect. when you want to initiate a turn to the right with a bike, you turn the handlebars left which generates lateral force to the left (just like with a car!) and the bike starts rolling to the right, and then you maintain that roll angle to keep cornering. that is countersteering. by leaning your body you are increasing the angle from the tire contact patch to the center of gravity of the bike+rider system, which effectively does the same thing as increasing lean angle of the bike. If you do the math for how much that angle can change from your body moving, you will see that its not a lot - leaning the bike does far more. gyroscopic force does not make the bike stay upright, it makes it want to stay at the same lean angle, and is not infinitely strong and any force acting to roll the bike will still cause it to roll, just slower. steering dampers are used to prevent "speed wobbles" which are caused by inertia and gyroscopic torque in the steering system not allowing the wheels to instantly turn and reduce the lateral forces caused by things like bumps. bicycles have much less inertia and gyroscopic torque (due to lighter tires spinning slower) than motorcycles and thus are less prone to getting those "speed wobbles" and will have an easier time staying upright if rolling down a bumpy hill.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 please read tony foale's motorcycle handling and chassis design's section 4, balance and steering. it explains a lot of this stuff very well and with examples. i can link you the book if you cant find it yourself.
Bike are pretty stable *at speeds* You need to get some speed to keep the bike stable, and if you don't know how to ride a bike, it's hard to get some speed. Btw after 3/4 months of daily use, i can now ride a bike with no hands. Which is pretty cool, and if i am on a good bike path i can literally start watching my phone while biking lol
@@kuhluhOG not really. I never run into anything. The thing is, just do it if you have a nice long bike path, without too many people on it. I do have that, thus i do. I wouldn't do the same if it was dangerous, i am not stupid
@@no_name4796 for racing in road bikes it's very crucial to learn this skill too. Since you'll need both your hands at times to eat while riding. I use it everytime I need to tear off a snack bar on a long ride or a gel on races.
We call it caster innthe automotive world. If you wanna go fast and stay straight, dial in a little more. If you need to stay nimble cause you like to make turns, dial in a little less. It's the same "force" that causes your steering wheel to re-enter itself when you make a turn.
Oof. Sometimes when i do that while at some good speed, that bike starts shaking a lot lol Never felt from a bike though Except once, but it was just me being an idiot and making a thight turn reaaaaaly fast lol
Honestly the biggest tip I can give to any rider. Is don’t be tense, loosen up and let the bike do the work your just there to shift weight accordingly
Correct. It's known as the positive caster angle. If they were bent backwards it would be a negative caster angle. Passenger vehicles are also built with positive caster for the same reason
@TheAntinowherelane Strictly saying that is incorrect. Caster angle is only one of the parameters that contributes to trail, and trail does the most of self steering job. Rake also plays major role in steering forces when stopped and during counersteering.
@@EdwardKrapovnitsky caster angle is the same thing as rake. the things that influence trail are caster angle and the offset of that axis longitudinally
Its called rake and trial, its also why you can tide motorcycles without hands. Tail is the distance between a perfect verticle line passing througt the bearing connection and the line passing through the steering axe. This why a lot of dirtbike's handelbar goes bizerk, because of the small amount of trail.
In Rajasthan, India, there's a village where an old cruiser bike (Royal Enfield) is worshipped as people think there was a spirit riding that bike. The story was that the bike was seen traveling straight without a driver for a few miles on a long stretched road. I wish they watched this video🤣🤣
Now Im realizing why Aim9 sidewinder has those little steering wheels at the end of the missile and they can actually move right or left to stabilize the missile.Pretty GENIUS and simple solution to a very hard problem.
lol, no, the key was speed….. how fast do you walk with a bike??? Have you tired your theory recently…. People use the handlebars for a reason - control at low speed 😂
Sometimes i do push the seat while i m like going to park the bike, because that way im controlling the bike from the center without the handlebars poking me. But as others said the speed is to low so the handlebar will not really stay straight.
Yep. Push it backwards and instead of being srlf correcting, it will fall fast. A similar thing happens with cars. If you drive forward and let go of the steering wheel until it is going straight, but in reverse the car will turn into a tight circle and continue in a smallest possible circle.
This is how my parents convinced me to keep pedalling when they teached me how to ride a bike "as long as you are moving and be relaxed, you wont fall"
When I was in Jr High (7th and 8th grades) I rode my bike to school. It was 1.1 mile. I only had my hands on the handle bars while getting out of the bicycle parking lot. My bike was so well balanced I didn't need to use my hands on any other turns I needed to make. It was a black Schwinn Tornado... best bike I ever owned.
What made sense to me mountain biking was that the bike going was like a gyroscope. So it’ll try to keep itself upright and that’s how the center of gravity works and the wheels spinning. But once I realized that and took advantage of it my balance was so much better
It kinda does work that way a little bit though. It’s not quite the same clearly, the example is using centrifugal forces to cancel out out the other forces acting on it. Because of the momentum it has there is so much force that it overpowers the moment force that gravity has on it (doesn’t stop it from falling but does stop it from tilting). Meanwhile the bike uses forward momentum to cancel out sideways movement. Well maybe cancel out isn’t the right word, more like this: If you at random intervals have 1 force of 100Newton pushing and pulling randomly (the uneven road) it’s going to go sideways pretty quickly and as soon as it does the gravity is going to make it worse. But if you are also going forwards with a constant force of like 5000newton, now the effect of that 100Newton is much less noticeable. Meaning that much smaller corrections are required to keep the bike upright. (And yes if designed right it should do this by itself) TLDR: It’s not functioning exactly the same way, but it’s actually pretty close to a gyro. It uses a lot of the same principles
specifically, the fork of the front wheel is angled forward so when the bike inclines to the side, then front wheel will turn on the direction of the inclination
I think a heavier front wheel assembly n handle bar can more easily self correct n steer to maintain balance n upright. I always gently rock the handle bar to keep my bike straight n upright. Any large “ amplitude “ turning of handle bar will topple my bike.
It's cool how this was made without the use of electronic systems for the balancing. I mean this method is rather natural and shows understanding of fundamentals mechanical principles.
I like to let go of the handle bar whenever I can and I slowly learnt how to turn a bike with my hands off the handle bar by gently shifting my weight to one side. This is literally the explanation for why it works.
This is basically how i learned how to ride a bike, an uncle of mine told me just go towards direction you are falling and my 2 months of struggling ended and i finally learned that day.
The fact that the bicycle self corrects has to do with the mechanical trail on the front fork, straightening itself out, similar to a shopping buggy with the front wheels steering. However, that does not negate the fact that gyroscopic properties of the wheels do keep the bike upright.
My brother I have never heard you be this wrong. It is most DEFINITELY because of the gyroscopic precession. 2 wheels moving in the same direction connected by a dynamic structure is just the same as 1 moving in that direction. The only difference is how the wheels momentum now effects the other because they are connected. The wheels stay up because of the gyroscopic effect > the structure(bike frame) stays up because it is supported by the wheels. The way the frame reacts is just that. A REACTION to what the wheels do, not the other way around. The steering column turns and adjusts automatically because it allows for the two wheels to be on different x planes. If the steering column didn’t exist, the wheels would still function similarly, but an outside force would cause one wheels to start tilting, which would cause the other wheels to start tilting, which would cause the other wheel to start tilting, which would cause the other wheel to start tilting in an exponential effect until the bike is on the ground. The bike design isn’t ingenious, it simply allows for physics to do what it does, which when working with two similar but independent systems(wheels) allows them to stay close together while also being independent.
This is why people can actually lift their hands of the handle bars, in both bicycle and bikes. You really need to become one with the bike to ride it perfectly.
It’s called caster it’s being used for all kinds of vehicles It’s the thing that for example pulls your steering wheel straight in the car while driving
The headset (the rotating mechanism under the handlebar) of all bicycles is slanted at an angle. The slant forces the front wheel system to stay straight when moving. Motorcycle headsets are like this too.
That was actually what got me to ride one. I was 18 yo and didn't know how to ride a bike until a friend told me "turn the handle to whatever direction you feel like you're falling". And that single trick did it for someone with 0 practice.
Skateboards have a similar effect except it's relationship to speed is backwards. In both cases it is basically turning in the direction it is falling due to how the steering is set up. This means the momentum is now pointing away from the direction it is falling and pulling it upright. With a skateboard this makes it fall harder at higher speeds producing "speed wobbles" This effect while being scary actually helps in the case of uneven bumps as the skateboard as the skateboard will actually still average a straight path unless forced to turn by the rider shifting their weight.
That’s why the front fork is raked forward slightly and the wheel mounting point is on the back side of the fork. So the front wheel always pulls itself straight.
When it turns right, it initially leans that way but is forced to lean to the other due to centrifugal force, which it proceeds to switch between rapidly. If its speed isn’t sufficient, the bike will continue the turn and fall onto the side it is turning towards eventually.
it's the tilt of the wheels out from center, a sport bike (motorcycle) is closer to center, that means it can take cornerers fast, but a chopper the wheels are more spread apart, that makes them exstremly directional stable, but not as good for cornerers... 😊
It’s through cunticyclic force acting in opposition to gravity and helping keep the bike upright. Through the cunticyclic conversion of lateral energy entropy the stasis of the model is consistent
Gyroscopes was the key invention for torpedos and missiles to stay on target and this shows exactly why since they couldn’t be knocked off course as easy and still go strait
once i learned how to trust this effect, i almost never touched the handlebars when i would ride my bike around town. they were just there for starting/stopping, and my hands were free to do whatever else (usually to hold energy drinks and my phone)
The “castor effect” as it’s called. The whole front wheel is a castor with handlebars attached and balanced slightly rearward of the pivot point of the handlebars, which makes the wheel want to naturally turn in the direction of travel (taking the handlebars with it.)
Hey, most people dont "really know" anything about... anything. Yeah of course he is not the only one who figured this out, but these types of videos are still needed.
I did this with my brothers as kids 😂😂😂. We used to go as fast as we could and then let go our bikes. They would go meeeeeeters far away. I remember one occasion, we hitted a neighbor’s car and damaged the door lmaooo
Bicycles evolved to steer themselves and stay upright. Bicycles that didn't keep themselves upright did not survive.
meme
Ha!
😮 All we are analyzing has a bias over the real population of bycicles
😂
Natural selection of the bikes i see
I used to freak out taking a heavy dirt bike down wild rutted hills. My mate said, just relax. Ever seen a bike ride itself down the hill after the rider fell off, just loosen your grip and it will do the work. He was right.
My bike did it too, I climbed a mountain and it got almost a sheer drop. Decided I should bike down. This tree invested mountain. I was 12. I remember the feeling having both brakes locked and still accelerating towards a log on the ground. I hit it went over the handle bars and took off about 30 feet because of the drop and hugged a tree ..and then fell 4 feet and walked back up got the bike and carefully went downhill, not on the bike.
@@hunterbear242130 feet into a tree and you walked it off?
@@zobuss5533 I think he is lying. He died on the scene.
@@zobuss5533 there are two types of kids, those that make a fuss over any injury, and those that say "yeah nah I'm fine" - and they actually are fine - after falling off the roof of a two storey house.
Sorta, i was laying on the ground when i fell the 4 feet. for a minute or so no idea how long. Then sorta staggered up the mountainside got the bike and made my way down. To be honest i have no idea how i walked it off, i just remember shaking my head because i was dizzy and it hurt and thought about how my father said it was a bad idea and i should have listened.
"Excuse me sir, your bike ran away"
😹😹
That happened to me once. I didn't see it, but pretty sure that's what happened.
Drove away
@@fathmath2308r/whooosh
In case anyone is wondering, its because the wheel will naturally spin if trying to go forward from an angle. The wheel itself is on a "wheel" which is the pivoting from handlebars. When you push a wheel from not straight on, it rotates. So push the wheel at an angle and the handlebars rotate to equalize. Do this continually and it stays upright. Pushing forward yields less resistance when wheel is facing the direction its being pointed so the spin settlles with the wheel facing the direction that takes least energy to remain in.
Thats why locking the handlebars doesnt work cause the wheel naturally wants to spin in the direction along the angle of where the bikes facing.
"Ghost doesn't exist"
*Ghost:*
Ghost do exist but why do they ride a bike?
Stop being a rizzler. You're not a skibidi sigma. You're just yapping and stealing comments from random people.
Because they want to get from one place to another.
@@user-vy4nb8bf7jthey want to feel human again
no proof or disproof of ghost's existence so ghost's existence remain vacuously true
In the mountain biking world, this measurement is the offset between the steering axis and the front contact point, called “trail”
Needs more slack
It applies to all bikes from kiddy cycles up to huge cruiser motorcycles. It also applies to leaning scooters like the Piaggio M3P. They have two front wheels but the lean steering is the same.
It also applies to cars and trucks. There it is called the caster angle. It’s why the steering wheel is self centering when driving forward.
Or caster angle
@@mushroomnick8853 Or caster angle?
Ghost in the hood : *This is how you steal a bike.*
Now that you mentioned it, I'm watching the video again and noticing the effect. Especially the second one where the bike goes down hill, it's really amazing how the front wheel is steering itself.
Ever wonder why the steering wheel of a car can self center?
Actually, cars can also utilise this effect by having the front wheel's pivot-point slightly tilted forward.
Yeah, how Caster angle work is really interesting.
Do you mean this as in drifting?
the castor effect, it’s maaaaaavelous
That's a super cute first page Google definition. Bless your hearts!
Is that why driving with speed without power steering is much easier than driving slow and without powersteering and still trying to keep it straight?
Bringing back childhood memories of me and my neighbor "ghost riding" our bikes down a huge hill when we were bored 😂
"Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full"
Me too. It usually would ruin the bike after a while. Bend the rims or the brake handles would become damaged
When I was little I would push it forward, let it ghost ride, and then run as fast as I can and jump back on it.
One of my funnest childhood memories, made me feel so awesome
The same way handlebars steer themselves when we are riding without using our hands 😊
Ah yes, my dreams come true after exactly 2 years. That one horror has just reactivated a fear in me, moving bicycles/motorcycles without any riders.
Learning to ride a bike is really just learning not to force it to fall over.
Explains why cycling with no hands gets so damn easy after a while
@@BloopTube this 100%
@@BloopTube how tho, i could put my feet on my handlebars but i could never pedal with no hands. too scared to try, i thought any slight bump would YEET the bars in one direction and flip the bike.
@@KreepKarnagei dont really pedal with no hands either, only doing it when like i forgot to put on a hat at winter before i started riding. I feelt like you need to steer tge bike somewhat, but you should not be tense.
True, but if you roll a single bicycle wheel down a hill it stayes up right too, so gyroscopics is part of the equation
It's the entire equation once you're going fast enough. Bicycles don't turn by turning the handlebars, they turn by using the side of the tire which has a smaller diameter, you lean to turn. At speed the steering effect destabilizes a bike which is why a lot of motorcycles have steering stabilizers that help keep the handlebars straight.
the front forks have a curve to them so they want to straighten up naturally, like cars are design with camber so they try to straighten up when turned.
Yep, also the part here where they lock the handlebar he was going really slow and basically forced falling over. The worst Veritasium video I`ve ever seen.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 It's not required, though. A curious person bult a motorbike with a geared brake rotor rotating in reverse with a speed that compensated precession forces. It ran with the feel of a normal bike. Steering geometry does the heavy lifting, not precession.
@@HarryNicNicholasCaster self steers, not camber. Camber gives you an increased tire contact patch when navigating corners.
WOW the first shot of the bike riding down the hill sent me right back to my childhood... In hindsight, I didn't take very good care of my first bike LOL
"they're cleverly designed to steer themselves"
*vsauce theme starts playing*
Exactly how i taught my kids. When you feel like falling towards one side, just steer to the same side. They learned to ride on the same day
Similar effect can be seen with motorcycles. If you get the “death wobble”, just let go and it’ll fix itself in a second or so. Theres a bit more to it I think, but that’s the main thing
@@bluelemonade415 so you don't need to panic and try to control it just let your hand go?
@@pzgamerchthe more you try to control it the more unstable it become
@@pzgamerchYou're taught to use 'soft hands' in certain circles when you get a death wobble. The wobble means you're still going forward, so stopping the steering column in place will immediately throw the bike out of equilibrium and therefore balance.
@@bluelemonade415 - pilot induced oscillations - relax and it will ride itself out - unless you designed it to be "unstable, necessitating a higher frequency control loop...
Its called caster angle. The contact patch of the tyre is actually behind the steering axis. If you project a line through the steerer tube it will fall in front of the wheel. This is the axis the steering pivots around. By having the wheel behind the steering axis, it basically self centres like a wheel on a shopping cart.
This is the way ;)
Same effect with letting go during a “death wobble” on a motorcycle right?
I liked this comment for your spelling alone. Wish we in America spelt it like that.
That makes so much sense, thanks for your explanation!
Caster angle is also what keeps your car going straight when you let go of the steering wheel.
The handle bars and their position are almost everything!💙
Anything with sufficiency can do it indefinitely. That's the definition of being sufficient
It’s called positive caster. The angle of the forks put the steering axis ahead of the tire contact patch. This allows the front wheel to self stabilize.
If the steering axis was perpendicular to the surface it is rolling on, any deviation in parallel between the front and rear wheels would cause the front wheel to turn hard left/right.
This is how cars return to center after a turn.
Man... I love physics
W
I always loved physics and hated chemistry especially organic
@@yogeshthakur9159 i hated biology! To many terms to remember!
Or as the youngsters say...MILPH
My gf name is physics. Watch your mouth mate
The reason why the wheels steer is because of the caster. Bikes of any kind generally have a positive caster (tilted back). This is also why your car will straighten itself after a corner when you let go of the steering wheel.
The gyro contributes to slowing the tipping of the bike which drastically helps the response time of the caster regardless.
if you’ve ever ridden a bike without touching the handlebars, this is how that works as well. when you want to turn, you just lean your body slightly and the self-steering will turn in that direction to try to keep the bike upright.
it’s the same principle as those electric self-balancing two-wheelers (like segways and hoverboards etc) with two parallel wheels, where you lean forwards and backwards to control how fast it should go
I saw the notification and I thought it was “Bikes actually stay upright” and I was like “yeah Veritasium never changes”
It's still a gyroscope at work. Two of them. Allowing them some degree of movement lets them work together to keep the bike upright. The bike is not "steering" anything; the two linked gryoscopes are just trying to keep themselves aligned.
If you look into ship stabilisers you'll find it's essentially the same system.
Yes, definitely. The effect shown in the video would not exist without gyroscope forces.
If it were gyroscopic, changing the density of the wheels should significantly alter their movement, with ultra lightweight wheels almost falling over. I doubt that happens in reality.
@@abhi211-Tchanging their density wouldn’t matter all that much because they aren’t spinning THAT fast
This effect is a direct consequence of the angle of the front fork.
Since the projection of the steering axis is always in front of the contact patch of the tyre when ever the bike starts falling to one side a self-aligning torque is created
@@lac3rbiit is actually both working together.
The gravity-defying wheel trick is caused by a physics phenomenon called “angular momentum”. I don’t know enough about physics to provide a proper explanation, but I think the basic idea is something like this: while an object is spinning on an axis, its range of motion becomes limited since the total energy within the system cannot change.
This is the principle that explains why gyroscopes work, how rifling stabilizes a bullet’s trajectory, and more.
Look it up if you like (if you’re actually good at math unlike me lol).
The steering column angle is responsible for this after a certain speed. It will do the opposite in reverse and tumble.
It's the "castor" angle of the wheel, which ironically, doesn't work like actual castor wheels at all, but visually resembles them.
It's obviously not one or the other, it's both. Bikes at low speed are significantly harder to balance because of the reduced gyroscopic force. Motorcycles at high speed can lean to significant angles because of the increased gyroscopic force. You could never lean on a bike without the gyroscopic force.
No. It has nothing to do with gyroscopic effect. The reason a slow moving bike is harder to balance is because there's no steering effect.
@@SM-dt1pr You obviously have never ridden a motorcycle. If you ever rode a motorcycle you'd know the steering effect DESTABILIZIES you at speed, which is why so many motorcycles have steering stabilizers to reduce it as much as possible. Turning on a bike is achieved by riding on the side of the tire which has a smaller diameter, NOT by turning the handlebars, the handlebars stay totally straight. It's the gyroscopic force that allows you to turn at speed, the steering effect only stabilizes a bike at low speeds. I guarantee you could weld the handlebars on a bike to stay straight and be perfectly stable at speed.
agree
Lean increases surface area ie more friction so the bike turns sharper. Centrifugal force is what keeps the bike from falling over and is generated from the turn itself. You also don't initiate a turn without counter steer, the bike will naturally lean itself and you can add more for a sharper turn.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049I don't think a bike would remain stable with welded handlebars at speeds. One bump or dip should cause chaos. Same reason you don't stiff arm a bike or it'll death wobble.
Either that bike kinda looked like a happy little goat jumping in the fields or I'm doing drugs
Why can't it be both?😅
I love your format of question, this is what you think is the answer, this is why that’s wrong, and this is the actual answer.
I know you have a video that dives into this framework, and since I have watched it I have really appreciated your teaching style. Thanks!
Gyroscopic forces still play a part, not because it directly stops the bike from tipping over, but because it helps to turn the front weel in the necessary direction as the bike tilts. It's a combination of that and the castor of the front wheel.
I'm 25, and I still haven't learned how to ride a bike because of my intense anxiety.
But this has helped calm some of those fears of falling over -- as long as I'm going a sufficient speed of course, heheh.
Maybe I'll take my bike out once the weather gets nice again where I live.
Practice in an empty parking lot or driveway with a helmet and some knee/elbow pads. Good luck, biking is a ton of fun
What Braiden said above, and get a good friend to just support a little with the hand on the saddle. Best is a silent friend, wich does not give constant advises. Because riding a bicicle quickly will get a subconsciohs action. If you get relaxed, the bike and your body knows what to do to stay upright. Good luck, and a healthy good life to you! 😊
It's easier than it looks. Once you roll a certain distance and do a couple pedal cycles, you're golden. You may even laugh at yourself.
Thank you for the encouragement and advice, guys! It really means a lot.
You can do it!💪
so bikes are smarter than drunk people.
Well in movement yes. But a still drunk is quite powerful
My bike drove me home many times when i was drunk.
It’s a clever mix of wheel castor and steering axis offset from the contact patch.
It's called the Caster effect. From the forks pointing to a point in the path of the wheel in front of the context patch. The caster effect bro
That's only half the explanation. When the bike steers in the direction it is falling it begins to follow a curve. The centrifugal force on the bike in that curve pushes it back upright. That's why the faster the bike is, the more stable it is.
The centrifugal force (actually acceleration) formula is v²/R. It is proportional to the square of its speed.
We need someone to weld the handlebars of a bike straight and ride it, if you're going fast enough it will be stable with no steering effect. Steering effect is a low speed phenomenon only, it destabilizes a bike at high speeds which is why so many motorcycles have steering stabilizers to prevent it. Once a bike is going fast enough you're stabilized by the gyroscopic effect of the wheels, turning is done by leaning the bike onto the smaller diameter part of the tire, and the handlebars stay straight the whole time.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 you are very confidently incorrect.
when you want to initiate a turn to the right with a bike, you turn the handlebars left which generates lateral force to the left (just like with a car!) and the bike starts rolling to the right, and then you maintain that roll angle to keep cornering. that is countersteering.
by leaning your body you are increasing the angle from the tire contact patch to the center of gravity of the bike+rider system, which effectively does the same thing as increasing lean angle of the bike. If you do the math for how much that angle can change from your body moving, you will see that its not a lot - leaning the bike does far more.
gyroscopic force does not make the bike stay upright, it makes it want to stay at the same lean angle, and is not infinitely strong and any force acting to roll the bike will still cause it to roll, just slower.
steering dampers are used to prevent "speed wobbles" which are caused by inertia and gyroscopic torque in the steering system not allowing the wheels to instantly turn and reduce the lateral forces caused by things like bumps.
bicycles have much less inertia and gyroscopic torque (due to lighter tires spinning slower) than motorcycles and thus are less prone to getting those "speed wobbles" and will have an easier time staying upright if rolling down a bumpy hill.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 please read tony foale's motorcycle handling and chassis design's section 4, balance and steering. it explains a lot of this stuff very well and with examples. i can link you the book if you cant find it yourself.
Best explanation I've seen so far. Well explained.
Yeah in full video he explains the countersteering effect you are talking about
Amazing how a bike can steer by itself but I still cant ride it ahahah
Bike are pretty stable *at speeds*
You need to get some speed to keep the bike stable, and if you don't know how to ride a bike, it's hard to get some speed.
Btw after 3/4 months of daily use, i can now ride a bike with no hands. Which is pretty cool, and if i am on a good bike path i can literally start watching my phone while biking lol
@@no_name4796 watching your phone while biking (or even walking really) is a great recipe to run into something or be run into
@@kuhluhOG not really. I never run into anything.
The thing is, just do it if you have a nice long bike path, without too many people on it.
I do have that, thus i do.
I wouldn't do the same if it was dangerous, i am not stupid
@@no_name4796 for racing in road bikes it's very crucial to learn this skill too. Since you'll need both your hands at times to eat while riding. I use it everytime I need to tear off a snack bar on a long ride or a gel on races.
The fact that bikes are designed in such a way is honestly so cool
Not only that , the 2nd wheel serv at a stabilisation that keep the speed and put it back after front wheel adjustment
We call it caster innthe automotive world. If you wanna go fast and stay straight, dial in a little more. If you need to stay nimble cause you like to make turns, dial in a little less. It's the same "force" that causes your steering wheel to re-enter itself when you make a turn.
camber.
Yet i try and ride with no hands and break my arm 😂
Oof. Sometimes when i do that while at some good speed, that bike starts shaking a lot lol
Never felt from a bike though
Except once, but it was just me being an idiot and making a thight turn reaaaaaly fast lol
You gotta keep it steady with your butt cheeks
It is very complex mechanism in effect but simple in execution. Thank goodness other I would not be able to ride one.
Honestly the biggest tip I can give to any rider. Is don’t be tense, loosen up and let the bike do the work your just there to shift weight accordingly
If you made a bike with forks that were angled the other way i think this would not work anymore.
Correct. It's known as the positive caster angle. If they were bent backwards it would be a negative caster angle. Passenger vehicles are also built with positive caster for the same reason
Would you ever ride with a negative offset?
@TheAntinowherelane Strictly saying that is incorrect. Caster angle is only one of the parameters that contributes to trail, and trail does the most of self steering job. Rake also plays major role in steering forces when stopped and during counersteering.
@@TheAntinowherelane
@@EdwardKrapovnitsky caster angle is the same thing as rake. the things that influence trail are caster angle and the offset of that axis longitudinally
How does a bike itself ride better than me on it 😭
It's good to know that we are the sole reason why bikes stumble when we ride them 😂
Its called rake and trial, its also why you can tide motorcycles without hands. Tail is the distance between a perfect verticle line passing througt the bearing connection and the line passing through the steering axe. This why a lot of dirtbike's handelbar goes bizerk, because of the small amount of trail.
In Rajasthan, India, there's a village where an old cruiser bike (Royal Enfield) is worshipped as people think there was a spirit riding that bike.
The story was that the bike was seen traveling straight without a driver for a few miles on a long stretched road.
I wish they watched this video🤣🤣
I think this is really cool and I already knew why but I still like watching the entire explanation
Now Im realizing why Aim9 sidewinder has those little steering wheels at the end of the missile and they can actually move right or left to stabilize the missile.Pretty GENIUS and simple solution to a very hard problem.
Having a bike with its equipment, and using it everyday still a dream of mine ❤
Thats why the easiest way to walk a bike is by pushing the seat and NOT holding the handle bars like 99% of people do.
Not really. That requires the person to continually adjust the lean. Not the same as what's shown in this video.
lol, no, the key was speed….. how fast do you walk with a bike??? Have you tired your theory recently…. People use the handlebars for a reason - control at low speed 😂
username checks out, keep walking bud
@@ibsn87 Walking SPEED!
Speed is the key. You said it yourself.
Sometimes i do push the seat while i m like going to park the bike, because that way im controlling the bike from the center without the handlebars poking me. But as others said the speed is to low so the handlebar will not really stay straight.
I was uploaded 39s ago. 💀
Anyone else in the very first minute/hour?
👇
@@AirWick694 yup, you are
Yep. Push it backwards and instead of being srlf correcting, it will fall fast.
A similar thing happens with cars. If you drive forward and let go of the steering wheel until it is going straight, but in reverse the car will turn into a tight circle and continue in a smallest possible circle.
This is how my parents convinced me to keep pedalling when they teached me how to ride a bike "as long as you are moving and be relaxed, you wont fall"
Today's Fact: The first color photograph was taken in 1861 by James Clerk Maxwell.
Why tf are you everywhere
Cleverly designed ❌ just imperfection ✅
Bro really answered a question we never asked🎉
It's the tilt of the front forks on the head tube.
It's called caster angle, or rake. That's why the front wheel turn left or right whenever the bike leans.
When I was in Jr High (7th and 8th grades) I rode my bike to school.
It was 1.1 mile. I only had my hands on the handle bars while getting out of the bicycle parking lot.
My bike was so well balanced I didn't need to use my hands on any other turns I needed to make.
It was a black Schwinn Tornado... best bike I ever owned.
What made sense to me mountain biking was that the bike going was like a gyroscope. So it’ll try to keep itself upright and that’s how the center of gravity works and the wheels spinning. But once I realized that and took advantage of it my balance was so much better
It kinda does work that way a little bit though.
It’s not quite the same clearly, the example is using centrifugal forces to cancel out out the other forces acting on it. Because of the momentum it has there is so much force that it overpowers the moment force that gravity has on it (doesn’t stop it from falling but does stop it from tilting).
Meanwhile the bike uses forward momentum to cancel out sideways movement. Well maybe cancel out isn’t the right word, more like this:
If you at random intervals have 1 force of 100Newton pushing and pulling randomly (the uneven road) it’s going to go sideways pretty quickly and as soon as it does the gravity is going to make it worse.
But if you are also going forwards with a constant force of like 5000newton, now the effect of that 100Newton is much less noticeable. Meaning that much smaller corrections are required to keep the bike upright. (And yes if designed right it should do this by itself)
TLDR: It’s not functioning exactly the same way, but it’s actually pretty close to a gyro. It uses a lot of the same principles
specifically, the fork of the front wheel is angled forward so when the bike inclines to the side, then front wheel will turn on the direction of the inclination
I think a heavier front wheel assembly n handle bar can more easily self correct n steer to maintain balance n upright. I always gently rock the handle bar to keep my bike straight n upright. Any large “ amplitude “ turning of handle bar will topple my bike.
it's a combination of the 2 effects. the gyroscope effects slows the effect from gravity, and the steering wheel auto-corrects
It's cool how this was made without the use of electronic systems for the balancing. I mean this method is rather natural and shows understanding of fundamentals mechanical principles.
We called this “Ghost Riding” as kids and it was fun to do to random bikes you find left out in the neighborhood.
It's called ghost riding, and we've been doing that since the 90's, it's also a very good way to tear your bike up, but also very fun to watch😂
Toddler falls down while riding
Bike: "ill do it by myself"
I like to let go of the handle bar whenever I can and I slowly learnt how to turn a bike with my hands off the handle bar by gently shifting my weight to one side. This is literally the explanation for why it works.
This is basically how i learned how to ride a bike, an uncle of mine told me just go towards direction you are falling and my 2 months of struggling ended and i finally learned that day.
Imagine not being being able to ride a bike and then finding they can even stay upright without you 😂
The fact that the bicycle self corrects has to do with the mechanical trail on the front fork, straightening itself out, similar to a shopping buggy with the front wheels steering. However, that does not negate the fact that gyroscopic properties of the wheels do keep the bike upright.
Notice how they didn't push a bike with a locked stem.
It's absolutely the gyroscopic effect.
You don't even steer a bike at speed. You lean.
My brother I have never heard you be this wrong. It is most DEFINITELY because of the gyroscopic precession. 2 wheels moving in the same direction connected by a dynamic structure is just the same as 1 moving in that direction. The only difference is how the wheels momentum now effects the other because they are connected. The wheels stay up because of the gyroscopic effect > the structure(bike frame) stays up because it is supported by the wheels. The way the frame reacts is just that. A REACTION to what the wheels do, not the other way around. The steering column turns and adjusts automatically because it allows for the two wheels to be on different x planes. If the steering column didn’t exist, the wheels would still function similarly, but an outside force would cause one wheels to start tilting, which would cause the other wheels to start tilting, which would cause the other wheel to start tilting, which would cause the other wheel to start tilting in an exponential effect until the bike is on the ground. The bike design isn’t ingenious, it simply allows for physics to do what it does, which when working with two similar but independent systems(wheels) allows them to stay close together while also being independent.
I’m going to make a bike army.
This is why people can actually lift their hands of the handle bars, in both bicycle and bikes. You really need to become one with the bike to ride it perfectly.
It’s called caster
it’s being used for all kinds of vehicles
It’s the thing that for example pulls your steering wheel straight in the car while driving
The headset (the rotating mechanism under the handlebar) of all bicycles is slanted at an angle. The slant forces the front wheel system to stay straight when moving. Motorcycle headsets are like this too.
Never knew my ordinary cycle was a self driving one 😂
That was actually what got me to ride one. I was 18 yo and didn't know how to ride a bike until a friend told me "turn the handle to whatever direction you feel like you're falling". And that single trick did it for someone with 0 practice.
Skateboards have a similar effect except it's relationship to speed is backwards. In both cases it is basically turning in the direction it is falling due to how the steering is set up. This means the momentum is now pointing away from the direction it is falling and pulling it upright. With a skateboard this makes it fall harder at higher speeds producing "speed wobbles" This effect while being scary actually helps in the case of uneven bumps as the skateboard as the skateboard will actually still average a straight path unless forced to turn by the rider shifting their weight.
The techical name for the dimensions of a bike/motorcycle that causes them to balance themselves is rake and trail
The invisible man is back at it again
bike by it self: going pretty well✅
bike with me on it: falls ❌
That’s why the front fork is raked forward slightly and the wheel mounting point is on the back side of the fork. So the front wheel always pulls itself straight.
When it turns right, it initially leans that way but is forced to lean to the other due to centrifugal force, which it proceeds to switch between rapidly. If its speed isn’t sufficient, the bike will continue the turn and fall onto the side it is turning towards eventually.
it's the tilt of the wheels out from center, a sport bike (motorcycle) is closer to center, that means it can take cornerers fast, but a chopper the wheels are more spread apart, that makes them exstremly directional stable, but not as good for cornerers... 😊
Gyroscopic procession is required for the leaning to cause the wheel to turn and for the wheel turning to cause leaning.
Lowkey making me wanna finally learn how to ride a bike
It’s through cunticyclic force acting in opposition to gravity and helping keep the bike upright. Through the cunticyclic conversion of lateral energy entropy the stasis of the model is consistent
Derek falling off a bike in slow mo killed me 😂
Gyroscopes was the key invention for torpedos and missiles to stay on target and this shows exactly why since they couldn’t be knocked off course as easy and still go strait
once i learned how to trust this effect, i almost never touched the handlebars when i would ride my bike around town. they were just there for starting/stopping, and my hands were free to do whatever else (usually to hold energy drinks and my phone)
The “castor effect” as it’s called. The whole front wheel is a castor with handlebars attached and balanced slightly rearward of the pivot point of the handlebars, which makes the wheel want to naturally turn in the direction of travel (taking the handlebars with it.)
This guy is explaining the obvious while thinking he's the only one who knows how a bike works. What a genius.
Hey, most people dont "really know" anything about... anything. Yeah of course he is not the only one who figured this out, but these types of videos are still needed.
This is why the really experienced riders let go of the handles when it goes out of control, the bike naturally will correct itself
I did this with my brothers as kids 😂😂😂. We used to go as fast as we could and then let go our bikes. They would go meeeeeeters far away.
I remember one occasion, we hitted a neighbor’s car and damaged the door lmaooo
That bike be having the gyatt 💀
Please go in depth about the headtube angle / rake / trail relationships