The easiest thing to do is to ask your passenger to look over your shoulder in hte direction of the turn. Then tehy are automatically leaning with you.

flyslow

 

I think that having thepassenger try and stay upright while you are turning/leaning can be dangerous. Picture this, you are going around a curve at speed with oncoming traffic. Your passenger suddenly leans into the curve with you. If you are already on the inside of the curve,where do you think you are going to end up? At least if they are leaning and go back to upright the worst thing that will happen is that you will end upon the outer edge of the curve...Mark...

 

I do ride my Harley 2 up most of the time, that's why I bought it. My wife stays neutral and I prefer it that way. I can easily adjust to her being stationary on the bike but it's harder for me to ride if the she is "helping" me by leaning into the turn. If she leans too far then I have to account for that, usually mid-turn, but if she isn't moving at all, I know what to expect. She rode sportbikes with me the same way and we have some video footage of me dragging my knees at Deal's Gap with her on the back[:-]. We are comfortable like that. I was thinking about the Harley riders I know that know nothing about countersteering and it seems to be par for the course. Most of those same riders are afraid to use their front brakes, which probably explains why it takes them so long to catch up, and say stuff like " I had to lay her down" when talking an accident in the past. Oh well, most of them will live and learn..........if they are lucky.

 

Most riders don't even know that theyare even using counter steering but when their leaning in to the turn their putting pressure on the handle bars that is causing them to turn in the direction they want to go. I just push and pull works forme don't have to lean. I toldmy wife not to lean years ago I do all the workshe a good passenger.[/align][/align]Somepassengerswill try to lean in tothe turn tomuch or eventhe opposite direction not good. Just sit there and enjoy the ride.[/align]

 

I'm from North Alabama and usually ride the areas closest to me(TN and N. Alabama mostly). I will go to the Deal's Gap area 5-6 times this season on the Harley and hopefully a couple more times on my Husqvarna Supermoto. Deal's Gap(and the surrounding roads) are fun on my 'Glide but those same roads on a sub 300lb, 55hp, knee draggin hooligan machine like my SM610S become an absolute riot. Maybe I can stay out of trouble this year.

 

I'm in Birmingham and have alot of friends that have been in and out of AMA / WERA for years. I know Shawn and Evelyn through a buddy that did the endurance series with Matt Lynn before he went pro. Have you guys been up to check out the new MC resort near bankhead ??

 

This is one of the reasons that I do not take many people for rides. I remember the first time the GF and I went for a ride, I was explaining things to her as far as weight transfer, what happens in a turn, high or low speed, and how she has to be aware of the road too. In a panic situation, there is no time to warn her that we are going to brake HARD... or swerve or whatever is going to happen. We ride together a LOT and I really enjoy it, because she realizes that how she acts and reacts is just as important as how I am driving. We rode for a year on a sport bike, and in the close quarters, it was much easier for her to learn how much lean is good, and how to instinctively follow me. I was also not shy in telling her if something she was doing was making it hard for me to keep us safe. I guess what I am trying to say is that all of us need to be VOCAL with our riders, and no matter how much we like them, if they do not respect the ideals of how we ride, not to ride with them... I ran into that situation about 3 years ago. Was dating a real nice lady, but when she got on the bike, WOW, nightmare time... wiggly, never paid attention to what was going on, continually helmet butted me, weird lean times and angles, all kinds of squirrely... I tried to nicely bring up the fact that we needed to work on some stuff, and she got p*ssed. Sorta ended the relationship... But did not get either or both of us killed.

Countersteering is HUGE. It is the way to smoothly ride in curves, avoid obstacles, and it will save your life. Practicing it continually is the only answer. It is one of the things that I try to mentally groove into on the bike, everytime I get on it, along with not fixating on what you are trying to avoid. If you look at it, you will run over it...

Bikes are huge fun to me, and learning countersteering has been weird to wrap my head around, but it is the one thing that has helped so many times, and especially right now in DC.. we are pothole, well no, CRATER city right now, and they pop up in the weirdest places. Being able get around them saves me from getting bounced off the bike, or tweaking a rim, or crashing if the pothole is big enough...

The one-handed drills that a previous poster talked about are GREAT!

 

My wife leaned against me ONCE. I stopped the bike and explained to her in no uncertain terms that if she ever did that again I would stop and she would get off and walk home from that spot. I explained that she is to be a part of the bike and that I will control where it goes. Never happened again. I learned to counter steer on my bicycle and have done it ever since. It is such a natural part of riding to me that I don't even think about it and it has gottem me out of more than one sticky situation. I think that the lack of use of the front brake that Madav8tr mentioned comes from riding a bike as a kid. I remember always being told that if you hit your front brake to hard you would flip your bike over. I think that people have a hard time letting go of that myth especially when it comes to riding a motorcycle.

 

I've never done the track even though I've had a zillion friends go, seems they always lost interest in riding on the street. I never wanted that to happen to me. I have been going to the gap since the late 80's when there were 20 people in the parking lot on a crowded Sunday and the speed limit wasposted @55mph. These days its the wild wild west show as I call it. There are way to many other roads up there I'd rather ride that are not so much point and shoot. Although they are getting more and more crowded too. My buddy that lives in Ellijay said the LEO in N. GA got 1.2 mil this year to hammer the situation. Our thing with the Harley is to go to Helen Ga, park and party, the ride being up there and then back home.The motard has definutely gotten to be the fastest way aorund turns up there but I've stayed with the sportbikes as I like the roads up there where you can run around 70 to 80 and stay in one gearand just get in a nice rythem and enjoy the fluidness of it.