As an avid watcher of motorsport telecasts, I get a bit tired of the rubbish and hyperbole that assaults the eardrums from the various “commentators” One of my “favourites” is the British MotoGp commentator. If he says, “*.* is absolutely flying.” one more time, I think I’ll put my shoe through the set.
But a favourite expression that I’ve heard a lot is the reason for my post today. How many times have you heard someone say, “Rossi is breaking the laws of physics out there.” or something similar? Now I know commentators are always striving for expressions that will stick in the listeners’ minds, heck I do the same thing myself when I have the microphone in my hand, but if you think about it, the expression, as it stands, is completely wrong.
The fact is that the laws of phyics simply can’t BE broken. You can go very close to the edge of them; you can demonstrate how they work, you can even show what happens if you as you or your motorcycle to do something that is beyond its physical capability..
Yes, ouch, indeed. But you can’t break the laws of physics, as I said, even if you ARE Valentino Rossi (that’s his team-mate, Jorge Lorenzo showing what happens of you step over the line, by the way.) And, while I was on the road the other week, I started thinking about physics vs confidence. (see, I told you solo touring is great for getting your thoughts in order)
Now I’m not a scientist and I don’t understand at all the physical laws that govern how a bike can lean over as far as it does without actually FALLING over, but I think it has something to do with the forces that are making it go forward are greater than the forces that are trying to tip it over (I’m VERY happy to stand corrected on this).
I’m guessing that understanding those physics could be a great help in getting your mind around how far you can lean in a corner before it becomes too far, but you don’t HAVE to be a physicist to grasp and accept the fact that, it doesn’t really matter how far you lean over, as long as you keep going forward at an appropriate speed, you’re not going to fall down.
Understanding this and accepting it can make an enormous difference, as I have been noticing lately. Last time I tyred-up, I fitted Pilot Powers front and rear, a pure Sports tyre. On a S/T bike. And the reason was that I like to know, with complete confidence, where my front end is at all times, and having a nice, sticky front hoop goes a long way towards achieving this end.
So, tell me, when WAS the last time you lost the front end of your bike in a road riding situation? I’m not talking about loose surface/rain/diesel etc. Just when, on a good road surface, did your front end just wash out and dump you on your head? The answer, for 99.9% of us is, NEVER. Modern tyres have vastly more adhesion than we give them credit for. It’s just that our MINDS don’t allow us to trust them, and the laws of physics, enough.
So it comes down to a battle between physics and confidence. The physics say that we can corner faster, lean more, scrape more bits of undercarriage on the road, rub out those chicken strips completely, stay on OUR side of the road AND safely negotiate the corner.
Our minds keep telling us we CAN’T.
sanoptic says
Counter steering is another ,wonder what the physics for that are. While leaning over push the bars to the right to turn left & vise versa.
I was shown that at a stay upright coarse & its good technique to know. Apparently we counter steer subconsciously every time we lean a bike over for a turn..its a physics law.
Good example of counter steering is the way speedway bikes get around those dirt turns.
cheers