Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work

Much of the information presented here on the stability of a riderless bicycle stems from original research at
and

Great videos on bikes and counter-steering:

▀▀▀
More References:

▀▀▀
Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Luis Felipe, Anton Ragin, Paul Peijzel, S S, Benedikt Heinen, Diffbot, Micah Mangione, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Sam Lutfi, MJP, Gnare, Nick DiCandilo, Dave Kircher, Edward Larsen, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Dumky, Mike Tung, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Ismail Öncü Usta, Crated Comments, Anna, Mac Malkawi, Michael Schneider, Oleksii Leonov, Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, Jim buckmaster, fanime96, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Vincent, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson,Ron Neal

▀▀▀
Written by Derek Muller
Filmed by Trenton Oliver, Raquel Nuno and Derek Muller
Edited by Derek Muller
Music from Epidemic Sound and Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev and Emily Zhang

[AlexAndercover]

To me its incredible how humans just learn to do these things subconsciously. Noone tells you that when youre a kid, you just try over and over again until suddenly you do it right without even knowing what youre doing differently.
Imagine how many things you do right without even understanding why oder what exactly it is youre doing. Absolutely incredible

[ShortHax]

It’s easy to build a rocket. It’s not like it’s bicycle-science

[yakbreeder]

We were taught counter steering in our motorcycle rider safety course years ago. Several in the class just could NOT comprehend it. One guy almost got tossed from the class for being argumentative about it. The instructor told him that anyone who has ridden a bicycle, counter steers without knowing they are. He finally accepted that he was wrong and passed the course.

[SeanRice-rvml]

I built a reverse steering bike, and while it took about 2 years to be able to ride it well, it was very much like having to learn to ride a bike all over again (except now as an adult with all the analysis skills I have gained). I learned many things about how to ride a bike, but the most fun thing I learned was the element of steering you illustrate in this video. Many people know how to ride a bike, few know what they do to make it work. Thanks for the video.

[danielmorrisonrhymes]

"Understanding how bicycles work is still an active area of research". This really is pretty extraordinary.

[Kragatar]

I think the most impressive part of this is the human brain's ability to do something it doesn't even know it's doing.

[jjhbball]

To me, science often shows how incredible our intuition is. There is so much that we do "naturally" without understanding the mechanics. Sometimes we get it wrong, but I like the example of shooting a basketball. The physics involved are incredible, but people can train to put a ball in a hoop at a weird angle from incredible distance, under duress, and with remarkable consistency without a deep understanding of the mechanics.

[OffSeasonCicada]

As someone who's learnig how to ride a bike at 27, this is actually super helpful to know! When I try to ask my friends how to do things like this they have no idea besides "You just do it." This video is such a great resource!

[LyricWulf]

"Turn right to go left... Hm..." —Lightning McQueen, moments before disaster

[keleighshepherd]

I'm a radiotherapy engineer. At my job interview for my current position, I was asked to explain in layman's terms how a bicycle works. I explained how the pedals make motion through the gears, and then rapidly dissembled with "as to how a bike stays upright in motion? I have no idea, I'm not a bicycle physicist" AND I STILL GOT THE JOB

[z-beeblebrox]

You know a design is perfect when a hundred or so years after it's invented, researchers are still studying how it works so well

[muhammadtaimooradil]

I am doing research in dynamic balance in human walking and this effect plays a major role in people walking without falling. I saw this video a couple of months ago but today I realized that his video has direct application to how bipedal creatures keep themselves stable. Thanks.

[yggdarsilyae]

This is the piece of information I needed back at 4 years old learning how to ride a bike with my dad shouting "JUST TURN LEFT", it explains everything that felt wrong at the time before it "clicked" and I never worried about it again. This pedagogic injustice won't have remained unpunished

[pzodeosrs]

I recently taught a friend how to ride a bike. She had only tried once in her life and found steering incredibly difficult. Intuintively she was trying to just turn the handlebars and she kept falling. It was amazing to see how it suddenly clicked for and she was able to ride so smoothly after that.

[YourPalKindred]

I never realised how intelligently built bikes were. It looks so simple but it's such a genius creation

[DigiplayW]

this is the video that needs to be shown in all MSF courses for motorcycles. most instructors don't explain counter steering well enough. they just say "turn left to go right" and "turn right to go left"

[beatbasher]

I've been struggling for years explaining countersteering to people, many people would respond with disbelief because they'd been riding bikes for years and couldn't get their heads round countersteering. Even my Dad looked at me like I was talking nonsense. Thanks for this video now I can send it to him and he might actually believe me.

[daanodinot]

Always fascinated by the fact that there was a period of 50 years in human history were you could go from city to city by train, but there was no bicycle yet.

[DoctorMotorcycle]

I figured this out by accident when I did a (small) motorcycle build and wanted to see how tight I could make the steering stem to act as a ghetto "steering stabilizer". I tightened the steering stem to the point where it required a fair amount of force to turn the bars, and I almost fell off the bike when I let the clutch out. It was un-rideable. I had always thought gyroscopic procession was why the bike stayed stable, and immediately realized it was the abilty to constantly re-correct that keeps you from falling over. Would you consider doing a video on the mechanics of Trials bike riders?

[abehartshorne]

I find this very interesting. I ride my bike to work every day. I find this to be true at only low speeds. At higher speeds you lean into the bend before to turn the handle bars, so there is no leaning the opposite direction first. This can also be done at low speeds, but naturally you do go the opposite way first if not thinking about it. Pretty cool.