Spoiler: the article is about counter steering.
“Before you turn left, you turn right, and you probably don’t notice you’re doing it.”
This is a cultural thing not specific to bicycles. People in motor vehicles do this unnecessarily as well and of course it is much more dangerous.
This isn’t cultural, it’s a physical necessity of turning on a bike. If you were to just turn, you’d fall over. I seem to recall veritassium having an excellent video where they physically prevented the bike from countersteering to showcase.
People do it in cars for another reason; it gives you a wider turn angle.
I understand why people do it on a bike. In a car it is cultural. There is no reason to turn right before turning left in a left hand turn lane, going safe speeds. A person doing so rarely sees cyclists or the lane next to them. I’ve seen my fair share of accidents stemming from this behavior. A wider turning radius isn’t needed in a car 95% of the situations in which this weird trick is used.
Sure if you are racing in a grand prix or have a trailer hitched to a truck, but when you’re turning your SUV left into a Target in Sheboygan, chances are your vehicle can handily manage the turning radius just fine.
Counter steering is taught in motorcycle defensive driving courses. It’s faster and safer to give the bars a counter-push and release, and let physics do its thing, than to try to fight momentum.
I rode a 4 wheel ATV after years of riding motorcycles and I kept trying to countersteer instinctively because they have handlebars. Most people on two wheels (myself included) don’t even realize that they’re countersteering.
