Читать книгу Proficient Motorcycling - David L. Hough - Страница 38

Occasionally, you’ll see a rider let go of the grips and lean back in the saddle at freeway speed. You may marvel at the naiveté of a rider willing to ignore such hazards as a groove in the pavement that might instantly yank the front end into a tank-slapper, but hands-off riding is a great demonstration of the unique stability of a motorcycle. The front-end geometry automatically stabilizes the bike in a straight line, self-correcting for minor changes in lean angle.

The simplistic suggestion is that this self-centering action is just a result of the castering effect of the front tire trailing behind the steering pivot axis, similar to the front wheels of a shopping cart at the grocery store. But two-wheelers are quite a bit more complex than shopping carts because they lean into turns. The self-balancing action of a motorcycle front end is a result of the combined effects of a number of details, including rake, trail, steering head rise and fall, mass shift, contact patch location, and tire profiles.