a huge part of why a motorcycle turns while in a lean is camber thrust, not the direction of the front wheel. counter-steering helps provide the lean angle, camber thrust does the rest.
especially at high lean angles, the front wheel can be turned towards the outside of the actual turn (not in line with direction of travel). In those cases, camber thrust is really the only major force keeping you in the turn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_thrust
all of this should be intuitive to someone on a motorcycle though. You shouldn't need to understand the physics to properly ride a motorcycle. Riding a bicycle at higher speeds (down hill) should teach you most of what you need to know.