Quote:
Originally Posted by Motofool
You have found a statement in Wikipedia that cannot be a general rule; hence, it is incorrect. 
As Alex has explained, it can be very different for different bikes/tires/pressure combinations.
In actuality, if the bike is increasing speed in a turn, and the radius remains constant, the lean angle is increasing as well. |
Agreed. I found a paper from University of Michigan that talks about exactly what we've been discussing, namely, a steady-state constant radius turn at constant speed. They predict and measure the steering torque required. It looks like the theory and data are consistent that the magnitude of the steering torque required to maintain a turn goes down with speed. Seemingly to near zero. I guess that's a bit surprising to me. The direction of the torque needed depends on a lot of things, one that they emphasize is rider lean position.
http://bicycle.tudelft.nl/bmd2010/CD...comparison.pdf
"In actuality, if the bike is increasing speed in a turn, and the radius remains constant, the lean angle is increasing as well."
You are correct. I understand that and I simply misspoke. I meant to say turning radius. There is a practical limit to how fast you can go around a particular radius curve for the reason you mentioned. You can only lean your body and your bike so far before you low-side. So there's a speed limit to a turn which is dictated by rider position and bike geometry.
The practical side to this is, the strategy "slow in, fast out" means that you're increasing speed, the 'roll' on the throttle part of slow-look-press-roll, so you'll need to actively apply countersteer in order to maintain your turning radius. In a turn if you simply roll on the throttle with no other input, the bike will start to run wide.