Shifting problem after a drop

[Bob H]

As a newer rider, I would suggest learning COUNTERSTEERING very well.
We all do it by instinct, it is how you ride a bicycle.

It is why all hell breaks loose when they take the training wheels off a kids bike. It no longer steers "like a car" and it behaves like a 2 wheel vehicle.

the Wright brothers had a bicycle shop before first flight, and they actually wrote about countersteering back then.

This is a 3 minute video, the best explanation I have seen. Until a rider really knows countersteering and practices swerving around manhole covers - they may panic when the poopoo hits the fan and do nothing (Bam).

[Larry Fine]

I definitely learned my learning bike should be 300lbs or less.  I'm not about to get on the highway any time soon, if ever here in Houston, so I don't need speed.  I need something that I can push around, in a rider position that gives me more leverage.  Move up once I have that mastered.

The Nighthawk 250 is probably the best learner there is.

[Larry Fine]

As a newer rider, I would suggest learning COUNTERSTEERING very well.

This is a 3 minute video, the best explanation I have seen.

I explain it like this:

By applying torque to the handlebar, you steer the front tire out from, and then back under the center of gravity of the bike and rider.

For example, if you want to turn right, by twisting the bar left, the front tire moves to the left of center, leaning the bike to the right.

If you keep applying the torque, the lean keeps increasing; if you relax, the lean maintains; if you twist the other way, it stands back up.

[Steppin Razor]

I practiced it a bit today in what I thought would be an empty industrial parking lot on a Sunday afternoon (I was wrong, so not much practice).  I watched a few videos on it because I couldn't wrap my head around it in the MSF course.  The pressing forward bit people talk about seemed very awkward to do, but I watched one video that described it more like Larry did, and pointed out pressing the right hand for a right hand turn is the same as pulling the left hand in to turn right.  That sort flipped the switch in my head a little better.


I considered a Nighthawk 250, but it was sold before I was ready to buy. I actually also have a '75 CB360, but I'm modifying it, so it isn't rideable at the moment.  I did ride it for a few turns around the neighborhood when I got it running to make sure I got it running, but it's in bits now.  The Nighthawk was supposed to be what I rode while I built the other.
I probably will move this one along, but I'll come back to it because I think it's a fairly overlooked bike.  It's not one of the sexy ones everybody likes, but it's just solid all the way around.  I'll buy a worse condition one later on and do some modifications to suit me.