18 Comments on Absolutely Fascinating Experiment With a “Backwards” Bike
Well he won’t have to worry about it being stolen
15
Pretty interesting. Very different! Thanks for posting!
12
Actually that’s how bikes work. A old trick we learned to get around track faster on motorcycles. Get on a bike or motorcycle. To turn right, push on right side of handlebar to the left (slowly and carefully). Your bike will turn right and vice versa.
5
Great post. Fascinating experiment is right and such a well done video. Cool group of guys. I’ll be sharing this with friends and family today.
By the way, was that pixelated blonde at the 1 minute 46 second mark HIllary?
3
So changing a person’s political position is a waste of time. There in lies the daunting task ahead for America.
9
So did he learn a new skill or unlearn an old one?
3
My 1st Harley was an early Sportster which was right shift, I was use to that because at the time I had a Triumph Tiger. A buddy got himself a Norton Commando which I always thought was the sexist of the Brit bikes. He let me ride it one day, no problem, I’m use to r/h shift…..well Norton, unknown to me at that time had a reverse shift pattern from the other limey bikes and he didn’t tell me..good times, good times.
5
Shoot. I have the same problem trying to throw a ball left handed. I tried for a while in my youth, but it was worse than throwing like a girl. (I know. I know. I’m not supposed to say that and some girls can throw better than me yada yada yada).
But it also made me wonder how a right handed golf coach/instructor could be of any value to a lefty like Phil Mickelson? Do they use mirrors to invert the image?
1
@P: Not so. Take away welfare and government benefits. Parasites will have to become productive (or outright criminals). Once productive there will be a “moment” that they convert. It’s the large parasites (politicians) that will have the hardest time.
1
Remember the psych experiments with glasses that turned vision upside-down?
After a while the brain (didn’t work with lefties) righted the image.
When the glasses were removed the subjects perceived the universe inverted, until the brain (again, leftists just fumbled through) corrected the image.
izlamo delenda est …
3
That set of steering gears needs a cover lest it becomes a magnet for someone’s scrotum
9
You’re driving a big rig with a trailer – 80’ft long- on an icy road. The trailer starts to jack-knife. What do you do – turn the cab into the jack-knife or the opposite direction?
Our instincts tell us to turn the opposite direction. You should turn into the jack-knife position to stabilize the whole rig. By turning into the jack-knife the cab action slows the movement – turning away from the jack-knife increases the speed and could be a disaster.
Our learned behavior isn’t always right.
3
That’s interesting insofar as it demonstrates the difficulty of learning a new way of doing something at an older age.
I don’t care for him slapping on the ‘cognitive bias’ label. He had to rewire a physical skill, wherein the difficulty was having to go against everything that made it work the first way. If I prefer to do something in a way that succeeds, call me biased.
@ srdem65, recovering from a jacknife properly is learned behavior. It’s the instinctive that gets you re-arranging the landscape.
1
Try driving in Africa after 40+ years of driving in America.
Right hand cars driving in left lanes.
1
I paid one dollar to ride a backwards back at Sturgis a few years back. Think it was at the Full Throttle saloon. Anyway, It was impossible. I tried to focus and concentrate, but life long training can’t be undone in five minutes. Impossible. It was both fun and amazing at the same time. Amazing, because it was impossible to get more than five feet before hitting the floor. A small experience, but unforgettable.
At Different Tim: I use counter steering when going through the twisties, so I understand that, but the reaction time on a backwards bike is so fast that it forces you to over react and crash. Great fun, if you can laugh at yourself.
iwitness02
2
Learning to ride a bike was one of the most satisfying and important skills acquired in my young life. I’d never want to risk unlearning it. No thank you.
That gearing was too sloppy and not equivalent to being an exact opposite of a normal bike.
Watch, a small turn of the handlebars to the right equals a large turn of the wheel to the left.
Back to the drawing board…
1
@Loco
Yep. They should have had a ratio closer to 2 to 1. That way the wheel response would have been 1/2 of the handle bar motion. I believe it would be much easier to adapt to that.
Well he won’t have to worry about it being stolen
Pretty interesting. Very different! Thanks for posting!
Actually that’s how bikes work. A old trick we learned to get around track faster on motorcycles. Get on a bike or motorcycle. To turn right, push on right side of handlebar to the left (slowly and carefully). Your bike will turn right and vice versa.
Great post. Fascinating experiment is right and such a well done video. Cool group of guys. I’ll be sharing this with friends and family today.
By the way, was that pixelated blonde at the 1 minute 46 second mark HIllary?
So changing a person’s political position is a waste of time. There in lies the daunting task ahead for America.
So did he learn a new skill or unlearn an old one?
My 1st Harley was an early Sportster which was right shift, I was use to that because at the time I had a Triumph Tiger. A buddy got himself a Norton Commando which I always thought was the sexist of the Brit bikes. He let me ride it one day, no problem, I’m use to r/h shift…..well Norton, unknown to me at that time had a reverse shift pattern from the other limey bikes and he didn’t tell me..good times, good times.
Shoot. I have the same problem trying to throw a ball left handed. I tried for a while in my youth, but it was worse than throwing like a girl. (I know. I know. I’m not supposed to say that and some girls can throw better than me yada yada yada).
But it also made me wonder how a right handed golf coach/instructor could be of any value to a lefty like Phil Mickelson? Do they use mirrors to invert the image?
@P: Not so. Take away welfare and government benefits. Parasites will have to become productive (or outright criminals). Once productive there will be a “moment” that they convert. It’s the large parasites (politicians) that will have the hardest time.
Remember the psych experiments with glasses that turned vision upside-down?
After a while the brain (didn’t work with lefties) righted the image.
When the glasses were removed the subjects perceived the universe inverted, until the brain (again, leftists just fumbled through) corrected the image.
izlamo delenda est …
That set of steering gears needs a cover lest it becomes a magnet for someone’s scrotum
You’re driving a big rig with a trailer – 80’ft long- on an icy road. The trailer starts to jack-knife. What do you do – turn the cab into the jack-knife or the opposite direction?
Our instincts tell us to turn the opposite direction. You should turn into the jack-knife position to stabilize the whole rig. By turning into the jack-knife the cab action slows the movement – turning away from the jack-knife increases the speed and could be a disaster.
Our learned behavior isn’t always right.
That’s interesting insofar as it demonstrates the difficulty of learning a new way of doing something at an older age.
I don’t care for him slapping on the ‘cognitive bias’ label. He had to rewire a physical skill, wherein the difficulty was having to go against everything that made it work the first way. If I prefer to do something in a way that succeeds, call me biased.
@ srdem65, recovering from a jacknife properly is learned behavior. It’s the instinctive that gets you re-arranging the landscape.
Try driving in Africa after 40+ years of driving in America.
Right hand cars driving in left lanes.
I paid one dollar to ride a backwards back at Sturgis a few years back. Think it was at the Full Throttle saloon. Anyway, It was impossible. I tried to focus and concentrate, but life long training can’t be undone in five minutes. Impossible. It was both fun and amazing at the same time. Amazing, because it was impossible to get more than five feet before hitting the floor. A small experience, but unforgettable.
At Different Tim: I use counter steering when going through the twisties, so I understand that, but the reaction time on a backwards bike is so fast that it forces you to over react and crash. Great fun, if you can laugh at yourself.
iwitness02
Learning to ride a bike was one of the most satisfying and important skills acquired in my young life. I’d never want to risk unlearning it. No thank you.
That gearing was too sloppy and not equivalent to being an exact opposite of a normal bike.
Watch, a small turn of the handlebars to the right equals a large turn of the wheel to the left.
Back to the drawing board…
@Loco
Yep. They should have had a ratio closer to 2 to 1. That way the wheel response would have been 1/2 of the handle bar motion. I believe it would be much easier to adapt to that.