The Width of a Circle

I imagine it like this, that I am attached to a piece of elastic which is anchored at the centre of the circle I am turning around. Centripetal force (which is due to my inertia - my unwillingness to change direction) is making me want to stretch the elastic and move in a straight line rather than a circle. To make the turn, the elastic must not stretch. If I lean towards the direction of the elastic, towards the middle of the circle, the wheels of the bike push back on the road counter balancing the outwards centripetal force on the elastic which keeps me in the turn (or keeps the elastic from stretching).

Flicking the handlebars in the opposite direction absolutely works because it forces you to lean into the corner to turn. If you steered into the corner then you would not lean into the corner, due to inertia your bike would want to lean the other way (by the same argument as above), in which case if you _were_ moving quickly you would fall off.

Also, for some reason turning the handle bars the other way and dropping into the turn is exciting. The potential danger comes if you drop too low and scrape the foot peg on the floor, which I have done many times!

I got to the point where I didn't even turn the handle bars the other way consciously, I just lifted out of the saddle slightly and shifted my body to the side I was turning, this made the bike fall into the corner, when you physically drop your body to one side, the handle bars turn in the counterintuitive direction automatically. You see the professional racers doing this in races all the time, I think you get to the point in riding where you imagine yourself as a counterweight whose job it is to pull a hunk of machinery in directions that modify where it naturally wants to go (which is in a straight line).

Nice pictures by the way.