Rear Wheel Controls the Stability of your Bike

Courtesy of Keith Grantham

When your motorcycle is stable in any course, whether in a straight line or in a curve, it is your rear wheel that is primarily responsible for maintaining that course and stability. Indeed, it's the job of your front wheel to DESTABILIZE the bike in order to change course. That is, your front wheel changes course, your rear wheel maintains it.

How is that possible? A spinning rear wheel provides gyroscopic stability to over 80% of your motorcycle (including yourself) because it is directly connected via its axle/swing-arm to the frame of the motorcycle. The front-end is only indirectly influenced by the spinning rear wheel.

When a motorcycle is stable it will maintain its current course until an outside influence or steering input to the front-end results in destabilizing it and a new course is sought that will once again result in a stable motorcycle.

Proof that the rear wheel is directing the course of your motorcycle is easy to come by. Watch any motorcycle that is performing a 'wheelie'. Whether it is going in a straight line or it is in a curve, the motorcycle will continue that course