Why would a rider ordinarily NOT be rolling off the throttle (and most times, using brake) to turn the motorcycle? Your comment seems discontinuous with this entire discussion on turning a motorcycle. When is a rider going to need to steer AND stay on constant throttle? There's almost always a roll-off to get the bike to point, no matter if you're pushing on the bars or using your weight. I can only think of an emergency maneuver where roll-off would not be considered, but that's few and far between.
We can agree that most of the time the rider should roll off before steering. I've been consistent over the years in recommending that, however there are exceptions and you named one: Evasive action. In a situation where a car moves over on you, a deer jumps into the road or whatever, the fastest way to steer is to turn the bars. Additionally, the rider had better not be confused about what the bike will do when he turns the bars.
I would guess that there are a few fast series of corners where you turn the bike without fully rolling off; 8/8a at Sonoma, 11/12/13 at t-hill, etc.
So, there are "real world" (street) situations that call for steering while the throttle is on and there are track situations where you need to change direction and rolling off is counter productive.
Given that, it's valid to point out that the effectiveness of moving body weight around drops to nearly zero when the throttle is positive.
Here's the quote in its entirety. Taking snippets out tends to change the meaning, as it would in most cases. If you read this again without a colored perspective, you'll glean that "pulled" is tied to the word "tire" and as we know a rider cannot do anything to tire without the bars, the comment is not referring to a rider action, otherwise, I'd have said "bars", not "tire". The front tire is literally, pulled to the inside of the corner by the mass of the motorcycle, leaning into the corner. I know you seem to not respect the aspect of a motorcycle actually steering, believing it'll happen on it's own (which is true, to a degree), but as said above, a rider manipulating bar input even moderately, is working far too hard for a modern bike, much less, sport bike.
As noted above, bar input is vastly more effective at getting the bike turned than anything else you could do that avoids bar input. Said another way, it requires less effort to steer the bike using the bars than it does by moving your carcass around on the bike.
Of all the things that require expending energy on the bike, moving the body around, bracing against braking force and squeezing the brake lever rank high. Turning the bars to countersteer is a rounding error by comparison. See the one finger countersteering video above for emphasis.
With regard to the front tire needing to point into the turn, I don't disregard it but am very specific when it come to rider actions:
When the countersteering is complete, the rider should stop applying pressure to the bars. That's it; that's all. In a parking lot, the rider may have to steer the front tire into a turn where the speed is low, the radius is tight and the lean angle is minimal. At anything above teetering speeds, the front tire will point onto the turn all by itself. How do you know when you don't have to point the front into the turn? When the bike doesn't feel like it's going to lose its balance and fall to the inside of the turn.
The idea of not using one's body and mass of the motorcycle to aid in changing direction is at odds with current technique. That's not say bar input is not taking place, but certainly using brakes and body to turn a motorcycle is more common place on the race track, along with a modicum of bar input, depending on the corner.
In trying to convey to another person how to ride, the information that matters boils down to this: What
body movements produce what
outcomes?
Where the motorcycle is concerned, there are two fundamental things you control: Speed and direction.
The rider has six primary controls to manipulate. Five of them adjust speed; one adjusts direction. Granted, a change in speed can alter direction, but not by itself; you have to have done something else first -- the bike has to be leaned over. You're not going to steer the bike by pulling the brakes if the the bike is going straight and all you do is pull the brakes.
We all do the same basic things on the bike. For any given control action, these are the parameters:
- Where (or when) you apply force
- How much force you use over time
- The direction of the force
Using those three parameters, you can describe to another rider how to operate a control and what the result will be. Why do I mention this? Because if the action we are talking about cannot be described via these parameters, we aren't discussing anything that a rider can use.
When you say "use the mass of the motorcycle" to aid in changing direction, what do you want the rider to do with it? There is nothing specific to work with.
I'll answer the below
in red in-line:
Given your comment(s) above, three questions arise:
1.) How does a rider tighten their line mid corner?
Options are: Hang off more and get upper body lower, pause roll-on, roll off, pull the brakes, countersteer. Depends on how much you need to change it, how far you're leaned over and the quality of traction. Need to tighten your line a foot? Body weight. A boulder is rolling into the road? Pause roll-on and steer it more. Out of lean angle? Hang off more and/or slow down.
2.) When does a rider know the exact moment to release bar pressure, that they've been pushing on?
When the lean angle is set how they want it. That's the bottom line.
3.) What happens when a rider pulls the inside bar on corner exit? Is this a technique in current use? Where and why, if so?
Rather than pull the inside bar, I'd rather push the outside as it's easier to control accurately and without encouraging the rider to hang onto the inside bar for support. Either way, the bike begins to stand up. The technique is in use by anyone who is getting the bike stood up on a corner exit. The bike doesn't stand up because you're winding on the throttle or due to body weight shifts.
At some point, we really should go do a trackday and try some stuff out. I've offered over and over and over, but maybe you're not interested?
The reality of my schedule is I struggle just to get a few CSS days in each year. I'm somewhat interested, but it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
I'm advocating using ones weight and the weight of the motorcycle to turn the motorcycle. This is a body/ brake combo deal, not a peg weighting/ hang off thing; even your head shifted 6" to one side will begin to steer a motorcycle. Had you been using the brakes, you'd have saved yourself a pucker moment and subsequent, emergency bar jam. IMO, given what you posted.
You are saying that moving your head 6 inches and braking is a more effective way to change direction than turning the bars a little more?
