Am I being silly?

[tommyardin]

The height of the front of the bike isn’t really what matters, though it’s convenient as a measurement (at least, the amount the forks have been raised with respect to the yoke is).
What’s happening is the steering head angle has become steeper. This reduces trail: the distance between point on the road the steering head axis points at and the tyre contact point.
Reduced trail means a reduction in the castor effect so the resistance you feel at the bars when trying to turn is less..
Anything that compresses the front forks has the same effect so yes, braking, hard cornering or hitting a bump reduces trail and quickens the steering. As a result, raising the forks needs to be done with some caution, what feels good for normal riding may be unpleasantly twitchy during emergency braking.

Thanks for that Fazerider,


There are things that you have mentioned that I had not taken into consideration, for example the steering head angle change with raising the fork legs. So (Gentle) front wheel braking also does the same thing, I guess there is also a lowering of the front of the bike when shutting the throttle down fast, causing the bike to over run and gain the braking effect of the engine.
[size=1em]I am going to try gently [/size] :eek [size=1em]holding onto the front brake longer going into the apex of a bend just to see if there is any advantage gained by the lowering effect or compressing of the forks.[/size]
[size=1em]I think I understand the castor effect that you talked about, the closer that pivot point is to the rear of the vehicle the more exaggerated the steering response will be.[/size]
[size=1em]For example a building site dumper that is articulated (Centre steering) will turn sharply and on a sixpence while slow manoeuvring on rough ground but give the dumper the beans along a road and its all over the place because the steering is to acute and over responsive.[/size]
[size=1em]Anyway thanks for your response and the food for thought.                [/size]