Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work

Veritasium · 24.9M views · 2021-11-28 · 11:22

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Overview

Veritasium explains why bicycles are stable, arguing that gyroscopic effects are not the answer. The video shows countersteering and an experiment where riders blocked from steering the opposite way cannot turn.

On Hacker News

HN links it in threads on bikes, countersteering and control systems as the clearest demonstration of how bikes actually steer and balance.

Recommended by 7 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2021–2025

Topics

Everyday physics & science demos Fundamental physics Mechanical & precision engineering

What people said

Brajeshwar · 2023-03 · Strong recommendation
You will love the interesting video, "Most People Don't Know How Bikes Work" by Veritasium - [VIDEO]
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nitwit005 · 2025-11 · Recommendation
> You only think you understand how a bicycle works, until you learn to ride one. I realize this is just for motivation in a subtitle, but people generally don't grasp how bicycles work, even after having ridden one. Veritasium has a quite good video on the subject: [VIDEO]
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jasonpeacock · 2024-04 · Recommendation
Here's a good video showing how a bike actually works, and the relation between steering and leaning: [VIDEO]
Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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