Do car wheels spin fast enough to work as gyroscope/reaction wheels?

[mikegarrison]

11 hours ago, YNM said:

I know they give steering stability, but those who fall from a bike / motorcycle usually don't fall because they can't steer.

Bikes and motorcycles are not the same thing. Motorcycles have much heavier wheels that create substantially more gyroscopic moments. It's still true that for motorcycles is is the steering geometry that provides most of the stability, but gyroscopic forces are not completely negligible for motorcycles. For bicycles, they are essentially completely negligible.

 

7 hours ago, YNM said:

there are also those who fell simply from leaning too much.

Sure, this is possible. When you steer a bike or a motorcycle, the force you are generating to change your velocity vector has to be reacted by something. The only thing you can push off of is the ground, and the only place you touch the ground is your tires. So all the turning force has to go through the tires to the ground. If you try to put too much force through the tires, they will slip. Then you will fall down.

 

[YNM]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

If you try to put too much force through the tires, they will slip.

I don't know but it is possible for one to lean a motorcycle without it turning considerably.

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

For bicycles, they are essentially completely negligible.

I must be one of those people who ride bikes too fast through my childhood.

Edited January 12, 2019 by YNM

[Nightside]

On 1/11/2019 at 7:45 PM, YNM said:

I don't know but it is possible for one to lean a motorcycle without it turning considerably.

Sure you could lean the 'cycle, but the rider would have to adjust the center of mass of the system by adjusting their body  to maintain vertical stability

The only way to be stable with an offset center of mass is to be turning - then you have centripetal acceleration acting sideways on the system countering the offset center of mass.

[YNM]

18 minutes ago, Nightside said:

Sure you could lean the 'cycle, but the rider would have to adjust the center of mass of the system by adjusting their body  to maintain vertical stability

The only way to be stable with an offset center of mass is to be turning - then you have centripetal acceleration acting sideways on the system countering the offset center of mass.

Indeed.

This is why I think it's far more complicated than just inertia or just the caster angle or such. There has to be a few things being in effect simultaneously.