Why is it easier to balance a bicycle while it’s in motion?

Question

I never quite understood why it is so much easier to keep a bike balanced while riding at a certain speed, compared to riding it really slow, or while standing…

In: 540

Answer 1

Angular momentum – that’s not ELI5, but it’s a major reason for stability in rotating objects. The simple way to think of it is like this. When you spin a top, it’s axis is aligned vertically. Because it has mass, and is spinning, that axis wants to stay vertically aligned. Some concept with bicycle wheels except you have two of them and it wants the axis to stay aligned horizontally.