We have all experienced this right? Your riding down a rough rutted or rocky slow trail and you front wheels encounter a object or rut that causes the handle bars jerk hard to the left or right or even out of your hands on some harder hits, but your going slow so its not real a scary thing.

I was thinking ever if I was superman and could hole the handle bars straight no matter what on some of my encounters it would of bent the bars or twisted a steering post ,tie rod or something else would of taken the punishment. The jerking of the handle bars are just absorbing the energy of the impact with the least resistance right?


Would power steering hold the front wheels straight no matter what the wheels encounter or letting the wheels go with the flow easier on the front end some times?

 

No... the PS doesn't perform that way. It will dampen the jerking... but it does not lock the wheels so that they only move via the tie-rods.

 

I think your arms, and your grip on the handlebars would still be the weak link. I hit a pointed log that was aimed directly at me with one front wheel last weekend, and it nailed the back edge of the front wheel dead on. It hit so hard that it jerked the handlebars right out of my hands, and darn near flipped the quad on it side. It surprised me that it jerked the bars out of my hands, because usually with the power steering that doesn't happen. It will happen if you hit something big enough though.

DV.