[rconti]

Yes, it's subconscious (and/or you are initiating the turn by leaning into it, which causes the bicycle to countersteer FOR you).

The way I describe it is that the wheels MUST be underneath the force exerted by the center of mass. In straight-line riding, this means your wheels are under you. In a corner, your mass is to the "inside" of the corner, but the centripetal force added to gravity's downward force ends up pushing down to where the wheels are.

So you need to steer a bicycle so that the wheels are always under this center of mass force (I'm sure there's a word for it).

Hence, if you were to turn the wheels in the direction you wanted to turn, you'd fall over, off the bike, to the outside of your intended turn.

Therefore, to initiate a turn, you have to steer the wheels out from under the bike (the "wrong" way) to initiate your mass's 'fall' into the corner. Then you steer the wheels back under you to balance the fall.