Blipping the throttle on downchanges?

[ophic]

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

Agreed...hence me saying on the approach, nothing wrong with it at all....but breaking in a bend is not the best way to do it. You should try and always be in the right gear at the right speed and revs to ride through the bend....not have to break or change. That is all.

ah ok it makes sense now. It seemed to say that braking and shifting at the same time was bad. I think you meant that braking or downshifting whilst cornering, is bad.

[flymo]

Originally Posted by ophic

ah ok it makes sense now. It seemed to say that braking and shifting at the same time was bad. I think you meant that braking or downshifting whilst cornering, is bad.

even when cornering it isnt always bad, it just needs to be done correctly.

[ophic]

Originally Posted by flymo

even when cornering it isnt always bad, it just needs to be done correctly.

I can't imagine why a racer would deliberately downshift halfway round a corner, if it can be avoided. Might be necessary in some chicanes or double corners I spose.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

S bends where the second one is tighter are great challenge.

Loads of ways to skin cat, square it off on exit of first, brake and drop gear/ into first one at high revs, roll off on exit and then into second/crap self, brake, run out of room to change down and completely naff up the exit

There is one up here where there is S bend like that with a hump bridge in between... that wakes you up

There's one on Buttertubs like that - it woke me up!

Back to thread: Blipping isn't essential, or even particularly important. It's an improvement. Those who don't do it aren't going to suffer, but try it, you might find (as I did) that you like the effect.

People are generalising about braking in a corner too. I often drag my back brake a touch in a corner, either to scrub off a little speed, or sometimes if the corner was bumpy or uneven I'd give it a wee touch to bring the rear shock under control.

You can trail the front brake even after you've tipped in to a corner, so long as you are smooth in your transition from brakes back onto the power, and your prepared to push the bike back down if it starts to stand up a bit. Even if the SV standard suspendies can make that a bit interesting if if bumpy or uneven. Do it on something like a BMW with a funny front end and it doesn't feel dodgy at all.

Braking and cornering together just needs some thought about your stability, and you need to be confident that your tyre and road conditions have enough grip to deal with the forces involved.

This is not advice for anyone and "don't try this at home kids", but lets not generalise and say that it can't be done or will result in certain death.

[flymo]

Originally Posted by ophic

I can't imagine why a racer would deliberately downshift halfway round a corner, if it can be avoided. Might be necessary in some chicanes or double corners I spose.

Pretty rare that I ever downshift in a corner, but braking is fine provided that its done correctly and within limits. Occasionally on a long fast sweeper you need to change up in the corner, on a left hander thats the main reason why some guys change to a race pattern gear shift allowing you to press down on the pedal rather than lift it.

You can carry quite alot of speed into a corner and gently scrub speed with the front brake but you really need to balance braking and cornering as you cant do both heavily. If I remember the Keith Code approach to this is to consider having 1$ worth of grip, you can assign some to cornering and some to braking but the limit is finite.

[yorkie_chris]

F = uR

[flymo]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

F = uR

or FuBaR

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by ophic

ah ok it makes sense now. It seemed to say that braking and shifting at the same time was bad. I think you meant that braking or downshifting whilst cornering, is bad.

Yep, you got it....I couldn't have been very clear.

As for braking in a corner.....I would say on a track braking and gera changes in beg corners would sometimes be necessary....but on a road, I would still advocate doing to the vehicle what is least likely to cause it to lose traction or control...so just prepare for the corner before you get there. I was only talking about road riding/driving, not racetrack.

As for blipping.....I'll wait til I've been riding a fair bit longer and see....I think I already do it.

[G]

Originally Posted by ophic

I can't imagine why a racer would deliberately downshift halfway round a corner, if it can be avoided. Might be necessary in some chicanes or double corners I spose.

Mallory Park... new chicane 3/4 of the way around Gerrards.

Braking and downshifting required... horrible corner.