Learning to corner.

Just go out and ride, experience will give you the answer....

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

First off. I'm an average rider. There are peeps faster than me, there are peeps slower than me. I've never done a track day I'd like to though.

I dont necessarily think doing a trackday is necessary in order to learn to corner. Although it does help to do it in a controller environment, i.e. no cars, everybody going the same way, lots of run off area.

Theres some basics that if you practice will allow you to explore the potential of your SV.

The most important is to look where you want the bike to go. Dont look at that 1ft or 2ft of tarmac in front of your front wheel, look down the road and look where you want the bike to go. Dont target fixate or look at one fixed point, you'll go straight to it.

Turn your head, your head weighs alot, if you turn / move your head you'll then naturally turn your shoulders to. Weight helps the bike turn.

Brake in a straight line, set your speed before you enter the corner, dont brake halfway round it. If you do have to brake, use the back brake, using the front will see the bike sit up and you'll run straight on.

Forward planning and observation, look at the road ahead, where does it go, look for hedge rows, telegraph poles the white line, all these things can help you read the road ahead, if you can plan ahead. That way you can react to things before you get to them and use those indicators to see if the corner tightens or opens out.

Once you have the bike turned keep the throttle constant, it helps balance the bike on the suspension, which means the tyres can do there job and grip.

Read the vanishing point. If the vanishing point is coming towards you. I.e. you cant see much of the corner, its tightening up. If you can see your view expanding away to the horizon its opening out. Once you hit the apex or middle of the corner and the vanishing point moves away from you, then you can gently and progressively wind the throttle on and drive the bike forward. If you have got your entry speed and gear right on the SV 5000rpm is a good point to drive the bike forward from, but also you have engine braking at this point so you can use that the fine tune your approach speed to.

Be smooth with the throttle no big movements, just small corrections all the time. Big inputs to the controls unsettle the bike on the suspension which means it cant do its job as well.

Try and stay relaxed on the bike, grip with your knees and try and keep your arms loose so you can flap your elbows about.

Its just practice, pick one thing and practice it till you do it all the time and then move onto the next. Biggest improvements I found came from. Turning my head and looking where I wanted to go and learning to read the road properly so I could plan ahead and react to things well in advance rather than constantly trying to work out what on earth was going on as I came across them at the last minute.

I'm not an instructor so dont take what I've written as gospel. IAM, Bikesafe or more training is the way to go if you're not sure. But what I've written helped me loads.

Very nice post! Agree with it all.

Originally Posted by neio79

Well that contradicts motorsport visions website!! :

What licence do I need? A full category A motor cycle licence (unrestricted) is required to participate in a track day.
http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/tr...s-bike-faq.asp

this is from focused events website:

Requirements for Participation

You must bring both parts of your full current, unrestricted UK driving licence issued by the DVLA and present it at registration. If using an ACU licence you must be 18 years of age or older and if using a Scottish ACU licence you MUST bring your passport to confirm your age.

RESTRICTED,and MSA LICENCES ARE NOT ACCEPTED.

http://www.focusedevents.com/terms.asp

Hottrax dosent mentrion it, but i cant see them being any different TBH .

Wonder what they would think to mine. Ive had my bike licence 4 years but never got it updated after 2 years so it still reads A2 licence. I am obviously un restricted but would they be all gaynal about it?

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

Just go out and ride, experience will give you the answer....

Hmm, I don't want to learn the answer to "what happens when speed around corner > skill available?" through first hand experience! I'd rather learn from someone elses mistakes than make them myself!

"Bike" (or was it Ride?) did quite a good article a few months back on panic-busting when you find yourself taking a corner quicker than you expected.

[yorkie_chris]

You're going to get it wrong some time.

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Very nice post! Agree with it all.



Wonder what they would think to mine. Ive had my bike licence 4 years but never got it updated after 2 years so it still reads A2 licence. I am obviously un restricted but would they be all gaynal about it?

well seeing as the dates are on it i am sure they would realise you have a full A licence. as the licence restricted shows as A on the card not A2 anyway. Its only the bit saying less than 33BHP gives it away.

you have a full A licence now so no worries.

Agree with all of Fizz stuff

Also - try to have your wrists as parallel onto the bars as you can. So when you push the bars, you push into them not down on them. Otherwise you'll fight the bike all the way round the corner. It's v v difficult to get completely parallel but the more you can get, the better. It makes a big difference.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Ed

Agree with all of Fizz stuff

Also - try to have your wrists as parallel onto the bars as you can. So when you push the bars, you push into them not down on them. Otherwise you'll fight the bike all the way round the corner. It's v v difficult to get completely parallel but the more you can get, the better. It makes a big difference.

cheers ed!
Just gotta sort my choke out and I can out out and put this all into action!

I passed my test just under a year ago and I'm still very much a noobie on my bike, but in the last couple of days I've made a couple of breakthroughs in my riding techniques which is helping me feel more confident around the corners...

The biggest breakthrough for me is to relax on the bike. I first started riding with locked-straight arms and bolt-upright back, probably more from fear than anything! Now, instead I arch my back, and then "tip-toe" my feet on the pegs and keep my knees high up on the tank, then try to keep my arms loose and keep a light grip on the bars.

Also when leaning round corners, I now try to keep my shoulders at the same angle as the bike and lean my head towards the mirrors. Countersteering also helps get the bike on its side quicker. All this makes the bike feel much better and more controllable.

Also for blind corners, approach slow, go deep into the corner to get the best view, turn quickly and throttle out.

Hope this helps Dave20046

[fastdruid]

Originally Posted by Flamin_Squirrel

Very. I know someone it's happened to. Don't chance it if you know they won't let you on.

+1

I also know of someone it happened to, thankfully it was when it was just brought in and she got another trackday out of it but still annoying.

Druid

[Dave20046]

Cheers so far everyone. I've been going out almost everynight on the bike but it's been wet and dark which isn't brilliant for learning or testing roads. Got half an hour of daylight tonight (testing out my new boots which are awesome) felt slight improvements but I still have my caution with right handers as you'll probably see from my chicken strips (I'll upload a pic tomorrow). I've found one of the main things 'holding me back' is my entry speed on the corners, I tend to enter too low (granted I haven't had chance to learn a curvy road properly yet) and end up only enjoying the corner on exit as I dare open up the throttle. I mainly only seem to do this on blind corners. I really need to learn the limits of the bike I think and get more experience to ovecome this. Any tips though?