Left turns

[northwind]

Personally I always found right handers far more daunting- your head's practically in the wrong lane and your tyres are in the dodgy stuff at the side of the road. With lefts, your tyres are on proper road and your head's perfectly placed to not whack off a tractor. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

for me i find left hand turns are not as good as my right but i am sitll confident in performing both.

Originally Posted by jonboy

There's nothing wrong in cutting corners, it's even an advanced method of riding/driving providing you can see 100% it's clear and safe to do so.


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agreed Jonboy but you'll no doubt agree that what I'm talking about is not this. The amount of cars I've avoided whilst they are on my side of the road you WOULD believe

In addition to everything just stated, we in the UK all get more practice at tight right handers as that's the way our roundabouts work.

I am doing IAM observed instruction. When my observer leads, his line feels very extreme to me. He seems to accelerate/decelatate much less often than I do. So I believe it's true, being smooth will prove to be faster, even thought it may not feel like it.

Originally Posted by northwind

Personally I always found right handers far more daunting- your head's practically in the wrong lane and your tyres are in the dodgy stuff at the side of the road.

If your head's in the wrong/oncoming lane then, with great respect, you've either turned in too early from wide left, taken the wrong line altogether and/or are banked over too far due to going too fast to be safe for that corner.

Sorry, but that's how I see it.

Remember:

"If all about you are losing their heads then they've taken the wrong line."

[northwind]

Not literally, of course.

Originally Posted by huge

They are no tighter than right handers

Nor are there necessarily any more visibility issues than right handers

But oncoming traffic could easily cause trouble if you are following a wide line in left handers

And crossing the line is not a good idea

It would be interesting to hear what an IAM person or suchlike had to say on it. I wonder if they advise steering a more central line in left handers?

well im training for my IAM test and i would say its something to do with the camber of the road on left hand bends.

no ?

i always thought that it was because right handed people are better at taking right hand bends - as they find it much easier to balance on the right.

me being ambiduxtrous - doesnt really find this a problem.

Originally Posted by bikageboy

well im training for my IAM test and i would say its something to do with the camber of the road on left hand bends.

no ?

No, I don't agree. The Camber of the road would be in your favour on a left and against on a right. I thought that most decent roads are now superelevated on bends so no camber.

[BillyC]

Originally Posted by Mogs

I am doing IAM observed instruction. When my observer leads, his line feels very extreme to me. He seems to accelerate/decelatate much less often than I do. So I believe it's true, being smooth will prove to be faster, even thought it may not feel like it.

I think it's fair to say that if your line and observation are not up to scratch, it doesn't matter how fast you are on a bike, you'll always be slow.

Putting yourself into these "extreme" positions, is what provides the visability into and through a corner, in order to have the confidence to maintain, or increase your speed.

Obviously, if it is not safe to put yourself into the extreme position, then you don't do it!