Cornering - how?

Like everything else, there's no substitute for practice. Find someone who's a good descender and
follow them down a winding descent, watching what they
do. But basically, as one well-known gravity-surfer said: "you've just got to switch your brain off
and let it roll". And if you get into a position where you don't think you're going to make it
round the bend, just lean the bike more and hope. Odds are you'll make it round. And if you
don't, you're probably only going to lose some bark, which is a lot better than running wide and
hitting a car or a tree or a fence or whatever...

My favourite descents for practising cornering skills are Mt Buffalo and the Ovens Valley side of
Tawonga Gap.

Nick

"hippy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

How do you guys corner on fast descents?

Is your body on the same vertical axis as the bike while leaning in or do you lean the bike into
the corner and keep you body more upright? Or maybe even lean your body and keep the bike upright
(strange?).

I seem to constantly understeer and run wide on fast, downhill corners and I'm wondering if my
technique needs some work...

hippy <[email hidden]> wrote:

: I was messing around with this the other day and it "appeared" that I could turn sharper if I
: tried to "push" the bike down without leaning with it. My normal turn style (geddit turnstyle?!
: yeesh! :-P) involves leaning with the bike. The modified way, which seemed faster didn't seem to
: have me leaning as far over into the corner. I'm not sure if it was faster or how I did it,
: exactly, but you think I should just lean with the bike? I don't really like the idea of crossing
: onto the wrong side of the road at 70kph.. practise makes perfect I guess...I wish I could judge
: corners better, damnit!

From my motorbike racing days of old, it certainly was faster and felt right to hang off the inside
of the bike and keep it relatively vertical through a corner.

Dynamics are obviously different on a bicycle, but it still feels better to hang somewhat off the
bike. I don't like the idea of negotiating a flat-out downhill on the side of a bicycle tyre. Either
way, any corner is taken both by the bike and you, so it makes sense to have that frame of mind when
hurtling into one. In other words, you need to learn, by experimenting with body position, lines,
etc, how you and the bike are most balanced.

Vector analysis will certainly show the forces involved but no amount of 'theory' can inform one's
body without the real life experience.

It seemed pretty obvious that the people who could get around corners fastest on a racing motorcycle
were the ones with the least fear of injury or death. And, yes, they did eventually crash. The point
being that the only way of knowing the limit of corner speed is to exceed it then subsequently go
slightly slower than that.

Cheerz, Lynzz

"Nick Payne" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Like everything else, there's no substitute for practice. Find someone

who's

Quoted message said:

a good descender and follow them down a winding descent, watching what

they

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do.

Well, I did the same climb and descent last night and it felt infinately better. The climb was
faster - which is always good, but I was most happy with the descent. I went from being the last
rider down to being the rider who was out-sprinted at the bottom for 2nd place :-) Basically,
instead of hanging back and freaking out at each corner, braking too much, I simply followed the
other guys down and stayed off the brakes as much as my chicken mentality would let me :-) Twas most
cool! Next week, now I know where the sprint finish is, I'm going for the win :-)

Quoted message said:

where you don't think you're going to make it round the bend, just

lean the

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bike more and hope. Odds are you'll make it round. And if you don't,

you're

Quoted message said:

probably only going to lose some bark, which is a lot better than

running

Quoted message said:

wide and hitting a car or a tree or a fence or whatever...

I'm still trying to get over the fear of leaning. My first race I crashed due to not leaning to get
around a corner - braked, felt I was going too fast, panicked and ran straight into the mountain,
knocking myself out... I grew up on flat ground - adjusting to mountains will take a loooong time.

Thanks for the input everyone!

hippy

Duncan said:

On the road (motorbike and pushie) I lean my body to the inside of the corner. This is because it
reduces the amount the bike has to lean and keeps the steering geometry and suspension (active or
passive) in it's best position. It's much easier to do this if you can guarantee good surface and
don't have to worry about line changes.

Im surprised your (motor)bike doesnt fall over during low speed turns, usually you lean out for low
speed, and in for high speed turns.

On a bike, you really dont have the weight of a motor, so into the corner is better.

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Off road I have a tendancy to keep my body upright and lean the bike. This is mainly so I can
repsond quicker to bumps or line changes, the bike shifts quicker than I can.

I cant believe we have gotten so far without someone saing ``go read sheldon brown''? Go read
sheldon brown.

till

"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Duncan said:

On the road (motorbike and pushie) I lean my body to the inside of the corner. This is because
it reduces the amount the bike has to lean and keeps the steering geometry and suspension
(active or passive) in it's best position. It's much easier to do this if you can guarantee good
surface and don't have to worry about line changes.

Im surprised your (motor)bike doesnt fall over during low speed turns, usually you lean out for
low speed, and in for high speed turns.

The lean out turns are usualy only the very tight and slow full lock ones you might do for a u-turn.
Even then it's not always needed. Forcing the bike to lean a bit more gives it a tighter turn at
full lock, my bike is designed for turning at 200+ kph it's pretty awkward at 20 kph.

There's always room to experiment, when I get a new set of tires I do a few rides leaning out as far
as I can to scrub the tires. The bike handles like [censored] but it's better to scrub at lower speeds.

Damm what a topic!

I dream about cornering!!

I've got a MTB background and cornering in the dirt is very different as tire traction is different.

Fro those that need confidence I recomend finding a quiet corner at the bottom of a hill, preferably where you can use all the road without trafic, and practive the corner again and again.
Try not to use your brakes (its only skin, it grows back) and vary your line and body position.

I once heard of pushing your inside knee toward the head tube, I don't do it but it's an interesting idea.

Practice accelerating out of the corner after you have the line and position correct. I bottomed my pedal a few weeks ago so I recomend building your confidence before you pedal through fast corners.

Corners come naturally now and I use them in races to break from the bunch.

They are the highlight of my road rides.

Brian

The chick got a great exit and made everyone hurt each corner.