Roughly 25% of all motorcycle accidents are simply motorcycles running wide in
corners. That's a huge percentage. In the immortal words of a 19th century naval
officer; "We have met the enemy and they are us." So, today, we're going to break
down, as simply as we can manage, how to turn, or how to corner on a motorcycle.
We already have several other videos where we go into a lot of the details about
why we do things on a motorcycle, and if you haven't seen those there's a link
below if you're interested. But, today, for the sake of brevity, we are going to try
to focus primarily on the what. What we need to do in order to ride a motorcycle
around a band with the least amount of risk.
So, many riders come to us hoping
for a secret technique that will suddenly make them a better rider. But,
that secret technique, isn't a secret at all. Yet, it's the hardest thing for most
of us to master. Looking and thinking further ahead. From our first driver's
education class when we were kids, the concept of a two-second following
distance was so ingrained in us, that it became for many of us, not only how far
we look, but also how far we think ahead. But, two seconds is it nearly enough time
to react to much of anything. The only way to successfully ride a motorcycle is
to teach ourselves to look, and more importantly, think further ahead. Air
Force pilots call this "staying ahead of the aircraft" and I really like that
saying. We need to stay ahead of the motorcycle. We need to be actively
looking and thinking about what we need to be doing 10 to 15 seconds from now.
This is what separates good riders from great riders; the ability to look and
think as far ahead as possible.
Prepare to enter the corner from the outside of the turn. Not the middle, and
definitely not the inside. There's a number of reasons for this. Most
importantly, when we enter a corner wide it allows us to see further ahead into
the corner. Remember how we just talked about the
importance of looking ahead? Entering wide gives us the most visibility.
Entering wide also makes the arc of the corner bigger. In other words, the
motorcycle doesn't have to lean over as far because we've basically made the
corner not as tight as it would be if we were on the inside. Entering wide gives
us the ability to see further ahead, makes a corner wider, and gives us more
choices in case there is an oncoming car running into our lane. For us as riders,
an ironclad rule that we all need to hold ourselves to; our lane is our limit.
We should never be crossing those lines, especially that center line. And if you
want to learn more about this be sure to check out our video about apexes.
We want to be conservative with our entrance speeds, so that we have more time, and
space, to deal with turning. The objective we are looking for is that we almost
always want to be exiting a corner faster than we entered it. Let me say
that again. The goal is to go slow into a corner, so that we can accelerate or go
fast out of the corner. In slow, out fast. When
we enter corners too fast, when we overcook the entrance, we struggle making
the turn and may end up running wide, or we end up grabbing the brakes in the
middle of the corner, or we might have to lean the bike more than we may be
comfortable with. All of which increases the chances of us crashing, or nearly
crashing, and we end up exiting corners really slowly. As we ride towards every
corner we need to be looking ahead, and thinking about when we want to begin
slowing: Planning on being conservative with our entrance speed.
How do motorcycles go around corners? They lean. And how do we make them lean?
Well, we press the handlebar in the direction of the turn. Wait! What? Yeah,
that's right. In order to get the motorcycle to begin to lean left,
we need to gently press forward with our left hand. This will cause the bike to
lean to the left. To lean to the right, press with the right hand. This is often
called "counter-steering" and you can practice this while you are sitting on
your bike. Very gently press forward on your
handlebar and feel the bike slightly lean in the direction that you're
pressing. Once the motorcycle is leaning the front tire will come around and
steer as you would expect, but the most efficient way to initiate that lean or
get the bike to lean a little more, is with some gentle and deliberate counter-steering.
A lot of new riders are nervous about running wide in corners, so
they tend to enter corners shallow, or on the inside, to give themselves more room
in case they do. Part of this is due to a lot of new rider programs are still
teaching that motorcycles must accelerate through an entire corner. This
method is woefully outdated. The problem is that speed and radius are linked. In
in other words, as soon as we start accelerating in a corner, the motorcycle
stops turning and wants to run wide. So, remember how we talked about entering
corners wide and all the benefits we get from that? Well, here's the next part. When
we slow into a corner, the radius, or the arc of that corner, is going to want to
get smaller. This gives us a huge advantage. If we slow into corner,s it's
now very, very unlikely that we will run wide in most any corner. Plus, if there is
something unexpected in the turn, like a stalled car, or a deer... because we are
already slowing, slowing more, is no big deal. If the corner unexpectedly gets
tighter, it's no big deal because we are already slowing down, so it's easy to
slow a bit more and turn a little tighter. Grip comes from weight. This is
why most of our bikes stopping power comes from
the front brake. When we slow, weight shifts to the front, and pushes the front
tire into the ground, and we have more grip. By slowing into a corner we have
more grip in case we have to slow or stop, but we also have more grip for turning.
Listen, ideally we want to slow into corners using just a little bit of front
brake. Well, how much? Not much is needed. When you
squeeze the front brake on your motorcycle you will likely hear a faint
click. This is the switch that turns on the brake light. Just this much front
brake is all you need as you slow into a corner. Just enough to click the brake
light on. Practice in the driveway or in the garage, so you get really familiar
with how this feels. Remember, we want to gently slow into corners until we are
comfortable with our speed and we can see our exit. Not only does this give us
the most options to deal with the unexpected, it's also the method used by
the world's best motorcycle racers, because you don't win championships
running wide and crashing into the gravel pit. And if you want to learn more
about this, be sure to check out our video all about trail braking.
Remember how earlier I said that as soon as we start accelerating the motorcycle
stops turning and wants to run wide? Well, let's use that. When and only when we can
see the exit of our corner, and we can take away lean angle, we can slowly begin
to accelerate out of the corner. What we really want to do is to gently add
throttle as we slowly take away lean angle. This is also the really fun part
of cornering; that joyful sensation of gradually speeding up as we come out of
a turn. And this is a great way to measure how well you did. If you didn't
get scared in the corner, and when you saw your exit you had the confidence to
start rolling on the throttle... Those are all signs of a corner well done.
So, what do you do when you find yourself in the middle of a corner, and you can
see your exit, and you start accelerating out of the turn, but you're in too high
of a gear in the bike has no power? Well, just downshift. Here's the problem. I
can't tell you what gear to be in as you enter a corner, because so many things
will affect which gear you should be in as you exit the corner. If the corner is going downhill,
getting into a lower gear isn't it all-important, because gravity is going
to help accelerate you out of that turn. You may also find, that as your
experience grows and your skills sharpen, or even as you get your second
motorcycle, how you shift getting into and out of corners will likely change. So
don't worry too much about shifting. It's more important to get good at slowing
into corners, and learning how to be patient and waiting until you can see your exit.
So, I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but when I'm scared in corners,
riding isn't much fun at all. But, when we follow the process that
we've laid out, it's far less likely that we'll get scared in corners, because
these steps give us the most options to deal with the unexpected, and gives us
more control over the motorcycle. All right. So, let's recap. Look ahead. Stay
ahead of the motorcycle. Look and think 12 to 15 seconds ahead. Enter corners
wide. Slow before the corner. Press to initiate lean, and continue to slow until
you are comfortable with your speed and you can see your exit. When you can see
your exit and take away lean angle, begin to gently accelerate out of the corner.
You'll notice that, in these steps, we do a lot more slowing than pretty much
anything else. And there's an old racer saying that goes "the fastest riders use
the brakes the most." And this has often been misunderstood to mean fast riders
brake hard and brake late. And nothing is further from the truth.
Fast riders go to the brakes early, gently, and then drag the brake for a
long time. And as it turns out, this is also what safe riders do too. Slower is
smoother. Slower is safer. And, crazy as it may sound, slower is faster. We have a lot
of additional videos focused on becoming better, faster and safer riders. And we've
linked to them, as well as some reading resources, in the description to help you
continue to become a better rider. And if you liked anything that we said in this
video, click on that thumbs up. And if you really liked anything that we said, we'd
love it if you subscribed. Thank you so much for watching, and ride well.