Cornering techniques by Jeremy Mitchell and others

[lt1]

<snip of the good stuff>
While late apexing and such are good skills to learn, my strategy is to choose the line that gives me the most asphalt to work with should I have to change my line mid corner (due to animals, gravel, etc.).  For me this usually means staying closer to the yellow median when cornering to the left, but not putting my head in the opposite lane of travel, so that I can swerve right if I need to, or god forbid into the oncoming lane if that's my best option.  When cornering right, I tend to be closer to the shoulder, as it's easier to widen your line of travel than tighten it.  Not  too close though, gravel likes to hang out at the edge of the road.
<snip of more good stuff>

On one particular ride I was on last year, I was riding with a couple of Sports Bike guys I hang with, about 3-4 seconds behind them.  At one point, I came around a left hand blind corner and saw them at a complete stop due to a herd of sheep in the road blocking the road completely.  They were absolutely positive I'd plow into them with my heavier Connie, but I managed to come to a complete stop with about 4-5 feet to spare.  If I had been letting it all hang out, things might have ended very differently...

I've just been reading David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling and his advice (as well as of others, eg Keith Code) is just the opposite. ie,  Improve your sight distances by staying to the outside and delaying the apex.  He also discusses keeping you speed within your sight distance.  Historically, I've followed your lines, but am changing what I believe to be bad habits.

In your example, it is possible that the preferred, delayed apex line would have given you an even greater margin at the end of the stop.  I'm glad you're okay.  It sounds like you have been practicing the braking skills.

[Outback_Jon]

Someday I hope to corner like this guy...   

Motard touche le casque au sol !

[ManWorkinghere]

Someday I hope to corner like this guy...   

Which one?  The cameraman seems to have the tougher job keeping this guy in frame.  Or maybe he is using a HelmetCam...

I play this video at half-speed so I can practice making vroom, vroom noises in front of the LCD TV. 

[Outback_Jon]

Which one? 

Either.  But having scuff marks on your helmet from cornering sure beats just showing off your knee pucks.

[Two Skies]

I've just been reading David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling and his advice (as well as of others, eg Keith Code) is just the opposite. ie,  Improve your sight distances by staying to the outside and delaying the apex.  He also discusses keeping you speed within your sight distance.  Historically, I've followed your lines, but am changing what I believe to be bad habits.

In your example, it is possible that the preferred, delayed apex line would have given you an even greater margin at the end of the stop.  I'm glad you're okay.  It sounds like you have been practicing the braking skills.

This is essentially what I am doing, hence my comment about keeping your speed down in the corners.  This guy just explains it better, and gives you a specific strategy r.e. your speed, which gives you a specific goal (what I offered is a lot less clear).  If you are going into a blind corner at or near your best possible speed, you very likely aren't keeping your stopping distance within your sight distance.

I've always had good luck in braking situations with the Connie.  Even with 'just' the stock calipers I find that braking is fairly predictable.  One time I had a minivan pull the infamous left turn in front of the bike.  I was traveling about 30-35 MPH at the time.  I was completely stopped with about 1-2 feet between me and her passenger side door before it even registered in my thoughts 'oh s*** she just pulled out in front of me'.  Of course, she had chosen to panic/completely stop directly in my line of travel.  I do need to be a little mindful of the rear's tendency to lock if you brake too hard, but the brakes do their job.

And, of course, I've been more watchful for soccer moms since that day.

When canyon chasing in the mountains around here, you are often in open grazing range, and also fall within the ranges of several types of wildlife.  So cows, sheep, and deer go with the territory.

Including these cute little guys...
http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/search/Display.asp?FlNm=tamimini
Unfortunately for them, they have suicidal tendencies when cars and bikes are passing - just a bump in the road if you hit one.  We try not to hit them without doing anything drastic in the process.


That being said, I'm sure the C-10 Connie brakes are even better with the 4 pot front/2 pot rear caliper upgrades.  Someday...

[julianm]

I like that this thread was started by someone from South Africa, welcome Julianm! 

Thanks for the welcome ZG. Have been a mostly silent member of the forum with an occasional post.
Have found this forum to be most informative and have learnt a lot and had many laughs. Thanks to all the enthusiasts for all the posts and the great information in this one. Will certainly be reading and rereading all the advice offered.
The South African biking scene is well established with many clubs , rallies , day Jol's etc. Best riding close to Johannesburg ( about 400 Km) is the Eastern Transvaal or ET area on a 3000 ' escarpment with a number or great passes up and down. Recent rally in that area had about 5000 bikes attending.
One pass is quite well know - called the 22 , it has 75 corners in 22 Km and is a great challenge

[SVonhof]

I got to test out the cornering techniques on my C14 this past weekend on a 4 day ride. Got caught by two decreasing radius turns and went wide in both, the second one because I hit the feeler on the peg (first time I have touched down a feeler on any bike I have owned). When I caught the feeler, I let up and went wide because it scared me so bad. Both times, no traffic the other way, lucky for me it's not a well traveled road.  I really think that severe decreasing radius turns need to be labeled.

Anyway, I used up almost all of the tire, leaving only about 1/8" on either side of the back tire untouched.

With the C14 as compared to my former TL1000R, it takes a little more effort, but not much. The effort it takes is because there is more weight to deal with, but you get used to it pretty quick. I didn't bother keeping up with the fast guy in our group as I don't like pushing my luck more than I already was since these were roads I didn't know and there was lots of variable surfaces including gravel in corners as well as strange pavement that the tires didn't like much (new PR2 in front and stock rear tire). I used the same techniques I posted about originally except I did have a long downhill section of slow, super tight corners where I just left it in third gear the whole time and would lightly accelerate through (second would have been better if I was trying to go fast, but third gives more control on coming through the corners smoothly).