Two questions for seasoned VFR riders

Well the point I was attempting to get across was that when a newer rider finds himself in a corner going to fast it is probably not best for him to be thinking about trail breaking and other advanced things once he is already in the corner.

Once he is in the corner and relizes he is to fast..KISS is the best policy.

Relax
look
smooth with slight accelleration decpite gut reactions.

If your looking at going into a corner fast long before the corner and can set things up in your mind, then is the time to think of trail breaking and other such things.

Especially when the rider may not know what to expect. The last thing we want is a panic reaction.

 

When the TOO FAST!! alarm goes off in my head, I fight the fear with anger, drop my chest on the tank, look where I want to go, and counter steer harder. I trust the Lord, the VFR, and the tires.
My Daddy told me when I was a child," Bein' scared just makes you act smarter."
So far, those things have always worked.

Mac

 

The youtube body position videos are really great - At the clinics I coach this is what we teach. This is something you want to practice before going hard on the streets or highway. I would try practicing in a parking lot - first mark out a circle on the ground - practice using the circle and work towards doing transitions (figure eights). Have a friend watch you to let you know what you may be doing wrong (you can use cones or get some tennis balls and cut then in half to use to make circles and figure eights). I would also recommend checking out Lee Parks book "Total Control" and if you are interested get some miles under your belt (at least one riding season) and consider going to a Lee Parks ARC clinic. The clinic is all about cornering and suspension setup. Check the weblink below for info on Lee Park and his ARC clinics.

Be Safe and enjoy!!!!

Total Control Advanced Riding Clinic


Ten Steps to Corner Properly

1. Reposition the foot (get your toes out of the way so you don’t scrape them). On a cruiser, this isn’t important.

2. Pre-position the body. This is where the action is. Get at least your upper body inside the vertical centerline of the bike. If you’re riding a standard or sport bike, get a lot more than that over to the inside

3. Hold the bike upright by pushing on the outside grip. So if you’re going to go right, your body is off to the right side and you’re now pushing on the left grip.

4. Find your turn point. Most riders don’t do this. They just sort of go around the corner. Instead, you want to pick a place to turn in and wait for it.

5. Look through the turn. This is MSF 101. While doing that, definitely scan your line to make sure you’re not missing anything.

6. Relax the outside grip. I think about “releasing” the outside grip. The feeling is that of the bike dropping into the turn. The first time this happens, it can feel pretty weird. The last thing you want to do right about now is chop the throttle. Maintain some forward thrust please,

7. Push the inside grip. At this point, if you have your weight to the inside, the bike will be heading off in a whole new direction. Now you can see why you want to find and wait for your turn in point. If you need more turning, this is when you add some counter steer. Gently. Sometimes this feels to me like pulling the bike down to me.

8. Roll on the throttle. Roll means be smooth with it. Your bike is still leaned over so you’re splitting traction between turning and going.

9. Push the outside grip. This will pick the bike back up. Keep rolling on the throttle as you do.

10. Move back to neutral. That’s you and your body back in the center of the bike.

I know it looks like a lot, but hell it comes with practice. Transitions (figure eights) are more challenging but you can do it with some practice.

 

Thanks for all the replies

Just so y'all know I'm not some kind of day 1 wanna be racer. I'm going to take it real easy. After about a year of riding or so, if I think I'm ready, I'd like to take a more advanced track based class to start fine tuning my riding abilities.

I'm an aerospace engineer and I've come to find the physics and dynamics of riding a motorcycle to quite fascinating. Any questions I have about more advanced riding techniques are purely academic to further my understanding of the mechanics involved in riding the bike and understand how rider inputs affect the bike in motion.

 

A guy on a Goldwing was doing this a couple weeks ago at a local bike shop I visited. Endless 8s and circles; had that 'wing in full lean most of the time too. Was impressive to watch.