I’d been meaning to write this up for the website for some time, but yet another “how do you ride bends?” question this morning reminded me I hadn’t got round to it.
The problems…
The original question a couple of months back was from a rider who’d read about wide lines into turns to give a better view, but found it difficult to avoid turning in too early, particularly when positioning to the left for a right hander. As he noticed, the result of an early turn in (and resulting early apex) is that he had to stand the bike up mid-turn and then ran wide in the second half of the turn. As a result he was losing confidence rapidly.
The latest question was from a rider who was trying to do the same positioning exercise for a better view, but found he couldn’t link corners together and “was all over the bloody road”.
There are several possible issues for both riders which we’ll look at in a moment, but the key is quite simple – slow down! When experimenting with any new technique, you can’t do it at the speed you’re used to – you’re concentrating on new things and you’ve a limited amount of attention to apply to your riding in the first place. What’s almost certainly happened in both cases is the riders’ have run out of attention.
The first was turning too soon is because he was worried about not making it round the bend – and the moment you start worrying about making the turn, that big “open space” on the inside seems friendlier. The danger is that an an early turn in usually leads to running wide later in the turn and an interface with the hedge! I know myself that I reach the comfortable upper limit of my speed in bends when I start making exactly this mistake.
The second rider was almost certainly not waiting for the “vision line” to open up, turning too early and concentrating on avoiding the hedge/white line just at the moment when he should have been thinking about the next bend and how to get round it.
Many riders have the same sort of problems.
How to fix…
You need to be confident you can hold a line, to be confident that you can steer accurately when you you need to and you need to know where to turn.
Importantly, forget any stuff you’ve read about an apex – if you get the line right from turn in to exit, the apex happens along the way. It’s simply not important. Even on a track that’s true.
Are you happy with the concept of countersteering? If not, find out what it’s about (there’s an extensive Question and Answer tip in the Riding Skills section of this site) and go practice!
On the road…
First of all drop your speed right off – 60 or 70% of the speed that’s making you run wide or causing other problems. That’ll give you spare concentration to work on getting through the bend to plan rather than just “surviving” it.
Second and importantly, practice getting your entry speed sorted. Get on the brakes early, so you’re off the brakes and back on the throttle with the bike still upright – ideally still 2 secs or so from the beginning of the bend – then you can concentrate on steering. To avoid having to use a mental stopwatch (and waste more mental processing power) a good visual “cue” is to use the painted road markings – count back white lines from the corner and make sure you are on the throttle three straight hazard lines before the curve starts. Avoid relying on the throttle for engine braking – get used to using the brakes. They give you far more chance of scrubbing off speed quickly if you misjudge your approach speed or the sharpness of the bend.
Thirdly, to start with go back to basics and steer a line that keeps you midway between white line and kerb – do this till you can do it consistently, accurately and with only peripheral vision – this will allow you to get your eyes up and looking as far ahead as possible. Don’t try to cut across the lane, just steer round the bend keeping the bike in the same position relative to kerb and white line all the way round.
When you can do this consistently, now we can start to use “extended positioning”. Shuffle your line outwards a half metre or so at a time towards the outside of the corner. Don’t try to turn tighter, once again just hold the line round the turn from beginning to end. With a bit of practice you should be able to hold a line all the way round the outside of the bend 1metre or so from the kerb or white line, but obviously this is subject to other hazards – DON’T put yourself in a dangerous position near oncoming vehicles, junctions or where the bend is sharp and the road narrow.
When you can do this and keep your eyes up, you should start to look for the exit to the bend. The exit is where the road heads for the next bend or goes down a straight. It should be obvious that the point you can see this is where you can see both sides of the road ahead. A good way to get the hang of this is park the bike and do it on foot. Walk round the corner until the point where you can see clearly down the next bit of road – so that you know whether it’s a straight, leads the way into another bend or to some other hazard that will need dealing with like a blind crest or a junction.
This is the next key point; where the view opens up is your “turn-in point”. Back on the bike, it’s where you give the bars an extra push, turn tighter and cut across the turn. If you got off and walked it, you’ll see it’s late in the bend – and the apex is even later!
This extra push is why I describe this as “two stage steering”. The first steering effort gets you following the bend, the second steering effort has you changing line and cutting across the lane.
Having given the bars their second push, where you go depends on where the road goes next – if it’s a left hander, you’ll usually steer to run alongside the white line, if it’s a straight, prob 2/3 – 3/4 of the way across the lane, if it’s a right hander you’ll probably steer to run alongside the kerb.
You should note at this point that we’re not describing sweeping kerb – white line – kerb lines that use all the road for the “maximum radius line” as you may find it called, we’re not exiting near the kerb on a right hander or the white line on a left hander – rather, we keep away from the extremes because it gives us room for correction if we’ve made a bit of a mess of it. So rather than make the bends S shaped, we’re more nearly describing a Z line – keeping the bike upright as much as possible and making tighter turns with that second effort.
Where we’re looking at “kinks” rather than bends, it may be possible to straighten them out – but do it cautiously – if you can’t see into ‘dead ground’ in the sides of the road, you may miss sight of a side turning or even an oncoming vehicle hidden by the hedge. Make sure you can see BOTH sides of the road before straightening it out.
You’ll find more about this “Point and Squirt” technique in this blog and on my website. If you want a fuller description of how to go about learning this technique, then I suggest you take a look at my CDROMs, available from the shop. Or possibly even book a “Bends” course, where you’ll get a full explanation and get the chance to watch me do it, as well as learn it for yourself!
One final point – remember we have what’s called crown camber on nearly all our roads; ie., the centre of the road is higher than the edges! If you take a line thru a bend that crosses the lane, then the angle of the camber changes underneath you. This may not be a problem at moderate lean angles on a decent surface but on a wet road where you’re running a bit wide on the exit, or where the drop off is quite steep (check the average French rural road!) can be quite disconcerting!! It may be safer not to go to the extreme edges of the road if you think the camber may be a problem. Thanks to Malc Palmer for reminding me of this.
PS: it was rather gratifying to find that Bike magazine in their April edition had used most of the advice I’d given in the January reply in a “refresh your cornering” article. Coincidence?
