Turning Bends correctly - HELP

Future 2050

Right lads help needed. Racing the other day in Bohermeen luckily without crashing - anyway every turn i got to I would lose alot of places

My turning skills are obviously crap. Any tips to correct this. even the most basic of tips may helps Thanks

blorg

Avoid your brakes as much as possible (you may have to use them if you are at the back and the bunch is slowing, but you should not be moving back position-wise.) Follow your line around the corner, e.g. if there is someone on your inside you have to leave room for them, you can't just cut them off diving for the apex. Generally you should just stick on the wheel in front of you presuming they are not doing something obviously stupid. Cornering is also a lot easier if you are at the front, you can go around a lot faster.

Apart from this practice it in training and non-race situations. If you can do a club league this is an easier way to learn than in open racing.

I only started racing last year and cornering was the most terrifying thing for me; I am much better now but still find it hairy right in the middle of a large fast moving bunch. Easy on the inside or outside. Easiest of all on the front.

Planet X

Leg pushing down on pedal farthest from corner ie. outside leg.

gmoorewest

Remember you can corner faster than you think you can. We often tell ourselves we need to slow down. Cycling IMO is 50% in the legs and 50% in the mind. Visulising turning at race speed when training can help.

doozerie

Planet X wrote: »

Leg pushing down on pedal farthest from corner ie. outside leg.

Plus, the knee on the side you are leaning to should point in the direction you are aiming to go.

Chips Lovell

Some good advice from blorg there.

As gmoorewest said, a lot of it is mental. I find that you can overthink cornering. If you simply look at the line you want to take you will naturally follow it.

iregk

One the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten is where you look, your bike follows. Pick your line look around the coner and not directly in front of you and smoothly follow your line.

The trick to good cornering is smoothness. Do any breaking (if required) before the corner and not in it. A lot of other riders instability in corners I've seen has been from braking heavily mid corner, this can upset the weight balance of your bike. I always take fast corners motogp style. Outside pedal down, inside up and knee sticking outward to get the weight over. Lastly, lean as opposed to steering.

Murph100

Just out of curiosity, do any of you lean the bike whilst keeping your body relatively level, full weight on the outside pedal of course, for really tight hairpin turns / small roundabouts ? ie full on countersteering

Muller_1

iregk wrote: »

One the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten is where you look, your bike follows. Pick your line look around the coner and not directly in front of you and smoothly follow your line..

+1 on this, also the lower the centre of gravity the better

Wicklowrider

http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_factsheets/2006/descend.htm

this fact sheet covers cornering, see the diagram especially, near the end.
flamme rouge factsheets are great.

Idleater

From a motorcycling point of view, you basically go where you look.

The best approach on the motorbike is to keep the bike as upright as you can, and hang off it. This is demonstrated in the link above "Part Two ~ The Turn In". Obviously there is a more pronounced effect on the motorcycle, but I have found that the same applies to the bicycle (whether MTB or Road).

By keeping the bike as "upright" as possible you are maintaining the best traction, therefore the best speed, and braking potential if you need to do so. The weight that you put over the side of the bike (as shown in the first picture) lowers your centre of gravity thereby also increasing the grip available to you per speed that you are doing (or increasing your speed per angle of lean up to the point of loss of traction).

Basically, the "wrong" way to increase speed is to lean more by pushing the bike towards the ground while you remain upright.

And of course, to proove I am not some motorcycle loon that is out to spread bad cross over ideas to cyclists : wikipedia to the rescue.

crashoveroid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wEG2RNMJc

Need i say more!!!!

DirkVoodoo

As for the knee thing, Lance is not a fan as it creates instability and Jobst Brandt has this to say:

"Some riders believe that sticking out their knee or leaning their body away from the bike, improves cornering. Sticking out a knee is the same thing that riders without cleats do when they stick out a foot in dirt track motorcycle fashion. It is a useless but reassuring gesture that, on uneven roads, actually works against you. Any body weight that is not centered over the bicycle (leaning the bike or sticking out a knee) puts a side load on the bicycle, and side loads cause steering motions if the road is not smooth. Getting weight off the saddle is also made more difficult by such maneuvers.

"To verify this, ride down a straight but rough road standing on one pedal with the bike slanted, and note how the bike follows an erratic line. In contrast, if you ride centered on the bike you can ride no-hands perfectly straight over rough road. When you lean off the bike you cannot ride a smooth line over road irregularities, especially in curves. For best control, stay centered over your bike."

MotoGP riders have much greater levels of grip and corner at much tighter angles at higher speed, copying them is not necessarily the best thing to be doing on a bike.

DirkVoodoo

More useful information.

EDIT: Class photo:

blorg

Worth bearing mind with all of this that cornering in a bunch and cornering on your own are two completely different things. Cornering on your own you take the whole road and you will go from the extreme outside of the road (or at least just outside your lane) to the apex of the turn and back. Cornering in a bunch you certainly can't do this, you need to follow the rider in front and keep your line on the road in the context of the riders to either side of you.

Completely different approach and really really critical. The lines detailed in the linked thing are for when you are on your own, or descending in single file. DO NOT attempt them in a bunch!

The going where you look is a key thing to get right through application, it really does work.

dave2pvd

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

As for the knee thing, Lance is not a fan as it creates instability ...... MotoGP riders have much greater levels of grip and corner at much tighter angles at higher speed, copying them is not necessarily the best thing to be doing on a bike.

I second this.

Knee out = pointless unless you are air-braking

Toblerone1978

Far from being an expert on cornering myself (or any part of cycling for that matter ), I found my cornering being better by using the drop bars - better centre of gravity etc.

Pigeon Reaper

My cornering improved after I started riding a motorbike a few years ago. The knee out is from motorbikes on tracks doing high speed cornering, it's used to gauge how far over the bike is and to try and get extra cornering speed by getting the weight out. There's absolutely no benefit in doing this on a bicycle and it's more detrimental than anything.

Lumen

Pigeon Reaper wrote: »

The knee out is from motorbikes on tracks doing high speed cornering, it's used to gauge how far over the bike is and to try and get extra cornering speed by getting the weight out scuff up your knee sliders for more beer-garden cred.

Fixed that for you.