Cornering with Confidence

Track Day Eastern Creek

Cornering would have to be one of the most important things to get right when you are riding. This is where the most accidents happen for motorcycle riders and I am going to tell you why. I like to call it the three P’s

1. PREPARATION

Make sure you are in the right gear for the corner. Not all corners are the same. So what gear should my bike be in?

There is a little trick that I did when I first started and this may not be the exact right way, but it worked for me. Basically if I came to a sign that indicated a corner was coming up and the suggested speed was 25km/h, then I would choose 2nd gear. If the sign said 35km/h, then I would choose 3rd gear. 45km/h, 4th gear and if it was 55km/h or over, then 5th gear. Now don’t shoot me down and say that this is not the best advice, like I said, it worked for me. Give it a go.

The next part of preparation is to make sure that you have washed off some speed. Of course, changing down gears will wash off speed, but make sure that you have slowed down enough to not overshoot the corner. Make sure you do all your braking in a straight line before you get to the corner, so that when you start your corner, you don’t have your front brake on. (There is a thing called trail braking, but this will be covered in more advanced training).

2. POSTURE

The next important part of cornering, is of course posture. Get those knees gripping the tank, relax your arms, lean a little forward and look through the corner. Making sure that you’re not looking directly in front of you, but more at your exit point. If you need to check your line through the corner, just flick your eyes rather than turning your head to look.

3. PATH

Choosing the correct path will have you feeling like YES that felt right. Always start out wide.  Then as you get to the middle of the corner that you are not too close to the centre lines as this is a head on zone, and then finish in tight. Of course, your path can be adjusted according to whether there is traffic coming in the opposite direction. Below are examples of correct and incorrect riding path.

Correct Riding Path

Incorrect Riding Path

If you would like to know more and even a real live demo, let me know via email me @ gokatgomotorcycletraining@gmail.com

And as always, relax and have fun. Ride safe everyone.