What do you do when you find yourself going into a corner too hot?
We need to look closely at this subject as it's one of the most
frequent causes of motorcycle accidents. So here are my thoughts
on this matter. Please feel free to add to these as necessary.
Firstly, we need to look at why we found ourselves in this predicament
in the first place.
1. Our peception of speed and distance didn't measure up. This
comes with experience and time in the saddle.
2. Not familiar with our machine or we upgraded to something faster
and more powerful that takes us to the corners way quicker than we
are used to.
3. Not familiar with the braking system or the lay of the road.
4. Riding with a group and trying to prove something when in front
or trying to keep up when at the back or middle of the group and riding
beyond your own abilities.
There are many reasons, but at some time, even experienced riders are going
to enter a corner way to fast and then it's "OH SHIT."
I don't know about you, but I've had plenty of sphincter puckering moments
and I believe this is common for many riders who like to push things a little
more than you would on a nice quite Sunday arvo ride.
So, here you are, blasting along and you come up to a what looks like a nice
sweeper, you are watching the vanishing point and it appears all is ok. You
chop down a cog and drop the bike into the corner, only to realise it's one
of those nasty decreasing radius type bends that gets tighter and tighter and
you are leaned well over by now.
For the inexperienced, the first thing they do is panic and have a mental block
where their mind tells them they can't lean any further, so they don't.
Or they stand the bike up and whack the brakes, or they whack the brakes while cornering to slow their speed. In every above scenario, they are going to have a closer look at the scenery than intended and in various states of pain in doing so, depending on what panic reaction they took.
Lets look at these different panic reactions more closely.
1. Not leaning any further. I honestly believe that it takes around 5000kms of
riding any particular bike to know fully what it is capable of and what it's limits are.
A bike can lean a lot further than many people think. By not leaning more you will run out of road, hit the gravel and lowside, which of course is a lot better than a highside as long as you disappear into some soft ferns or soft mud on the roadside.
2. Stand the bike up and whack the brakes. This of course will slow down your velocity some but your peepers will still be having a close look at whats on the side of the road. Chances are you might stick your bike into a fence and if you stop suddenly, there's a good chance you might rip your nuts on the mirrors as you go over the front.
3. Using the brakes while cornering. This can work depending on your lean angles. If you are near the limit of lean angle for your bike, front braking will wash out the front with a resulting lowside. Rear braking at or near the limit of lean angle will highside you more often than not as the rear tyre will slide out and at some stage regrip throwing you off the top of the bike. Now this is the nastiest way to come off the bike as you will more than likely bounce and roll a few times. Also, there is always the chance the bike will bounce and roll as well and try to make contact with you once again.
So, what do you do?
Rule 1. When in the crap and on the limit and nothing can be done with the following tips, it's always better to crap out on a right hander than a left hander. Therefore it is better to leave more of a margin for error on a left hander than a right hander. If you come off on a left hander there is a chance you will become a grill badge on a truck or car.
Obviously it is good to ride on the road with a large margin for safety, but most people on bikes, do tend to ride closer to the limits of their machines than they really shoud.
Also, many riders go in too hot on corners they can't see all the way around.
So these tips are for those who push the envelope and ride harder than most, but will cover 95% of the problems faced when entering a corner too hot, in the dry and to a lot lesser extent in the wet.
Tips:
1. Don't panic.
2. Your bike will lean a lot further than you may think. In fact, find a nice road somewhere safe and practice leaning more and more into the same bend until something touches down or you feel your tyres starting to squirm a bit. You will then know exactly how far you can go and I am sure will be suprised.
So, you are in too hot, just push the inner handle bar forward a bit more
to drop the bike down even further and you can do this as often as necessary in a corner.
It's called counter steering and is a life saver when extra lean is required.
3. Right, you haven't panicked and you have counter steered but now things are touching down a little or getting close to maxiumum lean angles. Remember that if you are on maximum lean for your bike, you are at it's cornering limits and any use of the brakes is going to take you out at that point. If you are not at full lean for your machine, you can brake slightly
with the front brake to bleed off speed. In a corner on most sports bikes, the weight is more on the front tyre than the rear until you reach the point of acceleration. If you use the rear brake at maximum lean your rear will slide out and chances are you will high side.
NB. Normally the use of braking when cornering, will have the effect of standing the bike up depending on how hard you brake. You will need to counteract this standing up from braking with a little more counter steering by pushing the inner bar forwards slightly.
4. You can use a lot of braking into a corner but must remember, that as your lean angle increases into the corner, your braking force must decrease correspondingly. i.e. You are at 60% of maximum lean for your bike, then you can use only 40% braking or you will exceed the forces being applied to
your tyres and it's all over. Deeper into the corner, you may be at 80% of your bikes lean angle, then you only have 20% braking available without coming to grief.
5. When coming into the corner and late braking hard, it is easy to lock up the front tyre and wash out the front. Do not slam the brakes on hard when entering a corner. When using the throttle on a bike under acceleration or maintaining speed, the weight is more on the rear tyre than the front.
If you hit the front brakes hard, the weight has not transferred to the front quick enough and you 'beat" the weight transfer to the front thereby locking the front tyre. The best method is to use a little rear brake to start the weight transfer to the front tyre and then progressively apply the front
to maximise braking into the corner. Thsi takes only a split second. On most modern sports bikes, once the weight transfer has occurred, the rear brake has minimal braking force and virtually none when using the front hard.
If, you are at maximum lean, you can't brake and there is not a lot you can do. You are well past your safety margin and if the corner is still tightening up, you have to bail in this instance.
Always go for a lowside and get away from the bike. You will slow a lot quicker on your own and the bike will always slide further.
Hope this helps.
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Originally Posted by Grahameeboy
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