Left/Right Cornering

[dawnrazor]

i'm equally comfortable in either corner, its on coming traffic that makes me uncomfortable.

[Motu]

So,did Indian riders prefer righthanders? My wife had a Wipac rotating dip switch on the left bar of her Tiger 100 (pretty rare eh? I've never seen another),but the bike was equaly bad in left or right hand corners.Speedway riders and flattrackers only turn left,regardless of hemisphere....but the sidecars turn right,but then they aren't countersteering....nor are the cars.MX riders are turning both left and right in some extreme conditions,they don't seem to have a problem.

I've done a bit of left turn racing myself and must admit I prefer things to go wrong in a lefthander.On gravel roads I prefer a righthander when I can see through it,because I can cut it to the gutter and the camber works better,because you are cutting across to the left side.

I dunno,I'm left handed and I do most of the work on a left corner with my left arm...and leg.

[Squeak the Rat]

There probably is a generic issue - (check out ixions original thread, it made a bit of sense) but then every one will also have their own idiosyncrasies and psychological and physiological issues.

However I prefer right hand corners myself which I put down to:

a) a deep seated fear of losing it on a left and crossing the centre line
b) too much practice doing U-turns when learning to ride
c) usually more visibility through a right hand corner
d) just being plain crap at riding

[The Stranger:Me]

most people are more comfortable in LH corners, its because....now wait for it....we ride on the left. Ride in the US or continental europe and suddenly you'll be more comforable on the right for the same reason. The irony is because you are more relaxed in a LH corner you are more likely to run wide and end up in a ditch...ahem, like I did recently...although that must be better then going head to head with a car in a RH corner

The most common motorcycle accident (in NZ anyway) is running wide on a RH corner.

I've always put it down to road camber and the fact that the throttle is on the RHS. Most of the work is (or should be) done by your inside hand.

[Blackbird]

Interesting comments and I'm sure that psychology does play a singnificant role. In my case, I feel slightly more comfortable attacking right hand bends than left. It's nigh on impossible to psychoanalyse yourself but I'd lay good money that it has arisen from an incident when I had only been riding for a couple of years. I came round a left hander, hit some gravel and followed the bike across the road on my arse. There was something coming the other way which I only just avoided and got a really bad scare.

I'm wondering whether I subconsciously prefer right handers because all I'm likely to do is slide off to the road edge or grass verge rather than smacking into oncoming traffic because of this early incident.

Excellent discussion......

[McJim]

I am glad I'm not alone - I never mentioned it coz I thought it was a symptom of my racing cycling days. I spent some of my childhood in Italy and there I learned to strap in my right foot (going back to the days of toe-clips and straps) but leave the left fairly loose until I was well underway. The upshot of this is that going round a left turn I had the option of putting my foot down - just in case - hardly needed it but knowing the option was there helped. I was more nervous going round to the right coz if the bike slipped I was gonna ride the asphalt on my pelvis.

So I'm glad to see all of this cycling stuff is just bollocks - cheers.

I have booked myself on the RRRS course and this was one of the things I was hoping to have remedied - since CaN has supplied a fairly succinct explanation and is involved in the RRRS course I feel pretty confident that my problem will be addressed on 20th Aug.

[Jamezo]

I too have analysed this, and I believe that a major cause - for me at least - lies in the different sight lines.

In a left hander, when you look through the corner, your sight line coincides with the edge of the road, and you can concurrently make judgements about bike positioning, and 'look' the bike through the corner (we all know the heavy mental relationship between vision and bike steering).

In a right hander, to properly look through the corner requires a lack of awareness of the left shoulder (which on a road, is much more variable and demanding of attention than the more uniform centre line).

This conflict of attentions can prevent as full commitment to the corner as is practisable on a left hander.

[thatHurt]

I too think it's the throttle on the right thing.

I push on the left to go left and pull on the left to go right leaves my right hand free to manage the throttle.

Seems to work for me.

[Motu]

It goes further than how we see or the layout of the road,because left turns are favoured by countries that drive on the righ too.It's the reason why bikes and cars go around a speedway oval anticlockwise....they do it because horses also go anticlock - so we have to find out why horses go around a track in a left turn.

[Motig]

Well I've been thinking over-night and I'm leaning (excuse that) to it being psychological as I have the same sort of thing but to a far lesser extent when on four wheels as opposed to two. I'm sure its something to do with the road code - Leftside GOOD v Rightside BAD ie Keep as far as possible to the left. (Of course this could explain some political preferences ) as well

[ZeroIndex]

I just find getting my left leg to hug the tank and right leg to ..not hug the tank the main issue with right corners.. practicing on it though: the good thing about seat position and a centre stand, is you can practice without using petrol

[acewheelie]

I think your problem is your all right handers and obviously have too much time to play with yourselves, rather than practise riding, LMAO!!!

[Korea]

Well, we ride on the RH side of the road here in Korea and most of the guys I ride with prefer lefties.

I think the throttle idea carries some weight but I have felt the same way about riding push bikes since I first learnt to ride - left is more comfortable / natural.

Funnily enough, I can get lower with better technique taking RH corners but it doesn't feel as nice as tearing up a leftie.

Meanwhile, there are a few who prefer right, so I really think it comes down to a left-handed / right handed sort of thing.

HERE'S A TEST:

Are you left or right THUMBED?

Clasp your hands together (you know, fingers between your fingers interlocking ~ are you confused now?)
Which thumb is on top? Left hand thumb or right?
Try it the other way - swap thumbs. Feels weird, eh?
I'm right handed but left thumbed

[HDTboy]

I've only crashed on left hand corners on the track, do you think there's something in this?

[Goblin]

I've only crashed on left hand corners on the track, do you think there's something in this?

Yeah... there's only 2 left handers on Manfeild. (short track)


I have the right hand corner thing going on too. I think mine came from binning heavily on a downhill, off camber, 55k posted right hander with sunstrike and narrowly avoiding the oncoming car