MCN tutorial videos on youtube

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:48

For those out there that have not yet come across this before, I found these videos quite useful for tips and education on differing aspects of motorcycling rider skill development.

Some I found related to topics like cornering, braking and such like. There are even some more challenging ones relating to skill building for track days and generally faster cornering such as guides on getting the knee down or even how to do wheelies.

The discussions/narration are focused on how and why and always with a focus of safety.

There is also a lot of general news items etc there too.

Link here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/motorcyclenewsdotcom

I am finding this sort of information as well as that learned by riding and talking with more experienced riders is helping me lift my game to the next level. Just thought I would share what I found.

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:51

Cornering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wYD9SSBBNQ

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:52

Knee down cornering: http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...nee+down&uni=1

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:54

Braking for corners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8pnaRpDU1A

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:55

Overtaking safely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv71Z...eature=related

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 19:58

Conservation of rubber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3_Z96lxyUo

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 20:00

General skills link (4 videos) some survival skills, others for "entertainment": http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...y=mcn+survival

**CookMySock** · 2nd March 2010, 20:32

Bloody good alright. Youtube is a massive resource on almost any topic, from making a hollandaise sauce to fitting your own tyres, to making your own glow sticks.

Steve

**Toaster** · 2nd March 2010, 20:58

Originally Posted by DangerousBastard

Bloody good alright. Youtube is a massive resource on almost any topic, from making a hollandaise sauce to fitting your own tyres, to making your own glow sticks.

Steve

I will keep that in mind when cooking in the dark!

**R-Soul** · 15th March 2010, 20:55

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

I found this one quite informative.

**CookMySock** · 16th March 2010, 08:18

Originally Posted by R Sole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxODoscChNo
I found this one quite informative.

My 16 y/o learner son attended a rider training day, and curiously was told quite the opposite (hang arse off - but not shoulders), and in a number of race videos I see all sorts of variations of this positioning.

Steve

**R-Soul** · 16th March 2010, 11:39

Originally Posted by DangerousBastard

My 16 y/o learner son attended a rider training day, and curiously was told quite the opposite (hang arse off - but not shoulders), and in a number of race videos I see all sorts of variations of this positioning.

Steve

Hanging bum off is clearly wrong.
What he said in the vdideo about not hanging on the bars makes perfect sense - you need relaxation and flexibility in your arms. The stiffer they are, the more difficult to perform small movements of change. Large change movements create instability on the bike- what you dont want. Hanging on the bars is unbalanced, makes your arms stiff and tires them out. If you hit a bump in this state, you could fall off or it could have a large effect on the steering. For what its worth, I have tried this technique and it really feels bloody comfortable and stable.

Also, moving your torso sideways and down effectively moves your center of mass down and inwards more effectively, which is what you are trying to do. But If you understand why, it makes more sense:

When a bike is in a corner, there are two opposing forces acting on it, a force outward (FP) and a force inward (FI). To remain as is, these forces must be balanced.

FO:
The bike is undergoing a change in direction, (even if the speed in km/hr is not changing). The change in direction is effectively an (angular) accelration. An acceleration acting on a mass is a force. (F=m x a) from school.

So the force outwards is equivalent to the product of the mass of man-and-machine (MAM) and the angular accelration. The angular accelration is proportional to the bikes rate of change of direction. The tighter the turn radius, the quicker the rate of change. The faster the speed in the corner, the faster the rate of change. So basically, more speed and tighter radius means more outwards force (lets call it FO).

This FO acts at the centre of mass of MAM. It pushes the mass of MAM over about its contact patch (when looking from the front of the bike). The disance from the contact patch to the centre of mass of MAM can be regarded as lever arm. The higher the centre of mass of MAM, the more leverage the FO has.

FI:

Countering the FO is the inwards force (FI). This FI is from the acceleration of gravity directly downwards on the combined mass of MAM. This creates torque lever or "moment" about the contact patch, creating an opposite moment to that created by the FO. For a given speed and radius, the force required to balance the FO is constant and translates to a particular lean angle (since mass and gravity stays constant). When the speed or radius changes, the lean angle must change correspondingly to remain in balance, or the bike will run wide or too tight into the inside of the corner.

Since the lean angle of MAM stays constant for a given speed and radius, the way to optimise turning is to get your body as much inwards as you can, and keep the bike as upright as possible (to maximise the correct functioning of its suspension and provide maximum traction). Note lean angle of the combined MAM does not change, it just becomes more efficient.

Sliding your bum makes very little difference to your centre of mass downwards or inwards. Sliding your torso effectively takes all of the weight of your upper body and makes a real difference.

**R-Soul** · 16th March 2010, 11:52

I dunno if that made sense or if half of you will fall asleep while reading it. I should do one with illustrations to help make it easier.

**CookMySock** · 16th March 2010, 12:05

Originally Posted by R Sole

I dunno if that made sense or [...]

Absolutely. I agree with him and you completely. I wuz gettin' at "There are so many different methodologies and approaches", but I can't argue with his physics or yours coz they're solid.

I seriously need to get on a knee-down trainer. I just lock up over a certain angle of lean (3-4mm strips remaining) and thats the end of that! So I need to bust through that barrier, and I'm not really prepared to knock a tenth of a degree off it every month until I get it right, and I'm also not prepared to do it on the road.

Sigh.

Steve