Bike Cornering Tips

Cornering, if the word itself gets you goose bumps then let me explain my personnel experiences to do it safely and in style. Biking has been a passion to many but to get involved with your bike and understand the balance is the foremost trick to get started with. One must feel the weight distribution of his/her bike when one accelerates and does braking.

As a common phenomenon, everyone must have felt that, when you accelerate, the weight shifts toward the back of the bike & while using brakes the front gets all the weight. So, on a turn if one is accelerating one must lean a bit forward to counter balance the rear pull. Once, you have superior grip on the front wheels, the confidence level, will rise exponentially even when you are braking a bit on the turns. The brake distribution should be more on the front wheel, as compared to the rear, but only slightly more. But it entirely is in tandem with the rear braking pressure. Either one if put alone, will end up you in trouble. Remember, skid of rear wheel is still recoverable but not the front, this is where you have to make the judgment.

Now, you must know the exact braking pressure and the way your bike reacts. Hard braking is always inefficient. On normal roads, if you’re on a straight line then braking does not have those drastic results, unlike when you are on the turns, where the bike tries to nullify the outward force. This is actually the same stuff we studied in physics. The centrifugal force is directed outwards, while the centre of gravity tries to balance it out when one leans, thus the correct speed is necessary. The wheel traction would be in the opposite of the centrifugal force.

 

One must learn that when you turn, the speed of the vehicle plays an important role. Please do not brake hard when you have approached a turn. Try to get a steady speed on turns.  You will have superior grip and even better chance to lean your bike when you sort of approach a turn with a smooth acceleration.

The most unfriendly situation is when, you have gained speed just before the tune and you are hard braking on the turn with your head faced in the straight line of the bike. So, when you approach a turn, first make sure there is no gravel in front of you, and then try to foresee just the turning road. This will give you a confidence to attack the road rather than just turning. The bike should start leaning while you turn, and soon when you approach out from a turn, you must try to speed up but evenly.

Last but not the least, get yourself geared up before leaning in and practise consciously. 

Cheers~