Cornering Courage

[Archren]

Originally Posted by smileyman

Crashing sucks. Do NOT try and find your tires adhesion limits on track or highway unless you are prepared to fall down and pay the piper!!!

Next you can get on track, knee down, and use your tires tread up to the edge without getting over your tires adhesion limits. Big hairy concept here but there is a difference between riding at great lean angles and actually using up 100% of the grip a modern tire can give you.

I have seen lots of tires scrubbed to the edge but the riders lap times are 10-12 secinds off the pace. The experts are using all the lean angle AND pushing the tire to the limit where it will slide while leaned over. Just a bit don't wanna run off line or scrub off speed but just to the point where you know your bike will not corner any harder for sliding out.

To get to that point you have to ride hard and often and be willing to get hurt, ruin a bike, maybe cost your self alot of $$. When Commitment is huge so are the risks.

Last do not attempt to find this on the highway. You go from moderate risk to definite disaster. Not many people ride outside the lines and recover quickly, some not at all.

That about sums it up right there.

[No Worries]

Luckily, Nebraska is right next to Colorado. First you should come out west and take a Total Control class where they teach you how to corner correctly: http://www.t3rg.com/. Then I'll take you on some roads where you can put your knee down at 15 mph. The hard part will be getting you to go back to Nebraska afterward.

[OreoGaborio]

hehe, I'll try to answer the question a little bit

Some tires are different than others... some give you LOTS of warning, some very little... In either case you need to spend lots of time near that limit to be able to listen to them and learn the signs. With rear tire traction loss you'll feel the back end begin to walk out on you... with front tire traction loss it'll feel like the bike suddenly has power steering and the front end feels kind of "numb".

I'd be willing to bet that after a crash almost all of your typical street riders, the vast majority of track day enthusiasts and even some racers will say (at LEAST to themselves) "Man, the tires just gave right out with hardly any warning at all!". It takes a LOT of training to be able to push a tire right up TO the limit, RECOGNIZE that you're at the limit and KEEP it there at that limit without going OVER that limit.

Even at the level that I'm at, I still have plenty of trouble riding right at the limit & keeping it there consistently even though I've developed a pretty good feel for knowing when I'm there. The biggest reason why I haven't crashed much when riding as hard as I do is because I've developed the ability to stay very relaxed and smooth when the tires are slipping.

Needless to say I STRONGLY suggest you don't try to develop that skill on the street. Instead of practicing outright speed, practice being smooth & relaxed cuz THAT'S what will do the most to keep you out of trouble once you get to that limit of traction.... heck, you might not even realize you were there until a split second after it happened and you regained traction.


Hope that helps... lemme know if you're still kinda fuzzy on it & want me to attempt to clear anything up