Some Quick Tips on Cornering
Heres an article I found and though some or all of you may benefit from it....Ride On!!!
Recently a customer asked us what is the best and fastest way to take a corner; we give him our advice and our warning about taking it too far, because when you push the envelope too far or get too confident that's when falls and accidents happen. There is a knack to cornering and here are our tips.
Question:
what are best techniques for fast cornering?
Answer:
Cornering is an art that not everyone can get a grip of, but the more you practice the better you should get.
If you are cornering on a descent then you need to brake as you come into the corner and take it wide so you can cut across the apex of the corner and then accelerate out of it. If you come in close to the corner you will end up coming out of the corner wide and ending up off the road on the outside of the corner. The same thing will happen if you go into the corner too fast, as you cut across you will come out of it too fast and end up on the other side of the road and probably into a hedge or worse.
Going up hill, you should take the shortest route possible, unless it's very steep. You should be able to pedal round the corner so that you don't lose any momentum and slow down, if you do you can loose a lot of distance on other riders.
On the flat you need to ride similarly to descending, slow before the bend, cut across the corner and then you can kick hard out of the bend and make a jump to speed up out of it. This makes it very hard for the riders behind you; this is one of the best ways to make an attack in a race to get away from the other riders.
Remember to stay to your side of the road if there is other traffic, on a closed road you are OK, but other wise be very careful. I hope this helps all of you whether you are racing, commuting or working!
Ride One!
Adam Kishanov
329 Cycles
& Alter Ego
Recently a customer asked us what is the best and fastest way to take a corner; we give him our advice and our warning about taking it too far, because when you push the envelope too far or get too confident that's when falls and accidents happen. There is a knack to cornering and here are our tips.
Question:
what are best techniques for fast cornering?
Answer:
Cornering is an art that not everyone can get a grip of, but the more you practice the better you should get.
If you are cornering on a descent then you need to brake as you come into the corner and take it wide so you can cut across the apex of the corner and then accelerate out of it. If you come in close to the corner you will end up coming out of the corner wide and ending up off the road on the outside of the corner. The same thing will happen if you go into the corner too fast, as you cut across you will come out of it too fast and end up on the other side of the road and probably into a hedge or worse.
Going up hill, you should take the shortest route possible, unless it's very steep. You should be able to pedal round the corner so that you don't lose any momentum and slow down, if you do you can loose a lot of distance on other riders.
On the flat you need to ride similarly to descending, slow before the bend, cut across the corner and then you can kick hard out of the bend and make a jump to speed up out of it. This makes it very hard for the riders behind you; this is one of the best ways to make an attack in a race to get away from the other riders.
Remember to stay to your side of the road if there is other traffic, on a closed road you are OK, but other wise be very careful. I hope this helps all of you whether you are racing, commuting or working!
Ride One!
Adam Kishanov
329 Cycles
& Alter Ego
Views: 44
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tamara on
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When cornering in ice and snow, remember to turn the front wheel instead of leaning your weight into a turn. It feels weird when you're used to shifting your center of gravity to change your direction, but its way too easy to slide out on slick pavement when you do that.
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Permalink Reply by cutifly on
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Tell me it is easy ... I have wiped out half a dozen times already, the strangest feeling is the point halfway between your bike and the ground, the second most strange feeling is looking around to see if anyone saw you wreck before you are even are aware if your going to be hurting for it.
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Yeah, I don't relish finding myself lying on the pavement, helmet cracked, head spinning, picking up pieces of my glasses and having to crawl off the ice before I can stand up and put my chain back on. I'm actually pretty good at NOT falling, but the ice gets everyone at some point.
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Permalink Reply by Rubani on
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A safety trick is to turn your wheel a little in the opposite direction before entering into your turn. It seems to shift your weight and allows you take a corner much faster and sharper than turning your wheel from a straight line — it feels a little like a whipping motion. It's a useful trick when you're being cut off by a turning vehicle, but I would hesitate to try it on a day like today.
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Thanks for making my answer sound like baby talk Travesty. :-)
travesty said:Bicycle physics is unintuitive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_and_motorcycle_dynamics#Counte...
In order to initiate a turn and the necessary lean in the direction of that turn, a bike must momentarily steer in the opposite direction. This is often referred to as countersteering. This brief turn moves the wheels out from directly underneath the center of mass, causing a lean in the desired direction. Where there is no external influence, such as an opportune side wind to create the force necessary to lean the bike, countersteering happens in every turn.[15]
the footnote is
Fajans, Joel (July 2000). "Steering in bicycles and motorcycles" (PDF). American Journal of Physics 68 (7): 654–659. doi:10.1119/1.19504. http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~fajans/pub/pdffiles/SteerBikeAJP.PDF. Retrieved on 4 August 2006.
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