Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

a cornering course would be worth every cent.

i wanna do one in melb. just need to find the time

mrmina wrote:a cornering course would be worth every cent.

i wanna do one in melb. just need to find the time

when i saw mina had responded to a post about corners i pissed my pants, then i thought to myself "man u HAVE to see this"....mwahahahaha
a man who's scared of rain,corners,speed and probably straights is giving advice...but hes not..he's listening & learning..which i why i love this place...
ill just go back to laying in the gutter..

Neka79 wrote: ill just go back to laying in the gutter..

...why???
you moved???

Aussie Ninja wrote:A Twist of the Wrist II was a big help to me.

I agree.... that book helped me aswel...

If you are scrubbing off heaps of speed before/during the corner you need to take a few steps back and re-teach yourself some good habbits....

To do this you need to swallow your pride a bit and slow down.... (I know.... sounds horrible huh? but bear with me)...

I found heaps of extra corner speed when I went back to the fundamentals... (please correct me if I didnt explain something correctly)

1. You should never be braking DURING a corner...at all... You need to slow down BEFORE the corner and accellerate mildly going INTO the corner.... and hard on the way out.... This keeps the weight on the BACK of the bike instead of on the front.... For optimum corner speed you want to spread the weight around both tires... This is really creepy at first, but once you get used to it you will find tonnes of extra manouverability during your cornering... and you will end up more confident and faster because of it.

2. For minor speed adjustments during the corner, use the throttle and the back brake, try to avoid using the front brake as it will move all your weight to the front tire and then you will feel out of control.. (Note that I said MINOR adjustments, dont lock up your rear tire)...

3. Make sure you are always watching the EXIT of the corner.... Some people have the bad habbit of looking at the centre of the corner.... Stuff that, always keep your eyes on the EXIT of the corner.... believe it or not, you will find extra speed there..... You should already know the surface of the road in the corner before you are in it.... Always look where you want to go....

4. Work on your lines.... The way you go through a corner is important and will change depending on the corner, you can go in tight and come out wide, or go in wide and come out tight.... but some "new" riders stay in the middle the whole time and that is not the fastest way around...

5. Relax.... You would be amazed what a difference relaxing makes.... When you are not relaxed you are probably pushing the bike too much, and absorbing all the bumps into your body.... You will find that you ride better when your body is relaxed....

6. Understand "counter steering" and what it does.... A lot of people dont understand what counter steering is and therefore dont understand what the bike is doing....

In the end, read Twist of the wrist II, its a great book.... and dont bother with the DVD because the DVD is the most useless thing I have ever seen...

Thats enough from me.... Im not super fast myself..... Mostly because I have a sense of mortality which I am trying to grow out of

Get yourself a copy of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/189361 ... e&n=283155


You can buy it from here:
Wheels of Time
10 Clow St Dandenong VIC 3175
ph: (03) 9792 3944

aardvark wrote:Get yourself a copy of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/189361 ... e&n=283155


You can buy it from here:
Wheels of Time
10 Clow St Dandenong VIC 3175
ph: (03) 9792 3944

Just finished readon some of the excerpts from that.... looks great.... Might get a copy too....

What I'd like to know is, how are you supposed to "look through" a corner if there's a giant lethal cliff blocking the view? i.e. Reefton

Is this a question for Dr Stereo perhaps??

Neka79 wrote:

mrmina wrote:a cornering course would be worth every cent.

i wanna do one in melb. just need to find the time

when i saw mina had responded to a post about corners i pissed my pants, then i thought to myself "man u HAVE to see this"....mwahahahaha
a man who's scared of rain,corners,speed and probably straights is giving advice...but hes not..he's listening & learning..which i why i love this place...
ill just go back to laying in the gutter..

come on man. i like corners and speed but still hate rain.

Some very good advice above.

If you want to practise something that will help, pick a piece of road you know and go for a "pace" ride. Don't worry about going a bazillion km/h in the straights (anyone can do that) focus on a nice smooth pace where you can do the whole stretch without using your brakes at all. Obviously do it at a speed that you are comfortable with and focus on looking as far ahead as possible, look where you want to go (ie as far through the corner as you can see) not where the bike is pointing and keep your throttle smooth through the corner. You will find over time you increase your entry speed and your corner speed.

As I think Diesel said, trust your bike, it doesn't want to fall over and typically it won't unless you do something to make it ie brake mid corner etc.

For safety sake enter wide and plan on a tight exit so that you've got a bit of buffer if you need to run wide on the exit.

if thats the case, bobbi, u have to rely on your vanishing point.

rossi noticed me braking for every corner one day.
this was cos i was afraid of going in too hot.

the vanishing point is where the inside and outside of the corner meet. you can never get there cos they don't actually meet they just look like they do.

however, if it gets close really, really quick. ur too hot.
if it's getting away from you, you can go a bit quicker.
and if there's "a giant lethal cliff blocking the view? i.e. Reefton" then the vanishing point is where the outside of the corner meets the mountain.

i found this really usedful through king lake as well.

wow guys many thanks for all those points and tips!

gonna see if i can get both those books over here in the uk and for now go back to basics, remember what you guys have said and build up from there

I have found after spending a morning messing about on a round about until i could get my knee down first time round every time i have a bigger confidence in the bike and how much i can lean it

Do an Aussie Superbike school... simple.....

frogzx12r wrote:Do an Aussie Superbike school... simple.....

pssst....not that simple when he lives in the UK

Bluefly wrote:What I'd like to know is, how are you supposed to "look through" a corner if there's a giant lethal cliff blocking the view? i.e. Reefton

Is this a question for Dr Stereo perhaps??

i have the same problem Bobbi...come sit on my lap and ill tell u how i avoid it...


seriously its what has slowed me down on the road..seeing railings, and cliffs..and bouncing off cliffs...

HART at stives are offering a bike dynamics course on 11th June for $130. It covers Breaking and Cornering.