Road Cycling - Cornering

I wont lie, conering scares the bejezus outta me. This really hurts my racing ability, I feel reluctant to corner with the rest of the pack, so I fall to the back and take the corner slow. Just out of curiousity, how hard is it for your wheels to slip out from underneath you in a turn? I see some guys take some HARD corners and I just wonder how they do it...

MAgic?

I want to know too :)

Sheldon has a artilcle on braking and turning it might help a bit. I think it is pretty rare for the wheels to slip out from under you unless you hit a slick spot on the road.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html

Here is a article by John Pabst about turning/descending.

http://yarchive.net/bike/descending.html

Your wheels can hold the road a lot better than you think they can. On a dry clean surface it takes a lot to get them to go out from under ya.

On the plus side, those types of crashes when they do occur tend to result in nothing more than some road rash.

Just make sure you're not leaning the bike more than you're leaning your body, and follow the guys in front of you.

If you're not at the Pro level, and there are dozens of guys cornering at the same speed, you will make it through the corner too, unless your doing something ridiculously wrong, like having your inside pedal down, or sitting backwards on the bike. Find someone you know who is faster than you, find a big clean empty parking lot, and follow him. Have him ramp it up slowly.


One thing to remember is that your bike is capable of leaning a lot more than you are comfortable with. I remember when I started racing as a teenager I was always thinking in my head "wow, im really cranked over in this corner" and then when you see the video tape, its like.......oh...thats it?

I raced motorcycles for a while, so Im pretty comfortable in the corners, but I gotta tell you....Once... OMG. This summer I was bombing down this trail on a MTB, just started riding again after 5 years off the bike. Grinning from ear to ear cause I just gapped my buddy who used to be a MTB stud from Moab. And I'm flying down this little descent, towards the near 90 degree corner at the bottom, and I've got the Superbike mentality still in my head. So I run it in real deep and pop up and grab a handfull of brake. (about 95% front, since thats where the stopping power is!, now my brain realizes that Im on a bicycle, and it makes the connection that there is no clutch in my left hand, just a front brake, which I apply liberally, but It fails to make the connection that I don't have 400 lbs of low slung metal and fiberglass under me to slow down. Just my 220 lbs of fat with a really nice high center of gravity. I went over the bars so fast, I didn't even have time to swear. and I augerd in so hard, I saw stars. No rolling, no sliding, just down and in. In the blink of an eye.

I bruised my right hip elbow, shoulder, and the left side of my face. I don't know how the left side of my face got in line with all that.


But seriously, forget all that, just take a deep breath, and roll with the group. Try the outside of the pack first, so if you feel the need to bail out of the turn,(Don't!) you won't take anyone with you. The first couple of times will be so thrilling, you may even let out a whoop!

maybe one day you can get all suited up with serious DH body armor, take your (friend's) bike and lean it as far as you think possible. if you fall, then you'll know you've gone too far, but you won't be hurt ;). maybe your (friend's) bike will be hurt though ;)

I'm no expert or anything but I read somewhere that it helps if you put your weight on your outside foot (which is down of course). I've been trying this lately and it really seems to help. YMMV.

If you have a nice shiny new bike, practice on an old road bike.
Wear some strong leggings and 2 layers. They will rub against each other, preventing road rash. Use your hemet and gloves.
Practice going a bit faster and tighter each time.
Experienced riders can brake on a corner and recover from wheel slide.

Here is some info.:
Curves: in slow, out fast (advice on miniature race cars I got for Christmas)
also, watch pro motorcycle racers. They open the leg on the side of the bike that is closer to the ground in such a way that the way it(the leg) that is leaning makes the rider somehow balance better. Stop pedalling and point the right knee to the right on a right turn, vice versa with the left turns... I have tried this and felt much more secure. At my height and weight I doubt it would be as easy to do this sort of turn(fast) without doing the leg movement.

Jacob

Try this..

for example if you are going to your right, just turn your right knee out a bit to the right and put some weight on the left pedal (your left leg will be almost straight while you push down). Helps keep your balance and the knee helps tighten the turn.

If you have some racing videos, watch a descent and watch when they go through turns at 50-60 mph and you will see what I mean.

I think the best way to improve cornering is following someone that knows what their doing...and practice, practice, practice. the key is also a clean dry road, you need to pay attention to the road surface, you can hear when there is sand on the road, you can see rough roads, gravel and debris ahead.

Mickey,

Where do you live?

dan

Did you mean me? I live in Minnesota.

the only accident i have had is cornering, and i got some bad roadrash from it. It was not a "bad" corner nor was it wet. A simple rock had my name on it and was going abotu 30mph. I was leaned over too far to not go down. But I know my allez will take me into and out of corners that i would not dream of. You will crash at one time while riding your bike.. you cant stop it. So my best wishes for you cornering and I hope that you don't fall. Also, Road rash is really not that horrible, the worst part was waking up the next morning and seeing blood all over the bed. But that is a diffrent story for another time.

-Ross

Here is some info.:
Curves: in slow, out fast (advice on miniature race cars I got for Christmas)
also, watch pro motorcycle racers. They open the leg on the side of the bike that is closer to the ground in such a way that the way it(the leg) that is leaning makes the rider somehow balance better. Stop pedalling and point the right knee to the right on a right turn, vice versa with the left turns... I have tried this and felt much more secure. At my height and weight I doubt it would be as easy to do this sort of turn(fast) without doing the leg movement.

Jacob




We hang off the side of the motorcycle to change the center of gravity, which allows tighter turning. We drag our knee for several reasons, mostly as an indicator of lean angle. I know that when I started dragging my toe, that I was pretty much at the limit of the chassis. The Pro's can tighten their line by using the knee puck, and can even save a low side crash by pushing down and getting the tire back up on its edge.

I tend to stick my knee out when turning the bicycle now, but all it does is slow me down a bit I think.

Read the post about cornering and the articles along with...While I don't race yet, I was wondering if anyone had any article resources for new riders to become more experienced. I don't know anyone else who rides, so I'm kind of on my own on this one. Any lessons that can be learned and applied on the road to make my rides better from an experience stand point?

From everything I have read, sticking a knee out creates drag and moves the centre of gravity away from the bike. The two previous links describe cornering very well.

CHEERS.

Mark

I have a bit of a cornering phobia every spring when the snow melts. There's no such thing as leaning into a turn during winter riding for obvious reasons. It's just hard to convince myself that the surface is safe for cornering again.

Anyway, thanks for the advice.

I always thought it was cool when you watch a motorcycle race, and you see the guys go through a fast sweeping S curve, they seem to just flip the bike over from leaning all the way to one side to instantly leaning it to the other side as they enter the transition. I don't know, I guess it just looks cool because of the way they maneuver the bike. I wish it was like that on bicycles, but I realize the whole center of gravity is alot higher. Hmm, maybe if one of you guys will volunteer putting a 100lb weight on the bottom bracket of your bike and then trying to take a really fast sweeper, and tell us whether you were able to lean the bike hard from side to side :-)

Austin

make sure you are familiar with the route and know that there isn't any pebbles/debris on the corner.

Even when you peddle through a corner its supprising how far you can lean the bike over without getting peddle strike ,try leaning your stationary bike over with the peddle down !