You'll hear some people talk about inside pedal up in turns so that you can 'put your weight to the outside." Which in MHO is BS. It's to avoid pedal strike, pure and simple. If you were actually trying to move your center of gravity, you'd want to move it to the inside, so that you could delay the point where lean took you onto your sidewalls.
As far as discovering the limits of your turning capabilities, it's best to learn while you're young and your skin heals more quickly, and also it's best to do when there are NO cars or trucks in the vicinity. Getting flattened hurts worse than losing some skin.