for tight corners on a m/c they will tell you to flick the bike under you similar to what Davis talks about... for long sweepers or ripping fast corners that you can properly manage getting your cg to the inside and low is important... this is pure physics.


again, quick left-rights on a m/c is done with the 'jump-seat' method which is very similar to Phinny's method.

I've got a question about arm/elbow positions that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere on my searches.

When descending at speed, I've found that tucking in the inside elbow a little seems to make things a bit smoother and more confident feeling. I presume that this alters what my hands, as well as what my (head/shoulders), are doing.

Is this just me being nuts, or can the elbow position make every bit as much difference as pointing the inside knee or putting the outside quad against the frame?

Shouldn't affect anything as it's your hands that's touching the handlebars.

Huh?

You know the tune, but... the hand bone's connected to the wrist bone, the wrist bone's connected to the arm bone, the arm bone's connected to the elbow bone...

If move the inside elbow it will effect some sort of change on the inside hand (thus handlebar) even if the hand itself is not doing anything.

OK - I'll accept that it is just me then! And I'll keep trying to improve by practicing and doing some experimentation with my body position.

Tucking your elbow in seems to tighten the core on that side and kind of "winds up" your core and shoulders. Perhaps this is helping you to look further around the corner?

Being more switched on in the core makes sense.

I was practicing this morning on my descent from the Peak and I did feel more tight on that side of my trunk when tucking in the elbow. The speed and smoothness of my riding is improving with practice.

Sorry, late to the party, and a little confused by this diagram. It appears to me that the blue line, which you have labeled as "late apex," is the line which lets you accelerate out of the corner the earliest - the line straightens out before the apex, and is the straightest of the three coming out of the corner, so you should be able to start accelerating earlier, right? It also looks to me the most like the line one often sees on a fast descent, where the rider swings out wide before the corner, in order to go throught the corner as straight as possible.

The red "early apex" line looks like the one which requires the line to tighten on the exit. Am I misunderstanding the diagram, or did you perhaps reverse your terminology in the quoted sections above?

Think of the apex as the point where you're closest to the corner. In the early apex you're closest to the corner earlier than the late apex, hence the early apex.

^ Yeah, I got the "early" and "late" part.

What I'm talking about is the quotes below the diagram, where DannoXYZ says "late... apexes require you to tighten your line on the exit..." and "the early apex...lets you accelerate out of the corner earliest."

Looking at the diagram, I see the opposite - the late apex lets you accelerate sooner, the early apex requires you to tighten your line coming out of the corner. I was wondering if DannoXYZ got his terms reversed in the quoted sections, or if I'm misunderstanding something about the physics of those lines.