Cornering Tips

How to Master the Corners : A Step-by-Step Guide

You have the guts, and you are not fearful of Throttle-Wide-Open on long, unpopulated stretches of tarmac. So you have cleared LEVEL 1! Now, let me help you take it a notch higher and trim those precious seconds while diving into corners.

Cornering Tips

If you are awed by professional riders kissing the curves with their knees, this write-up on Cornering Tips will help you get closer to that moment. While I am not really a Cornering Tips Master,  I do try to capitalise on my experiences. In this Cornering Tips guide, I have jotted down bits and pieces of my experiences.

1. BE GRADUAL, SMOOTH IF YOU SAY :

This is the Holy Grail of my Cornering Tips guide! 

While you are leaning into a corner, the contact patch of your tire isn’t really the maximum. As a result, the adhesion force between the tarmac and the tire is pushed to the limits. A sudden twist of the throttle lever or a depression of the brake lever will set up a weight transfer process to either the front/rear tire. Since they are already at their adhesion limits, you may lose traction and end up with a skid.

2. HAND POSITION :

Cornering Tips Hand Position

Position your index and middle finger on the brake lever in the way shown above. The thumb and rest of the fingers are used for throttle control. This is Hindustan, and people still do pop up infront of you on the streets, almost out of nowhere. This technique will save a few precious seconds in deploying brakes.

With regards to the cornering tips, this technique ensures that brake pressure stays below the threshold that can result in wheel lock-ups and skids. This is because the increase in brake pressure caused by pressing the lever with just two fingers is much more gradual. The same applies for the throttle lever as well. With just the thumb and two other fingers, the twisting action is more gradual and smooth. This avoids unnecessary sudden weight transfers to the rear which can unnerve your bike, and in the worst case lead to a skid or a highside.

3. INITIATE, COUNTERSTEER, THEN LEAN :

Cornering Tips for a Motorcycle

A very good way to initiate a turn is by weighting down your footpegs with the balls of your feet. However, you won’t be able to go through the whole turn on this technique. So the solution is to follow it up with a countersteer, and then a body lean, if necessary. I strongly feel leaning is not that much necessary for the speeds at which we ride on the streets. But as you push yourself to the limits, do hang from the seats on one bum.

Countersteering is a technique in which you disturb the bike’s equilibrium by a little amount, and then the inherent gyroscopic tendency of the wheels causes the bike to lean. I will come up with a whole detailed post on Countersteering sometime later. For the time being, do remember that you need to jerk-the-left-handlebar-to-lean-left, and jerk-the-right-handlebar-to-lean-right. Isn’t it puzzling?? 😀 Yes, even I felt so at the start. Try doing this at low speeds and on empty stretches. Just ensure that you are well equipped with gear.

P.S. – Remember that jerking the bar towards left is same as turning the handlebar right, and vice-versa!!

Cornering Tips and Countersteering

Now, as you have set up the bike in a lean by weighting the footpeg and countersteering, all you need to do is to ensure that the bike follows through the curve in its designated path. This can be ensured by a variety of techniques like Hanging-from-the-seats-on-One-Bum, Weighting-the-Fuel-Tank-with-Elbows-and-Knees and so on.

The basic point is that you need to set up a weight transfer process that moves the Center of Gravity of the Motorcycle-Rider system towards the center of the imaginary arc that it is tracing while it is cornering. For example, if you are turning left, you need to lean your body towards the left.

Now, isn’t the whole process much clearer?

4. NO CLUTCH :

Never ever disengage the clutch ( Means don’t “Depress the clutch lever!” ) while in a corner, as it may lead to traction loss for the rear wheel. As far as possible, try to cover the whole turn in one gear, even if it means digressing into the Redline RPM Zone. Gear shifting means you have to disengage the clutch for sometime. If you try to bend the rules by doing a clutchless shift, you risk grinding your cogs. Street legal bikes aren’t really built to take such a beating on their powertrains. Gear shifting will also rattle up your suspension by weight transfer to the wheels.

There is a reason why track-worthy bikes are built with an inbuilt capacity to withstand Over-revving! 

5. YOUR HEAD, ITS IMPORTANT!! :

Motorcycle Cornering Tips

Human body balance sense is due to a fluid present in the ears. It functions exactly like a spirit-balance. One should try to keep it perpendicular to the ground to avoid a gripping sensation of “Vertigo”. Often, novice riders initiate a lean but due to the sensation of Falling-Off, they abandon it mid-way. Keep your eyes on the curve, and look only in the direction where you are going. That will help in clearing the corners more easily.

6. DO NOT TRY THIS ON THE STREETS :

If you had a big grin on your face while going through article, you probably would have imagined smoking your riding buddies on a corner. Let me tell you, countersteering is a very counter-intuitive technique. And the rest of the techniques can’t be mastered overnight. 

DON’T TRY THIS ON THE STREETS. Head out to a track if you stay in Coimbatore / Noida. Other city-stayers, you might need to look out for a long, empty stretch of tarmac. My experience suggests that the regions in the proximity of airports often harbour such destinations. However, you need to exercise extreme caution and always be on the lookout for mangy dogs and ubiquitous cows.

And oh, while cornering, always remember to keep the bike in a gear lower than usual. SLOW-IN, FAST-OUT! 😉

Are you reminded of any particular incident you faced while on your bike that led you to adopt a better technique of controlling it??

ALSO READ : Guide to Averting a Deadly “Tankslapper”

14 thoughts on “How to Master the Corners : A Step-by-Step Guide”

  1. @hari
    you need to keep the handlebar as it is… if after initiating the turn, you try to steer normally, them your bike will get unbalanced….

    @bishakh
    I don’t practice cornering within the city, but I use counter-steering most of the time while cutting through the traffic… it imparts hell lot of energy into me…B-)

  2. You missed something very vital. When attacking the corner, always aim for the middle so that when the process of cornering is initiated, you have plenty of space to aim for the leftmost part of the road-corner which would not be possible if from the start, you attack the corner from the left side of the rode, instead of from the middle.

  3. The only way to turn a motorcycle is to counter steer.anybody who has been riding a two wheeled vehicle does this unconsciously.

    When you initiate the turn by counter steering, in your case when you push on the left handle bar the bike will start to lean towards the left and begin turning, if you continue to push left the bike will go into a tighter turn.

    If you have estimated your turn in point correctly you can complete the turn with only one input to the handle bar(the initial push on the left handlebar)

    on a public road you will most probably pull and push on the handle bar to correct your trajectory around the corner, on the race track if you have a good braking and turn in point etc if you manage the corner with only one steering input.

    once in a turn in your case we have turned left,if you pull on the left instead of push the handle bar the bike will stand up and then begin to turn towards the right.

  4. i heard a lot about counter steering and tried. it works really. but one question. once the turn is intiated with counter steering, is it required to keep adjusting the countsteering all the the turn ends?eg: if turn left, i will start turn with handle bar to right. then should I keep the hanle bar push towards right slight to keep the left turn or i can use normal turning method to once the initiation of turn with counter sterring.??

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top