Turning at High Speeds Tips?

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FancyPants

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Dec 6, 2011
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So I have been practicing turning with my xb9 because it is supposed to be one of the best bikes for it, but does anyone have any tips or tricks to improve turning speed, or make it easier to pull turns at high speed? The best I have been able to do is go around a roughly 90 degree corner going 30mph.
 
Scoot half and ass cheek off in the direction of the turn. It works for me, not so much for others. Counter steer(IE push the bars left, your bikes leans right).

Proper foot positioning. In those circumstances, you want the balls of your feet(Right behind your toes) on the pegs.

Look through the corners, not in front of you, This is something that takes practice, practice, practice.

If you are at a decent lean angle, you want the elbow that your leaning into pointed towards the ground.

Get your head out from behind the windscreen and point into the corner. (Right about where your mirror is w/o obscuring your view)


Go into the corner wide and slow, out narrow and fast.

Hope this helps. The best thing you can do is practice
 
First, wear your gear.
Second, wear your gear.
Third, wear your gear.

Fourth, plan your exit route. The faster you go around, the sooner you meet the next corner.

It's hard to explain, there's a British youtube series that's pretty good, MCN. Basically, the idea is, if you're going left, find a point on the right edge of the road that lets you turn there and sweep through the corner to the next point where you then align with the road. There's two points you've got to find and line up.

Let the bike fall over into the corner and use your top knee to balance it, and counter steer (push the bottom handle-bar or pull the top or push/pull both) away. Once you scare yourself a couple of times, you'll get it.
 
This is taken from "Total Control: High Performance Riding Technics" Written by Lee Parks.

Step 1: Reposition foot.
No matter what kind of bike you ride, ground clearance will become an issue as your skill and speed increase. Whether you're using footpegs or floorboards, it's important to tuck in your foot so it doesn't stick out. Otherwise, it can catch on the ground and throw your leg back hard enough to cause you to crash.

I can't stress this enough, I see many first time riders with their toes out. Keep them in and inline with the bike.

Step 2: Pre-position body.
To keep the bike stable while entering turns, it is important not to upset the suspension. The best way to avoid upsetting the suspension is to pre-position your body in your final cornering pose before you enter the turn. This way, the weight transfer happens when your suspension is perpendicular to the ground. This is the best position for the suspension to deal with it. The important rule here is to keep the centerline of your upper body to the inside of your bike's centerline. It doesn't matter if it is an inch or a foot to the inside so long as it's to the inside and that the distance to the inside remains constant throughout the turn. For example, if you move your upper body's centerline six inches to the inside of the bike's centerline, stay six inches to the inside no matter what lean angle you are at, and don't move back to the center until the bike is completely vertical again. By moving your body into the inside airstream, the high pressure area created by doing so (especially when dropping a knee out), will give the bike a pivot point to steer around. This further lessens the amount of force needed at the bars to steer.

Step 3:push on outside grip.
As soon as you pre-position your body, the bike will want to fall to the inside of the turn. To prevent this, you need to push on the outside grip to keep the bike on a straight path. The bike will look a little strange at this point as it will be traveling straight but leaning to the outside. This is because the outward lean is necessary to counter the gravitational force trying to pull your off-center body to the ground.

Step 4: Locate turn point.
Once your body is in position, you must quickly choose a reference point to mark your turn-in. If you are practicing, it can be a well positioned cone. On the road, it might be a spot on the pavement, a rock, or a tree just off the street or even an imaginary coordinate as you might use in billiards to bank a ball. It's best to use something that will allow you to easily sense its position since you will not be looking directly at it when you start to turn.

Key point here is find a point you will start the turn. Keep it in your peripheral.

Step 5: Look through turn
After choosing your turn point, you should look as far through the turn as possible to find your exit point. If the turn is set up in such a way that you cannot see the exit, look to the farthest point you can locate, and keep modifying your view untill you can see the exit.

Step 6: Relax outside grip.
When you have reached your turn point, release the pressure on the outside grip. This will allow gravity to help pull your off-center body and the bike into the turn.

Step 7: Push on inside grip.
At the same time you release the pressure on your outside grip, add pressure to the inside grip until your desired lean angle is achieved. It's very important to do this as quickly as possible. Once you have reached your desired lean angle, use only the inside arm to make all of the steering corrections by pushing and pulling. The reason for this is to keep your two arms from wrestling for control over the bike's steering. The bike must be allowed to use its trail and gyroscopic processional forces to continually rebalance itself at your desired lean angle. By pushing and pulling with only one arm, you allow enough "Give" in the system for the bike to do what is needs to do to keep balanced and hold a smooth, tight, line. The more you use both arms to steer, the wider and more jagged your line will become, requiring even more effort at the bars to maintain a given radius. Of course, the outside arm should still be holding on, but it should be completely relaxed and ready in case it is needed. On a sport or race bike, it's best to rest your outside arm on the tank to preserve strength and make sure it's not trying to steer the motorcycle. On a cruiser or tourer, your outside elbow should be pointing down and your outside shoulder muscles should be completely relaxed.

Step 8: Roll on Throttle.
Once the bike's suspension has settled into the turn, you should get back on the throttle as early and smoothly as possible. Getting the initial "Crack" of the throttle open is the most critical part. Remember that the lean angle will limit the amount of throttle that can be applied, so only accelerate as hard as the bike's lean anglewill allow. For example, at full lean only a little throttle can be applied before the rear tire runs out of traction. On the other hand, full throttle may be applied when the bike is completely upright. Everything else falls along that continuum, and the rate of throttle application should mimic the rate of straightening up. Trying to accelerate at too much of a leanangle or turning the throttle too quickly at any particular angle is a recipe for a slide out. Accelerating out of a turn will also help pick the bike up, requiring less force on the bars to get upright.

Step 9: Push outside grip.
To help the throttle get the bike upright when exiting a turn, countersteer in the opposite direction by pushing on the outside grip or pulling on the inside grip. It is important that you not pull your body up to the bike's centerline while countersteering back.

Step 10: Move back to neutral.
Most riders have a s strong urge to move their bodies back to a neutral position in the center of the bike too early in the corner exit. It's best to wait until the bike is completely, or almost completely, upright before doing so. This is especially true when accelerating hard as the available traction will be used up primarily with the throttle, and any large body weight shifts could upset the suspension, squandering any remaining traction.

The only catch here is tight esses and switchbacks. You'll have to be quick on flicking the bike around and keeping your head looking as far ahead for your next RP's. Keith Code calls them Reference Points. These are spots you want the bike and youtself to be ready to execute.
 
IMO, rider skill is about 40% of the equation, tires are about 40%, and the bike is about 20%. Not sure if that helps you or not, lol, but I bought this buell with hard tires and I am not nearly as comfortable cornering hard on it as I was my suzuki bandit with sticky tires. I guess my point is to not push past the tire's limits(as I have done a few times now on these tires and have gotten squirrely every time I've ridden hard through corners). After that happening a handful of times I'm going to ride very easy until I get new tires.
 
That video: can our bikes, 9R or 1125R, do that kind of stuff with our compression braking?
probably not, but i'm sure that guy would be able to do things with our Buells that most would dream of....
 
This all looks like some really solid advice and will definitely heed it myself. Nice write ups guys.
 
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Another thing no one has mentioned, a lot of the "Other" sport bikes like trail braking into corners, it helps them turn, our bikes DO NOT like trail braking, it will make you fight it standing upright, engine braking/rear brake is all you should use "IN" a corner, with that being said, have fun and be careful
 
Holy Smokes I feel like I just went through the advanced sport rider MSF course again! Great info all!
 
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