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Keith Code article you might find interesting.
Dear Subscriber,
Keith Code wrote this for the programme for the AMA race at Mid-Ohio. It’s a really interesting piece that I thought we should all take a look at so we can enjoy more the art of Cornering! This will be ideal for you if you are going to the WSB meeting at Brands Hatch at the end of the month and will make you look at racing in a new light.
The Professional Spectator
At this weekend's races, if Nicky Hayden were riding a Honda Gold Wing, Eric Bostrom a Kawasaki Vulcan, Anthony Gobert a Yamaha Road Star Warrior and Matt Mladin a Suzuki Intruder would you still watch them? What would you see? Would their techniques be different while riding a touring bike or a cruiser? Is race cornering really any different at all from street cornering?
Of course it is different they go faster, as pro racers they should. But how would you do with a team of skilled professionals armed with computer programs to monitor suspensions, timers to give you accurate information
and years of accumulated data on the dozen or so turns of Mid-Ohio. That's right, spending several days setting themselves and their bikes up to run just one dozen corners would make a world of difference in anyone's riding.
With the adjustments that can be made and the tires that can be bought, riding a corner on any modern day motorcycle is an interesting proposition.
I'd be willing to bet that a skilled rider on one of the above mentioned machines could lap nearly as fast around here, or other tracks that we ran in the 1970's, just as fast as the Superbikes of that era when the class itself was born. Ya, but what do the expert riders do that you don't do?
The answer--nothing is different. Just as you do, anytime you corner your bike, racers have to regulate and choose the right turn entry speed, decide where it is best to turn for a good line, apply throttle to stabilize the machine, look ahead, be in the right gear to exit the turn, get set up and positioned for the next one, not fidget around on the bike in the turns,
pay attention to traction and lean angle and surface conditions. In short, they do exactly what you do with the added assurance that there isn't anyone coming the other way and have a lane four times wider than the average road to do it in.
Watching these professional racers is a great joy and the competition makes it that much better but if you are a rider you are watching something that you have already experienced. So how do you become an expert spectator? You watch the things that the riders are doing and see if you
can see the differences and similarities in their styles.
Let's get down to some specifics. Motorcycles have six controls: throttle, front brake, handlebars, clutch, gear change lever and rear brake. These controls change one of two things: the speed or direction of the motorcycle. The difference between the lead rider, last place or you are
only where and how much these two things are changed. Makes no difference if you rode their bikes or they rode yours, they only have those six controls and can only change the speed of the direction. Where and how much are the key points. Ability, experience and passion wrap up the reasons why you are on the spectator side of the fence.
Being on that side gives you the opportunity to observe each rider for where and how much of each of the controls is being used. Where exactly is the rider getting back onto the gas? Where is the rider turning the bike?
What line are they on? And is it the same from lap to lap? Where exactly are they getting into and out of the brakes? How quickly are they steering the bike over to its lean? Where are they shifting their body from side to side on the bike? How much of each of those are they using? How much lean? How much throttle? How quick the flick? How soon can they bring the bike upright at the end of the corner? Are they using more lean towards the end of the corner? Did they turn it at a different spot and what was the result? Was the throttle application abrupt? Did the bike react to it? When they turn the bike does it shake? How do these points compare to the other riders going as fast as they are? Slower than they are or faster than they are.
There are many opportunities to become an educated and pro spectator and the benefits go beyond just being a good spectator. You can enlighten yourself on precisely why someone is faster and, more importantly, how you might apply what you see to your own riding in less strenuous and competitive but nevertheless dangerous circumstances. For example, if you could get your bike quick flicked as quick as these guys and a car pulled out on you or a desk fell off of a truck in front of you, how would it feel to miss it instead of target fixing on it and going for the brakes and hitting it? Better?
Everything you see has something to do with your own cornering and track or road, slow or fast, sweeper or hairpin, is done for a reason and that reason is control. Exactly the same as with Nicky, Matt, Doug, Anthony, Aaron, Jamie, Eric, Kurtis and the rest of the boys out there this weekend.
Think about it for a moment, if you viewed these riders going around a corner in slow motion all that would be obviously different is the amount of lean angle that they were using to compensate for their higher speeds!
OK, the body position and knee on the pavement would also be different; I'll give you that.
Having said that I will also say that in my 25 years of coaching riders there are at least 15 critical parts to good cornering and each of them has a predictable desirable end result when done well and an undesirable one when not. I'm sure you can think of examples of how you would prefer your
cornering to feel. The good news is that it can. Watch closely for the points I have listed. Don't feel too badly if you can't see all of them, just focus on one or two riders. The only problem is that the best rarely make any errors so it almost gets boring watching but you know what, that's
what wins races more often than not and it will win the cornering game for you too.
Cornering--Learn the skills, discover the art.™
Keith Code
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