Where to look when you turn...***for track riders.
Here is my two cents on where to look while cornering, it is purely based on a method I use and I think it is sort of unique. I firmly believe that simply saying look through the corner is not the fastest way. What do you think??
Rather than looking through the entire corner I break the corner into sections, look at/ focus on the key places my bike needs to be, and try to get to those places a quickly as possible (sort of connecting the dots).
Let me first start with the entry of the corner that has some hard braking before it. Before I turn into the corner my body is on the bike, and my head an shoulders are facing forwards. My eyes will glance at the apex or the next part of the turn, but right now my focus is when will I begin my turn. Turing in to early or late is going to have a huge effect on my exit. My goal is to choose a line that will maximize speed going to the apex without running me off the track (going wide). I wouldn't say that I am just staring, but while on the brakes hard I look to find my entry point where I being to lean the bike over. Your entry point will not always be the same, espesially when passing someone, but before you can start looking through a turn you need to look at where you will start your turn. I use brake markers to initiate braking, but after that I look ahead to the entry point to make sure I am setting my speed perfectly. Am I slowing down to much? Not enough? Could I brake later next time? These are the questions that run through my mind as I am braking towards the entry point. In the perfect corner I will brake as late and as hard as possible and arrive at my entry point at the perfect speed for my trip to the apex. To sum it up, I look at the entry point when entering a turn.
After I enter the turn I look at where I need to go next. Some people say they look through the entire corner or at the exit, but I am sure that I focus on the apex after I enter the corner. Some of the best advice I ever got when I started out was "Try to hit the cones at the apexes with your knee every time." Why do I look at the apex and not the exit?? Becuase I am not worried about my exit at this time. Experience through this corner has told me that if I enter the corner from the entry point I took and hit the apex I will have a great exit. So when I'm learning a track I fix exit issues by resolving entry point issues. If your entry point is good you should be able to go from there to the apex every time without worrying about your exit. Sometimes practicing this technique is scary as hell but focusing/ looking at the apex is the fastest way for me. For example, running Buttonwillow backwards alot of peple are afraid of the lost hills. The only real reference point is the cone at the top of the hill. You can't even see the track on the other side until you are at the apex so you have to trust that if you hit the apex after leaving the entry point you will end up on the track. IMO lost hills is just like any corner. It proves that you do not have to see the exit to blaze through a turn, but you HAVE to look at and hit your apex. I treat every corner like lost hills and focus on linking entry point to apex rather than linking entry point to exit. If exits are getting screwed up then something is wrong with either the entry point or you are not hitting the "real" apex.
Once I have hit the apex I try to get on the gas as hard as I can without running wide. This is really where looking ahead can make you or break you IMO. If you look too far ahead you will not be getting on the gas as hard as you can because you will think you are running wide of you anticipated line. Looking too far ahead pretty much guarantees that you won't run off the track, but it often leads to an exit line that is inside of the best line and is slower. Just look at an AMA racer. They exit corners and end up using the entire track. I think it is amazing how Mladdin hits the same little piece of curbing every time he exits the same corner. So if looking to far ahead won't work, what will the opposite do? Well if you look at the edge of the track after you apex that is probably where you will go. I have seen the occasional rider target fixate on the curbing at the exit of a turn and go right off the track. So where do you look? The best way I can describe where I look is somwhere in between looking down the straight and looking at the edge of the track. The last turn running buttonwillow backwards is the most important exit on the track because it leads to the front straight. I often found myslef hitting the same piece of curbing to keep me on the track. There were a few times I got some amazing exits out of the corner. To be fast you need to go as fast as you can from the apex to the exit without going wide. I try to do this by looking at the point where I will stand the bike up and complete the corner. This point is often far ahead, but it is often at the edge of the track where the turn ends and the straight begins. By looking at the endpoint I can gauge if I am going too fast or could be going faster. If I do it just right I should get to the endpoint at the same time my bike becomes upright and I am at WOT. Without looking at the exit point I feel I am just playing a guessing game and I will probably leave the corner differently every time. I am sure Mladdin must look at his exit points in order to hit them time after time like he does.
Anyway. Hope this wasn't too confusing. This is just what I do and was mostly based on one type of corner leading to a big straight. Exiting at the edge of the track is not always best. Hope this helps someone.
Last edited by sandogn : 06-28-2006 at 02:57 AM.
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