Cornering technique

grawp

Been riding a few weeks now. When I started I gripped the saddle between my knees but soon after started using 'baggy' knees and letting the bike move about under me more. Bombing down a twisty woodland trail today I kept the bike as upright as possible and moved my body to the inside of the corners. As the trail twisted and turned I felt the bike was taking the straightest and fastest line possible and my body was doing the cornering, it felt very fast.
Am I developing along the right lines here or am I creating bad habits?

cavegiant

when cornering hard have your outside pedal down with all your weight on it, you want your weight low, lower than you think.

apart from that sounds good,

have fun.

watch videos of greg minnar, then copy

geoff93

As stated already, outside foot down to prevent pedal strikes, keeping weight low, and giving good traction. Keep the front of the bike weighted as you want grip from the front tyre else it will slip under you.

cooldad

Doesn't sound right to me.Bikes are designed to lean around corners, not go round upright.
I've hung off on road bikes (motor) ala V Rossi (well pretending anyway), but that's at adhesion limits on the road.
Sounds like you would be heading for a high side if the front wheel lost grip.

robertpb

If I could grip my saddle between my knees something would be seriously wrong.

It's all about moving weight around the bike.

popstar

Grawp you develop bad habits. Very soon you will start crashing no end with technique you describe. There is no cure to it, unless you are seen by the right person who can teach you.

grawp

Don't worry I seemed to be riding differently today. I think I'll just get on with it.

aidso

Gripping with your knees makes me visualise you being too far back on the bike. You want to be as central as possible with even a little more weight exaggerated to the front dontiu don't wash out. For me, I find it easier to corner with my hips - when they move your core/abdomen should move too.

Tom Barton

Good technique is best learnt from better riders first hand. I liked a quote in an article that said that we're quite happy to spend 100's on kit but not the cost of a riding tutor for a couple of hours.

Outside foot down stops pedal strikes but it also makes the tires grip better by pushing the side knobs in harder.

Brake before corners - never in them! Even if it feels sketchy braking at the limits of grip will instantly make the tires retro find more grip and that's when they slip!

Find a good descending position - generally, elbows stuck out, knees bent and ankles down. Saddle low enough so you can get behind the saddle when things get steep. But otherwise hover above the bike, letting it move up and down beneath you and using your limbs as suspension rather than slamming the bike into the terrain.

Other things include picking good lines, adjusting to the trail surfaces etc.

Painfully brief and ultimately best taught by a bike guide - make you faster for less money than a fancy machine/upgrade or otherwise make you feel worthy of the machine!!

getonyourbike

Tom Barton wrote:

Good technique is best learnt from better riders first hand. I liked a quote in an article that said that we're quite happy to spend 100's on kit but not the cost of a riding tutor for a couple of hours.

Outside foot down stops pedal strikes but it also makes the tires grip better by pushing the side knobs in harder.

Brake before corners - never in them! Even if it feels sketchy braking at the limits of grip will instantly make the tires retro find more grip and that's when they slip!

Find a good descending position - generally, elbows stuck out, knees bent and ankles down. Saddle low enough so you can get behind the saddle when things get steep. But otherwise hover above the bike, letting it move up and down beneath you and using your limbs as suspension rather than slamming the bike into the terrain.

Other things include picking good lines, adjusting to the trail surfaces etc.

Painfully brief and ultimately best taught by a bike guide - make you faster for less money than a fancy machine/upgrade or otherwise make you feel worthy of the machine!!

+1, though I've managed to learn from articles on bikeradar and megazines, outside foot down, lean the bike in and let the bike move under you.

diy

Personally I wouldn't focus on getting my mass to the inside of the turn (motogp style) as you will reduce grip. Its better to concentrate on maintaining front wheel grip. That can sometime require counter leaning (speedway style) rather than hanging off to the inside.

Motorbikes and push bikes really don't handle the same way when you look at cornering dynamics, as there is massive difference between the rider weight and the bike weight between the two. One is typically twice your weight and the other is roughly 1/5th.

Generally as has been said, keep everything loose so that you don't restrict the suspension, slow in = fast out, i.e. brake before the bend not in it.

Lastly remember that your bike is articulated, so as long as the front is pointing in the right direction it doesn't really matter what the rear does.

There are some good youtube vids from this chap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sucj8uavEKA

cavegiant

oh one other thing, get someone to film you, you rarely do what you think you are.

After years of telling peeps to get their body low, I wasn't nearly as low as I thought.

After seeing a video of me, I corrected the issue.

Watch yourself, watch people who know what they are doing, copy it.

p.s. the reason for your outside pedal down is not for pedal clearance as mentioned above. It is to force the inside tread in to the ground. This is often miss-understood, hence why I mentioned it. The more weight on that outside pedal the more grip you have, so get ALL your weight on it.

getonyourbike

cavegiant wrote:

p.s. the reason for your outside pedal down is not for pedal clearance as mentioned above. It is to force the inside tread in to the ground. This is often miss-understood, hence why I mentioned it. The more weight on that outside pedal the more grip you have, so get ALL your weight on it.

+1, though this is an additional positive.

diy

hmm.. to be clear though applying force to the outside pedal works because you keep the bike more upright. you are not transferring any weight, changing the CoG or defeating the laws of physics.