Newbie - cornering tips?

are you putting weight on the outside peg?

Those are called braking bumps, and you will run into plenty of those in the future. The best thing to do is shift your body up the seat and get your cahones up against the tank. Get your weight over the front wheel as much as possible in order to keep it planted through the braking section and through the turn and weight your OUTSIDE peg. Remember that leaning your bike into the turn doesn't always mean leaning your body. Sometimes the best thing you can do is keep your body directly over the contact patch area (by having your body in a directly perpendicular angle to the ground) even when your bike is at an extreme lean angle. You will learn in time when this is the case, but for now just be aware of the feeling you get when you try this. The reason you wash out is because your front tire is bouncing and not actually touching the ground, and without a contact path it will continue to do so.

I like to slow to my corner speed before getting to the braking bumps, coast through them, then immediately back on the throttle just as soon as I start to push the bike into the apex of the turn. You will just need a bit more experience before you can get to this point, but it's something to shoot for.

I use the attack position for this, combined with weighting the outside peg, & the throttle with some clutch taping, to some degree. Keep a good , sharp tire on the front, with the right amount of air pressure. ( I prefer 9-13 pounds, depending on location & conditions) Even when seated, think about supporting a fair portion of your body weight on your feet/pegs, you will find much control there. After much practice, you may be able to carry the front end around whooped out turns at a moderate pace, requiring some counter steering with the power on, in that attack position. work at it, & wear all your gear. Good Luck! :ride:

JHNguyen89 said:

Thanks for the tips. It helps a ton..

The front wheel bouncing off the ground is exactly what I was experiencing. I also believe I had been weighting the inside peg instead of the outside. I will definitely look into this the next time I head out.

One question I have is.. you mention I should be way up on the seat. Should I always be seated for this section?

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In almost every turn you want to be forward on the seat just as you begin braking, or even a moment before. It allows you to begin getting better bite on your front end where the majority of the braking and tracking for the turn is taking place. Depending on if it's a wide open sweeping turn or a hair-pin like turn will decide to what extent you are shifted forward. I put about 80% of my weight on the pegs (with a large majority, or about 75% of that on the outside peg) and about 20% on the tank/seat area. After the initial hit in the turn you will begin to shift your weight back in order to gain traction on the back wheel out of the turn. Keeping a slight amount of weight on the seat helps to stabilize your bike through the bumps and keeping it more level and not as excited through the chop, otherwise an even larger majority of my weight would be on the outside peg.

Don't fret too much about getting this perfect for now, but do start becoming aware of how it feels whenever you prepare yourself correctly for the turn and when you get lazy and stay throned as normal on the seat. You will feel definite differences, and might even snap the turn around a little faster than you expect if you give just a bit too much throttle, which will happen a few times until you become a little more experienced with throttle/clutch control. Have fun and let us know how things are coming along!

A common mistake many people make when they start having the front end wash out on them is to get father back to "get away" from the front end washing out. As mentioned above, just the opposite is needed, you need to get forward to put weight on the front so it will bite.

I'm moving this to the Riding Techniques forum, btw.

What kind of bike? Is the rear sag set correctly? Vintage Bob