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woodyracing -> RE: how to lean ! (2/1/2007 12:15:59 AM)
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practice does make perfect but I can promise you none of the MotoGP riders practice on the street
if you've been riding for a while do a track school or even just a trackday, you'll learn a hell of a lot more than anybody on here can tell you
also get the book Sport Riding Techniques by Nick Ienatsch
its real world explanations of the techniques used in racing and how they apply to street riding and trackdays, awesome book with some cool pictures too
oh and to actually semi-answer your question (again without having a clue of your skill level):
before braking for a corner you move your butt off the seat towards the inside of the corner ahead (most make the mistake of waiting until they start turning in but if you do that, you'll be moving around on the bike as your changing direction which causes unnecessary steering inputs and upsets the suspension more than you want to be doing while turning). Then begin braking and downshifting (its adviseable to not do both at the same time until you've mastered both seperately). As you aproach the turn-in point, gradually release pressure on the brake (not abruptly) and begin looking through the turn. At the turn in point TURN IN. To turn in you will use counterstearing obviously but also using your inside foot on the footpeg (the balls of your foot should be on the tip of the footpeg, NOT the middle of your foot, this will keep your toes from dragging the ground and give you a bit more ground clearance) Your body should be already off the bike a little but as you lean into the turn, your body should line up exactly parallel with the bike, meaning your head and butt should both be off to the inside of the bike. Many riders have a tendency to get their but off the seat but keep their head directly above the gas tank, which defeats the purpose of leaning off entirely, I'll throw in a pic of my riding position (yes tahoe I saw the other thread and I do suck... lol).
Anyway, between the turn in point and the apex point of the corner you can continue to use a little pressure on the brakes, decreasingly until no pressure is applied at all by the apex point. Maintenance throttle is another tricky aspect to learn. If you shut the throttle off completely going into a corner, especially if trail braking, a lot of weight is on the front end and very little weight is on the rear end of the bike. Applying a very slight amount of throttle all the way through the corner, puts some weight on the rear so it can keep traction and takes some of the weight off the front. Its something that, like trail braking, requires a good bit of practice. At the apex point, you should be off of the brakes and start gradually getting on the gas. If you wait too long to get on the gas, you will be losing ground and depending on the corner can very likely wind up outside of the powerband but if you do it too early, you may get a free flight to the nearest gravel pit (or light pole, building, ditch, fence, oncoming traffic, etc if your practicing this on the street like I already said not to...) The bike will pick itself up as you accelerate, there isn't really a lot of steering input needed for this part, its just kinda natural. That will allow you to use more throttle as the bike gets back upright and on the meat of the tire, as your doing this the bike will drift towards the exit point. The proper line is critical in any corner, if you apex too early, you won't make the exit point and will either have to slow down when you should be accelerating, or you'll run off track (or worse). If you apex too late, you'll have to slow down too much and won't carry the bike out to the exit point which means your not using all of the track and basically you just wasted a second or more.
Downshifting and braking is critical on the track because obviously if you don't do it righ
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