Quicker cornering..

[Witkop]

What they said with the addition of "look where you want to ride not where you don't want to ride".

 

 

Edit: damn that witkop dude and his fast fingers!

a

and I was "losing my religion" on the atheist thread as well. So far we have faeries and purple things, and only one convert.

[Eldron]

Oh and relax. Tight arms and shoulders assist gravity in it's quest to wrestle you from your horse.

 

Allow the front wheel to stray. Just a bit. Allow your body to soak up the bumps in the corner - it improves traction by keeping the wheel on the ground more.

[Eldron]

a

and I was "losing my religion" on the atheist thread as well. So far we have faeries and purple things, and only one convert.

 

The problem with any hubfight is that people mostly argue absolutes and stereotypes.

 

Like that Sir Maxxis guy that said you can't corner quicker on a 29er *grin*

[Iron]

Smooth in , smooth out .

 

trust your tires ( unless you riding crap ones ) and make sure your pressures are correct for you .

 

Smooth and consistant is always faster than skidding brakes and wild riding .

[Kranswurm]

Like Slick said: LOOK THROUGH THE CORNER!!! you can use all the skills mentioned above, but if youre not looking where you want to go - you're gonna go where you look. This is the thing that has helped me most with cornering. Once you have got where you're looking down. Work on the other skills.

Weight on your outside pedal, and your inside handle bar. Weighting the inside bar give you almost the same effect as counter steering on a motor bike.

Once you've got all these skills down only thing to do is see how big you can grow your balls as that will ultimately determine how fast you can go round any given corner.

 

It is better to have your outside foot forward not down

This turns your outside hip towards the corner

Takes practice but will increase your speed thru the corner

Great on switchbacks too

[Jigghead]

Lean the bike and not your body.

 

Remember that your weight should always be neutral on the bike. If the bike points nose down you need to be over the back. If the nose points up you need to be over the front.

 

Same with cornering. Lean the bike left and you need to move your weight over to the right in order to stay on the bike. Also drop the pedal down on the outside of the corner to help get more weight down and into the tyres to add grip.

 

Do NOT brake in the corner. Scrub off enough speed before you enter the corner. Braking will cause the wheels to try and pull the bike upright.

 

Practise the above on grass to see how the weight on the bike affects the handling of the bike.

 

This is the best and most comprehensive advice I've seen on this topic :clap: :clap:

[Tubeless]

It is better to have your outside foot forward not down

 

It just seem that it should be better to have it down as you can then have more than 50% weight on the outside.

[RocknRolla]

Do NOT brake in the corner. Scrub off enough speed before you enter the corner. Braking will cause the wheels to try and pull the bike upright.

 

knowing exactly how much speed to shed is tricky, and is directly related to your confidence (in your cornering ability and your knobs on your tyres).

 

braking before the corner is essential. if you carry too much speed, all your mind will concentrate on is, aiming for the smallest obstable as you slide straight through the corner.

 

once you shed the speed, it frees your mind up to start thinking about the other stuff you have to do, as mentioned above.

 

first you tell yourself conciously to do the bdy position, pedal etc. etc, and the more you become comfortable, the more the subconcious start making the major decisions for you. you can then start experimenting with more speed into the corners, and the related techniques to not wipe out.

[Eldron]

This is the best and most comprehensive advice I've seen on this topic :clap: :clap:

 

Agreed!

 

One addition to the "lean the bike" bit. Most tyres have a relatively smooth centre line to keep resistance down - to get to the knarly knobblies on the edges you have to lean the bike over.

 

It takes some brass 'uns to get the bike over but once you get to the edges traction is superb.

 

Unless you ride crap tyres like Iron said.

 

Cough Rocket Rons cough.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

I had cornering issues where I was consistly getting the feeling of my tyres folding when banked over. Turned out to be pressure related though as I am now running them harder and having no issues.

 

Coming off a superbike I was initiated the hard way when trying to lean off the bike to much. Seems for me the best way is to lean off but trying to keep the bike upright, also fitted a shorter stem to speed up the steering which helped.

[clyde79]

Agreed!

 

One addition to the "lean the bike" bit. Most tyres have a relatively smooth centre line to keep resistance down - to get to the knarly knobblies on the edges you have to lean the bike over.

 

It takes some brass 'uns to get the bike over but once you get to the edges traction is superb.

 

Unless you ride crap tyres like Iron said.

 

Cough Rocket Rons cough.

 

This is interesting and makes sense now that I think about it a bit more than I have been. I really struggle with grip in muddy corners on my Maxxis Crossmarks and it is most likely because I'm not giving the tyres a chance by getting them off the "cross" tread pattern onto the knobblies on the sides. I have been wondering if it was the tyres and whether I should replace them but I should probably try and lean the bike more and hopefully I'll find more grip. More grip or fall in the mud that is.

 

Are Rocket Rons any good in the slippery stuff?

[DR ◣◢]

Smooth in , smooth out .

 

That's what she likes

[Eldron]

I had cornering issues where I was consistly getting the feeling of my tyres folding when banked over. Turned out to be pressure related though as I am now running them harder and having no issues.

 

Coming off a superbike I was initiated the hard way when trying to lean off the bike to much. Seems for me the best way is to lean off but trying to keep the bike upright, also fitted a shorter stem to speed up the steering which helped.

 

Another good point. Pressure is tyre dependant.

 

My Ikons prefer 1.9bar for better cornering. My Crossmarks enjoy the lower stuff (to the point where they start growling at me when I corner too hard). Ritchey Shields are best at 1.8bar.

 

Each tyre has it's sweet spot - experiment. The softer = better cornering rules does not always apply.

[Eldron]

Are Rocket Rons any good in the slippery stuff?

 

I absolutely hate Rocket Rons.

 

I have a theory (only a theory) that tyres with "rows of knobblies" like the Rocket Ron (and a lot of Schwalbe tyres have) are not good. Well they're good but they tend to be quite loose - they tend to move sideways in corners. If you're a balls out rally style rider these tyres are good for you.

 

I prefer tyres with "arrows of knobblies" like the Ritchey Shield, Conti Raceking, Maxxis Ikon (although these are a combo of line and arrow). I find they're more predictable and when the tyres starts to slide you have been warned!

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

Another good point. Pressure is tyre dependant.

 

My Ikons prefer 1.9bar for better cornering. My Crossmarks enjoy the lower stuff (to the point where they start growling at me when I corner too hard). Ritchey Shields are best at 1.8bar.

 

Each tyre has it's sweet spot - experiment. The softer = better cornering rules does not always apply.

 

As a refernce mine are WTB Nano and Bronson and they prefer 2bar at least.

[Andymann]

Just a quick one - are you riding a dual-suss or hardtail? All the above are excellent tips, but if your fork and rear shock are not set-up correctly in terms of your weight, your bike is going to have some pretty unique handing characteristics all on its own - which might compound your cornering problems - when we raced the Merida 96 we found it was particularly sensitive to rear sag, and only really got to turn properly enough to inspire confidence when the sag was about 5%. If you are on a HT, make sure the fork sag is spot on - too little, and the thing won't corner, meaning you need to use more body weight to get it to turn, and too much, and you will most likely loose the front every time....oh and like Iron said - make sure the pressures in your tyres are spot on. Worth taking an afternoon and going round the same corner a few times but with different tyre pressures, just to get a feel.