Better Riding - how to corner on a motorcycle

[@harrygooch834]

I got my knee down once. Unfortunately it was followed by the rest of my body and my bike.

[@patchthesinclair5896]

Not afraid to tell us though 👍😐

[@Morbeyn]

Damn clibbins, eh?

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Oh no, hope you and the he bike were ok. I assume the knee down was unplanned!

[@_JimmyBeGood]

😂😂😂 Sorry that was funny. Hope it wasn’t a serious rash.

[@charlesbynum]

I've never seen those bubbles when I ride, but I sure do feel them. What a great way to describe it.

[@Thabang_G]

This is probably the best video I’ve watched on cornering! ✔️

[@rratedmotorcyclerides]

I really liked the idea of thinking about a safety bubble, it makes riding more proactive than reactive. A side note, being 60 y/o, this year I sold my GSXR750 for a Hornet750 and love the balance of handling/power, its really enjoyable.

[@juliemcgillivray3394]

Thanks for the excellent training video and a wonderful instructor!

[@alexnunes5186]

I am a fast road rider. My cornering style is I set up the bike and body before entering the corner and keep the gas steady until I can see the straight. I see that it is very hard to practice trail braking on public roads, so I choose the safer way not to get hurt and not hurt others.

[@charlesbynum]

Practicing trail braking can be problematical on the faster corners. That's why I practice it on the slower ones.

[@tammycooke5294]

I've done ROSPA training which I found so valuable in my motorcycle riding. For right hand bends - I go in to position one as much as possible and on left hand bends I use position three. This I have found keeps me away from potential hazards and also gives me a much better view of the bend and road ahead. Great video, thanks

[@Cowelly84]

ROSPA and IAM are great. The only issue with position 3 on a left bend, is if a lorry or large vehicle comes round the bend slightly over the white line, its not a safe place to be.

[@sealteam6319]

Knowledge & vision of the road & road surface determines how I ride. The more knowledge & vision I have, the more I ride in a “fun” manner

[@paulconnell1309]

Excellent. Great graphics to better explain concepts that we sort of undstand and clear explanations. A seriously good contribution to the bike community!

[@MichaelPhillips-wf9nc]

Brilliant video thank you very much 👍

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Morbeyn]

Best improvement I saw in my cornering confidence was getting the suspension dialled in correctly (in my case, new springs suitable for the load). You will never be confident in the bends if the front dives under braking or the wheels skip over every pothole because the suspension isn’t right. Definitely putting that traffic light awareness system in place on my rides.

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Good point, thanks for sharing.

[@johnnyblue4799]

Dumbfounding how many riders would spend big money on an aftermarket exhaust, but don't invest in a much cheaper and much needed suspension setup.

[@ziff455]

Wonderful video and instructions! Easy to follow. I would like to see the same thing but with an inner corner (from the motorcyclists view). I have had more problems with cars trying to cut through corners than running wide. Cheers!

[@Grahamvfr]

Great point at 12 mins, a lot of new riders are uncomfortable with moving from brakes to neutral throttle (often due to other yt positive throttle advice), but it is often the key to a safe smooth exit, particularly on unknown bends. Great diagram 👍😊.

[@michaelwatts224]

What a great video! Cheers

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@05gt99]

Thanks Gents, very helpful, I like the concept/ system of the dynamic safety bubble.

[@bennettsbikesocial]

@@05gt99 Thanks! There’s a more detailed look at that in the next episode.

[@andigorani]

I passed my test 6 weeks ago and bought my first bike (bmw f900r) and the confidence I've gained is crazy, it's all about belief. I know the bike has amazingly good abs/dtc that I just lean it over and be done with it. But in the rain, I'm very very cautious, I can't help it in the rain 😂

[@niall5181]

As a newbie motorcycle rider passed test in may at 57 yrs old.. you mention trail braking in the video .. I was never taught this what is it and should I be using it as a new rider….also find right hand bends harder than left ..

[@bennettsbikesocial]

@@niall5181 hi, thanks for the comment and congrats on passing your test and becoming a member of the greatest club in the world! We’ll be running through trail braking in a forthcoming episode using both the front and/or rear brakes. I also find rights less natural than lefts, I think that’s because the throttle is on the right side of the bike and there’s a slight increase in pressure on that side of the handlebar, or because there’s oncoming traffic to occupy the eyes and brain. Give yourself more space by moving into a position where you can maximise you view around or through the corner, and let us know how you get on. Cheers, Michael

[@niall5181]

Thanks for the advice much appreciated 👍

[@rcraven1013]

With left hand bends its usual that the camber, the slope of the road from its mid line to your kerbside goes down towards you and as a result it helps you to turn on left hand bends, the same way as the slope goes. On right hand bends however that same slope to your nearside is now working against you, so its slightly harder to take right hand bends. PS. your left hand bends will probably be slower than your right and bends as they are usually tighter on the inside and you have less road and sometimes reduced vision ahead. That said your positioning on a left hand bend should be towards the offside of your carriageway ie to your right at position 3. being about 2/3rds into your side and on a right hand bend your position would or should be closer to the kerbside at about 1/3rd into the road. Ok. Then if you are still having trouble cheque your tyre pressures to make sure that are correct as low pressure can make the bike unstable and it fight you on bends . So if the tyre pressure is low front and or rear put pressure back that has ben lost. ok.

[@jefflambert8603]

Informative Video..some Times Potholes will Force you off the Optimum Line on the Road

[@bennettsbikesocial]

You’re absolutely right, there’s a drain cover just after the apex on a corner on one of my favourite roads which I’m always conscious of, so I therefore take an unusual line but it could be more of an issue to an advanced (confident) rider on that road for the first time.

[@brianglendenning1632]

@@bennettsbikesocialsimilar here in NSW Australia. We had a period of prolonged rain a year of so ago - one of the wettest spring and summers I can recall. Result was the rural road where we motorcyclists like to ride became heavily potholed, and the local councils struggled to keep up and often resorted to patching that left grit on the road. While bikes could dodge that, cars and trucks were doing likewise and it was common to have cars partly on the wrong side of the road as they tried to avoid another buckled wheel. Lots of risks, but in some ways the challenges the roads presented meant you had to focus on the best line available, and a huge part of that was keeping your eyes up and looking at the line you needed to follow, not looking at the hazards you were avoiding. The forced practising of those skills means that even though the condition of the same roads has improved line selection and hazard avoidance is improved. MotoDNa track days were part of my training, and the skills Irish and his team taught me have been invaluable.

[@coreydoody1806]

Some great advice. Thank you 🙏

[@brianglendenning1632]

Irish’s accent is becoming more Australian over time!

[@ashwinraggs4226]

Top video !! Please do more of this 3:04 Btw I clenched as well 😝

[@peterwoodham769]

In the UK line one is almost unusable so you are left with 2 & 3 if a car comes 2 only.

[@digitalpixshb]

Great info .

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Glad it was helpful!

[@3GingerCats]

I brought a Brad New Suzuki V-strom 250SX 4 months ago, and the lack of grip scared the hell out of me & made it very difficult to corner... people kept saying "there's a lot more grip than you think there is" No there wasn't, there was NO grip at all! and Getting a puncture was the best thing that could have happened! after the puncture I replaced the MRF tyre on the rear with a Pirelli MT60, and noticed the difference in grip immediately, and without the progressive slip in the rear, I could feel it much more in the front! So as one does, I replaced the front tyre with a matching Pirelli MT60. and now that I actually have some grip, I can push it hard enough to get heat into them and find the rest of the grip. the difference between how Dangerously slippery the MRF tyres are, and how well the Pirelli tyre stick is night and day. and I can't imagine that the 80/20 biased Mt60 is exactly the grippiest tyre, Most people have probably always had more grip than these can provide! so before you tell someone to trust their tyres, take their bike for a ride and see just how bad those tyres really are! those MRF's are dangerous, and there is a reason people can't lean on them... they slide even with the slightest load, it progressively gets worse and always feel like they are right at the edge of the limit. and the fact I have tested it, means I can give the truth about stopping distance (a measure of grip) at 40km/h (the maximum speed inside the roped off area) I found that with the ABS going nuts, the stopping distance was the same as just using the front brake without setting off the ABS, and using both brakes without setting the ABS off was 2 metres shorter than the ABS or front only distance... Now switching to the Pirellis, the ABS was harder to get to kick in, so the bike started lifting the rear wheel off the ground and stopped in literally 1/2 the distance the ABS could stop it in (with the rear tyre not even on the ground!) (6 meters compared to the 12 of the MRF's with the ABS going mental) so the Pirelli literally has twice the grip of the MRF... and it's not even a high end tyre! it just shows exactly how bad the MRF is! The result of having so much more grip, is I can actually start to learn how to use the tyres to my advantage, and alter my riding position to fine tune the grip and handling, actually start to use brakes and or throttle in and out of the corners (I found myself riding the Baby ADV like it was a SuperMoto today, and this is a big change, not just for me, but for how the bike responds, It would not have been possible with the old tyres!) riding ability cannot improve without the grip already being there, you need to have grip to be able to learn how to use it!

[@RussRyan7713]

OE tyres are just "ok". It seems odd to spend all the money on a new bike and the pay out again to replace the tyres. I returned to riding after 30 years and a new CBR650R which came on Dunlop Roadsport 2 OE tyres. While i was getting used to the new biike and be cautious they were "fine". Once I push a little they were not great, felt little slips and tramlined on any type of road surface defect. I replaced them after 2500 miles with Michelin Road 6s. WOW what a difference. The bike drops into a corner so much faster, doesnt tramline at all and the confidence they give has made it a completely different bike. I highly recommended anyone to replace their tyres with a good brand as soon as they can afford to. I know when I buy my next bike I will have the dealer replace the tyres before I even pick it up.

[@lloydallin4706]

Thanks really enjoyed the vid. Most of the uk roads are cambered, some more than others, if you're in position 2 on a right hand bend you're right in the middle of the camber sloping towards the kerb, How does the tyre manage that situation? Also what I would like to know is how much traction do you lose on wet roads, shiney tar patches and the like. Thanks again.

[@peterston4039]

I see it every time I go out for a Ride, Bikers way to close to the Center Line, sometimes over the Center Line. Going into the Mountains in Georgia you see it every time that oncoming Traffic ids also crossing over the Center Line , no bubble left at that point. We have people dying in the Mountains every year overcooking a corner and running into oncoming traffic. And there is one more item on the watch list - if you’re riding in position 1 through a corner, you now add the potential of gravel to the equation without much room to recover. In the Mountains no or late recovery means you’re going off the edge. Seen it more than once. That is why you / I drive a public road like the public road and not like a manicured Track.

[@Baz-er6it]

Would have liked to see some reference to blind bends - left and right. It changes the approach to bends quite significantly - especially when the roads are as narrow as they often are down here in Devon & Cornwall / Wales / Cotswolds / Scotland.......................

[@bradleymorgan2646]

Anyone who lacks confidence or wants to improve their riding should seek to jump on a FREE bikesafe course run by many local police forces or fire service.

[@j.t.jaeger1595]

Definitely not free but yes, worthwhile course.

[@PodRob-x9m]

Went all the way to Australia to speak to someone from Northern Ireland

[@SSS-mp8th]

Here's the thing I'd like to know and what probably most people run into. You are coming into a turn and you realize it's tighter than you thought so you are carrying more speed than your current lean angle can handle. What do you do? Is it essentially you need just lean it over until you hit the pedal blob and pray?

[@bennettsbikesocial]

Mark is best placed to answer this specific question example but I’d certainly be cranking the bike over more and likely to be rolling off the throttle too. But the key to most of what we talk about on this and other episodes is practicing the right things until it becomes muscle memory which in turn could save you in an emergency situation. If a car pulls out on you and you’ve practiced emergency braking and understood the potency and potential of your bike’s brakes as well as the tyre grip then that could be a life saver. Cheers, Michael

[@TheItalianZone]

Obviously prevention is worth 1000 times the cure, the best thing to prevent these situations in the first place is to get your vision out and scanning back and forth as you ride, prioritize exits and enter at a speed that you feel comfortable with. Now if you are in that situation the best thing to do is to go to the brakes so that you can tighten the radius of your line, it can be a little of back brake, a little of front brake....just realize the more lean angle you are carrying the less you can take advantage of the brakes, so be gentle and apply the brakes gradually and build pressure rapidly as you take away some lean angle. The key is to practice braking while leaned over, you can go to a big empty lot and go in a circle at whatever speed you want and practice applying the brakes, you will see how your circle gets smaller as you apply the brakes. You can try applying more gas and notice how it makes the circle bigger.

[@Az_Rides]

Look up trail braking

[@bhok1971]

You just apply gradual brake pressure

[@rcraven1013]

@@Az_Rides Bugger trail braking that's taught to pupils in the USA that use the performance line round bends and they do a lot more training on racing circuits than we do. For performance read racing line. If you do it the UK way of slow press lean and roll then taking into account that you will be at the correct speed for that bend ie your limit point is now static and you are following it at that same distance and follow it all the way round so that at any time you may need to brake and in that distance that you can see to be clear. Then everything is ok. Go in too fast, too soon or too late as with the racing line then its already too late.

[@WeAreTheTrueMedia]

Now throw in some blind crests, potholes and drain covers and that corner will represent the UK roads.

[@virupakshawalla5734]

Add sand pedestrian cows carts buses overtaking buses on blind corners meeting you monkeys hugeeee potholes dogs rice out to be thrashed by vehicles goats drunk people apexing on wrong side of road etc etc yiur in India 😂

[@kenbowlus2995]

@@virupakshawalla5734 Your English is good, but learn when to use a comma.

[@virupakshawalla5734]

@kenbowlus2995 lol. Punctuation? Thay, is, for, losers

[@garymorgan628]

Ride defensively ,ride smoothly and know your own limits . You cant buy experience and nothing beats it imo ,i know if i spent as much time on two wheels as i do on four i would be a much better rider 🙄

[@EvanBates-k3m]

On the road diagram around 12 minutes in, where would you downshift - I'm assuming before the initial braking phase? Police roadcraft book though says to get to correct corner entry speed and then select the appropriate gear

[@rcraven1013]

At 8.00 onwards with your diagram you show the bike slowing and turning ie leaning towards the apex and into the bend proper and to the limit of your tyres grip with perhaps a slide or two????. Then after the apex acceleration which with some bikers can means too much acceleration whilst the bike is still at its maximum lean angle. Thats the point when you come off the brake, causing the bikes front suspension to relax and lift the front end and at the same time twist the wrist, possibly resulting in the loss of rear end grip and thus a high side. Nice one for anyone wanting to go the racing line round a corner but dismissing all of the safety features and advantages of a slow, press, lean and roll through a bend the safer way forwards.

[@bennettsbikesocial]

@@rcraven1013 Roll the video on a bit and you’ll see that while we’ve given you the racing line (specifically to emphasise the level of grip and how suspension compression can help), we’ve also given you the road riding line.

[@rcraven1013]

@@bennettsbikesocial Yes but that still fails to take into account the 2 nd. basic basic principal of safer riding or driving and that is to be able to stop in the distance that one can see to be clear and on ones own side of the road. This basic principal of say giving more than the 2 second rule no longer applies to Trail braking as instead of say going round a bend at 30 mph. that being the speed one has slowed down to obeying the above rule, one instead brakes to only say 40/45 mph or more and then turns into the bend but continuing braking from that faster speed whilst leaning over and actually into the bend proper and also slowing, by braking until one meets the apex. Get any of that wrong and you are in trouble. just look at track racing and see them coming off like flies falling out of a window and they are suppose to be professionals. If its happening to them just think of the consequences to the genal public at large. Death and destruction on our roads. . Being on the sidewall of the tyre all that time and front braking, it lifts the rear wheel so there is less drive but that also means less grip and one can, as you said slide the rear wheel out as a result. Not nice or safe to do so. That comes closer to losing the rear grip entirely if one goes in to fast or has to brake to hard to make said bend and of goes the front under too much pressure and then its all over .. I know you show another diagram later depicting the path to be taken but you learn on the track a totally different path, one of out in out and that is the racing line which goes hand in hand with Trail braking and the performance line that you teach. They do not match with road usage and the safety aspects of look lean press and roll. Here in the UK we teach one method of taking bends so some 100% of trainees may get some idea of what they are doing or how it should be done . That said from stats. its obvious from the outset that the degree of training on bends that we are giving to new and old riders is woefully inadequate and insufficient and we should be concentrating on remedying that fact and not looking for an alternative but more dangerous alternative. I am surprised at Honda supporting such an endeavour. Yes some riders make mistakes but that may be due to miss understandings or a lack of basic training or just a wrong mentality on the part of some riders and that is to be understood. Not everyone gets it right but to learn another method such as of Trail braking is still not right as once again there are to many safety aspects being dismissed or too may situations that can go wrong. Two wrongs do not make it right. What we should be concentrating on is getting the historic way of taking bends into the mindset of all riders of whatever age so that we can make better, safer progress around bends and be able to cope with emergency situations should they arise. Not teaching alternatives that are doomed to failure and unfortunately increase the danger

[@jadonx]

Taught to look in direction your going when cornering but it must be hard to not look at a car drifting into your lane!

[@steve00alt70]

About grip, why do alot of riders use topboxes if they reduce the load on the front tyre (which is where u need it most) and put most of the weight on the rear? Or does the reduce front grip only happen if the topbox is behind the rear axle not on top of the axle? Potholes will affect and mess up all your pre planning on the bend.

I know a girl went from Anchorage through the Yukon at the start of winter on knobbly tyres...............on a CBR 600😵‍💫😵

[@3GingerCats]

when people talk about lane position, what are they using as the measuring point? the contact patch(s) or the riders head? because If the tyres are in position 3... so is the riders head (of the opposite lane!)

[@chrisowens3781]

Tyres if your in position 1 on a right hand bend your heads will be in position 2ish And if your tyres in position 3 for left hand bends your heads in position 2ish your head should never be over the white lines.

[@brendanmccabe8769]

I’m sure your man’s a really top bloke and very capable and all that but when an example of motorcycle training starts with “In racing.......” I must admit I start to turn off. If your at the point where you want to learn how to pull 1.5G you should probably be good to go cornering on the road but the kind of issues you’ll meet an the road are totally different. I’m not trying to be a MGP rider so I think I’ll look elsewhere.

[@ronlysons6750]

I agree, track and Road are chalk and cheese.

[@bennettsbikesocial]

That's a shame because if you watch it through you'll understand how the racing analogies are there to help road riders understand the physics (because the extremes in racing amplify the effects of what can be subtle nuances on the road). You'll also see how the understanding of the physics then helps road riders to progress because they can understand what is happening to their bikes in a les extreme way when they corner. Seriously, give it a go and watch right through to the end, you might be pleasantly surprised.

[@brendanmccabe8769]

@ maybe but with modern tyres lack of grip on a decent surface is way down the list of things to worry about IMO and focusing on trying to corner at 1G is probably more likely to be a cause of an off than save you from one on the road.

[@BuffaloweRider]

No, no, no, absolutely not and finally, nope.

[@WilliamWBG]

Unfortunately,……… his voice = fingernails on a blackboard And I love an accent from down under but this is 😬