Everyone seems to have them: corners that scare or, perhaps, merely make us feel uncomfortable. "Watch out for The Bad Curve," warned the parents of one of my close friends in Colorado. The Bad Curve became an inside joke for me, leading to mock verbal scolding, "Bad Curve-Bad!" while navigating that particular tight, blind corner on Snowmass Creek Road.
Most race tracks and favorite roads have a few corners that collect a drastically disproportionate number of crashes. The reality is, most of us have a Bad Curve or Bad Curves in our lives and they all tend to have several common factors with one another. Understanding these troubling traits and coming up with solutions to overcome them is the cure for the Bad Curves in your life.
Let's look at these problem factors one at a time, break them down and learn how to solve them.
Corners that, for whatever reason, don't allow us to see through them are troubling for obvious reasons: It's hard to feel confident in where you're going when you aren't able to see far enough ahead. The answer is to come up with reference points (road imperfections, skid marks, etc.) that allow you to feel confident of where you are in the corner and, more importantly, where you're going. This is the key to gaining confidence in blind corners. Connecting the dots from one point to the next allows riders to always know where they are and where they are going, and overcomes the limited line of sight.
The worst type of blind corners are those that tighten up at the exit and cause most rider's eyes to grow to the size of saucers as they find themselves drifting wide to the ever-encroaching outside of their lane. Your first time down an unfamiliar road, hopefully you use enough common sense to run at a relaxed pace that allows a lot of reserve lean angle for those times when a corner unexpectedly tightens up on you. Yet decreasing radius corners often remain difficult to overcome the second, third or-for some-even the hundredth time through. That's because rather than analyzing problems logically, we often deal with them emotionally. "Here comes that Bad Curve," thinks the emotional rider as he clenches up in anticipation. "God, I sure hope I make it through better this time!"
Now, I've got nothing against prayer but rather than relying on The Almighty exclusively, let's dissect a decreasing radius corner into parts: The Easy Part and The Hard Part. The Easy Part is the initial radius of the turn that you see as you enter the turn: what you see is what you get. The Hard Part is where the turn begins to tighten in radius forcing the rider to increase his lean angle, slow his speed or risk running wide into either the oncoming lane or the dirt; none are confidence-inspiring options.
To better overcome decreasing radius corners, let's focus exclusively on Hard Part and imagine that rather than the Easy Part of the corner preceding it, instead there's a simple straightaway. Approaching a tight corner, most of us would set up wide, turn in to clip the apex at the inside of the lane and then exit wide; effectively opening up the corner to the widest radius we can make it. This is pretty much common sense, right?
Yet, when most riders execute a decreasing radius corner, they find themselves entering the tighter radius or Hard Part of the corner from the inside edge of the track or lane. It's human nature to feel safest on the inside, especially if they nearly ran off the outside of the corner the last time they ran through it. It takes an experienced rider to feel confident placing a bike on the outside midway through a corner but there are a couple of ways to make it easier. In both situations, let's treat the two portions of a decreasing radius corner as two separate corners that simply connect to one another with no straightaway in between.
The first approach is to simply run a wide line all the way through the Easy Part of the corner by keeping your vision well ahead of the bike (always a good practice in any riding situation) and shifting your focus from your initial turn-in point to a wide arcing line that connects with a secondary turn-in point for the tighter portion of the corner. In attempting to keep the bike on the wide line arc, some riders feel apprehensive and unsure and therefore reluctant to open the throttle back to neutral throttle. Without maintaining neutral throttle, the bike loses speed from cornering force and that reduced speed tightens a bike's cornering arc, independent of lean angle changes. If you find yourself unintentionally drifting to the inside of the corner simply open the throttle smoothly to adjust to a wider line. As you approach the second turn-in point, smoothly roll off the throttle slightly to reduce your speed and make the final turn-in for the final tighter radius.
For those riders who find it difficult keep a wide line through the first portion of a decreasing radius corner, try using a Double Apex cornering line. In other words, literally execute two separate corners, each with its own wide entry, tight apex and wide exit. The wide exit of the Easy Part of the corner sets you up for the turn-in point for Hard Part, allowing it to be taken as easily as though there was a simple straight leading into it.
Whatever it takes, the key to conquering problem corners is breaking them down to individual parts and then prioritizing the elements key to your success: Divide and Conquer.
The first approach is to simply run a wide line all the way through the Easy Part of the corner by keeping your vision well ahead of the bike (always a good practice in any riding situation) and shifting your focus from your initial turn-in point to a wide arcing line that connects with a secondary turn-in point for the tighter portion of the corner. In attempting to keep the bike on the wide line arc, some riders feel apprehensive and unsure and therefore reluctant to open the throttle back to neutral throttle. Without maintaining neutral throttle, the bike loses speed from cornering force and that reduced speed tightens a bike's cornering arc, independent of lean angle changes. If you find yourself unintentionally drifting to the inside of the corner simply open the throttle smoothly to adjust to a wider line. As you approach the second turn-in point, smoothly roll off the throttle slightly to reduce your speed and make the final turn-in for the final tighter radius.
For those riders who find it difficult keep a wide line through the first portion of a decreasing radius corner, try using a Double Apex cornering line. In other words, literally execute two separate corners, each with its own wide entry, tight apex and wide exit. The wide exit of the Easy Part of the corner sets you up for the turn-in point for Hard Part, allowing it to be taken as easily as though there was a simple straight leading into it.
Whatever it takes, the key to conquering problem corners is breaking them down to individual parts and then prioritizing the elements key to your success: Divide and Conquer.