Learning to corner

[greatmaul]

I've been riding for only about a month or so, and I think that cornering finally clicked for me. I live in the foothills, so the first (and last) 30 minutes or so of my commute is done in the "twisties." I've read the books, lots of them, watched the videos, and taken the BRC, but I still never felt comfortable cornering.

Then, 2 nights ago, it finally clicked. I finally decided I was just going to go for it. It wasn't a fast curve, only about 20 or 30, but I'd always had trouble with it, fighting the bars and having to cut the throttle and 50 pence the line. This time, I just shifted my weight over, leaned completely with (not against) the bike, relaxed my outside arm and let my legs hold me up, and I carved right though it.

I was totally surprised. This was one of a few curves I'd never negotiated well, and the bike cut through it like it was nothing. Of course, I did just replace the original 12 year old hard, cracked tires with new Pirelli Sport Demon front and Route 66 rear, so that might have had something to do with it, as well.

All the rest of the curves that night were like butter, with the only scary part being the tightest curve, I'd guess about 145 degrees or so, I was cutting through it and the heel of my boot scraped on the pavement. That was kind of a worry, and when I got home, I looked up the "10 steps to proper cornering," in Total Control (Lee Parks) and sure enough, rule #1 is reposition your foot, so it doesn't stick out and get caught on the ground, maybe causing a crash.

Anyways, probably everyone knows that, but it was a new thing for me. I tend to keep my feet a bit wide of the engine because my pants leg rode up once and my ankle was hugging the engine casing for a second before I realized it was hot.