Proper technique also buys you a much larger margin of error.
But yeah, I see stuff in crits that would result in a “yeeted” motorcycle if one tried some’s “technique”.
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- Yup, great way to phrase it. Exactly my point.
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MTB and MX bikes have tires with cornering lugs on the sides, acceleration or braking lugs down the middle. You are trying to take advantage of those lugs. You push the bike under you to get the cornering lugs engaged. It is also easier to control slides when you are over the bike as opposed to under it, though road racers do practice the technique. Google “Casey Stoner”
Road race bikes have slicks. You are leaning your body mass to the inside of the bike to keep the motorcycle as upright as possible as there is more rubber available to contact the asphalt the closer to the center of the tire.
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^ this for MTB
Was trying to gauge what I was doing on yesterday’s mountain bike ride. Just for background, I’ve been mountain biking for a pretty long time and am fast enough to be on some leaderboards, but I don’t do it often enough to be really refined in my technique and probably rely a bit too much on my fitness. I noticed that I fairly naturally lean the bike over, body to the outside, with my inside arm extended as the picture above WHEN STANDING, but I think I could exaggerate it a bit more to be even better at it. However the key thing I noticed was I kind of do the opposite with my arms when seated cornering. I extend the outside arm, I’m guessing to turn the handlebars and I kind of lean the bike and body together since I’m on the saddle. It obviously works to some extent, but definitely isn’t as effective as the standing technique. I’m not going to stand for every turn, but seems like something to consider that making the effort to stand will get me through the corner faster. I’m more of an in the saddle kind of rider both on the trail and road with my high cadence, so this is probably something to work on.
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great example of this in cycling in the below video. Slower through the first corner in order to position for a faster line through the second corner into the straight. It’s a fixed gear crit so even more impressive cornering…
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Pedaling through corners:
DON’T CRASH | How To Pedal Through Corners Like A Pro | Chris Horner’s Corner - YouTube
When practicing corning drills on pavement, I have my bike setup with 32mm GP5000 tires at 60 PSI to reduces the likelihood of loosing traction. I personally found this helpful to build confidence and let me focus on technique. That said, I’ve considered going more extreme with 50mm slick tires at 40 PSI. Going slower with the extra rolling resistance doesn’t matter, if I’m on my own doing my own outdoor workout. Power output would be the same regardless.
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Late reply but I think still relevant…
The reason the supermoto corners the way it does in that picture is because of the speed carried through the corner, the lean angle needed to corner and that there’s no room for the rider to lean under the bike, the same way a sportbike can and would… Exactly because of the dirt bike geometry. (+ Different general track layouts for 300km/h bikes vs 180km/h bikes)
Added benefit of this style of cornering is that the rider can keep the pressure on the outside peg, which gives him/her control if it gets to a slide.
Literally pushing that outside leg into the peg while sliding gives the rider so much control of the slide, together with the throttle you can get choose how far out to bring the back.
A lot of it has to do with where contact point of the combined center of gravity connects and how it can interact with each other…
Lee McCormack and Brian Lopes talk about this in their book “Mastering Mountain Bike Skills”.
Here’s my breakdown, informed by my experience as a motorcycle road racer and mountain biker:
There are two options:
(1.) If you want to conserve lean angle, hang your body off to the inside. Like a motorcycle road racer (MotoGP, etc.).
(2.) If you need to use more lean angle in order to engage the side knobs, keep your body upright and lean the bike under you. Like a motocross racer.
The first situation is for FAST corners, whether it’s a motorcycle, road bike, or mountain bike. “Fast” is defined as enough speed that available traction is the limiting factor, so lean angle must be conserved. The more angle you conserve (by hanging off), the faster you can go around a given radius.
The second situation is for low speed corners–again, whether it’s a motorcycle, road bike, or mountain bike. “Low speed” is defined as a speed at which available traction is in surplus. This will be the best technique most of the time in mountain biking, especially trail/XC riding.
And of course, there’s an in-between option: Just staying in line with the bike. This can be good for berm turns where you’re not using any lean angle relative to the ground. Or when carrying a beer.
If anybody tells you one is right and one is wrong, nod politely and ignore them.
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You can definitely get under an SM bike.
This is Apex kart track, somewhere I go fairly often (maybe this Saturday to practice for my upcoming 24 hour race).
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Sure you can, when you apply road racing technique on the SM.
If this is you’re picture, you’re seated on the hamstring of the outside leg, left butt cheek is hanging in the air and your ass crack is on the inside edge of the seat…
So this would be the wrong set up to stick your foot out.
You wouldn’t have your left knee sticking out if you would have your ass crack on the right side edge of the seat, hugging the tank with your right knee.
I like the picture.
24 hours of SM? That’s insane! Taking about endurance for man and machine…
That is Nicky Hayden