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SMART Cornering Class Is Launched
Puget Sound Safety takes a cue from state results
Last year, Washington State did a study to find out ways to
decrease motorcycle fatalities in our great state. What they found
out was that there were three major factors contributing to
motorcycle fatalities, excessive speed, alcohol and lane errors
(running wide in corners). These findings are consistent with the
recent study done in Oregon and by the U.S. Air Force.
Puget Sound Safety has taken this information and looked at what
skills were missing in these accidents involving riders and are
developing an Advanced Street Skills course to master those skills
at real world speed. This training is not done in a parking lot, but
instead will be held at Pacific Raceways where cornering skills can
be honed at real life speeds. It is not a racing school open to the
public but instead a ground-up development designed for "real"
street riders, riding what they ride on the road… cruisers,
sport-tours, touring bikes, even sportbikes. Let’s face the fact
here - most of us spend most of our time on the public roads so why
not practice with what we ride on the road. The track provides a
controlled environment for riders looking to improve their cornering
and riding skills, not learn how to win a race or shave 1/10th
of a second off of their lap time!
So here is a little preview into what the Advanced Street Skills
course (A.S.S.) and S-M-A-R-T cornering are all about…
Since it is now clear that we are our own greatest hazard,
let’s all learn how to corner SMART –
Scan-Mark-Adjust-Relax-Throttle.
As you progress through the course you will be taught each of
these steps in greater detail followed by drills to help each of you
hone and perfect your cornering. So here is a preview to what
SMART corning is all about… Scan the corner, Mark
your line, Adjust speed & position, Relax/press &
stabilize, Throttle out.
Scan the corner:
Unlike motorcycle safety courses or driver education, we are
not talking about scanning for cars, dogs, etc. We are referring
specifically to scanning for two things:
Changes in traction
Changes in direction
Before we can commit to any corner or select a line through it
we need to scan for these two critical factors.
Mark your line:
This is the line that you visualize yourself riding… mentally
draw the line through the corner that you intend to ride, marking
your entry point, apex, and exit along the way. It is hard to ride a
clean line when you don’t know what line you are going to ride. It
is better to commit to a bad line than to commit to nothing.
Adjust speed & position:
Adjust your speed to an appropriate entry speed, one that will
allow you to stabilize the motorcycle throughout the whole corner
(remember one of the 3 factors in the study was excessive speed).
One of the most common issues is a rider coming into a corner too
hot. How many of you have entered a corner only to drop the throttle
in the middle of the corner followed by a mouthful of expletives?
After which you pull to the side of the road and promptly change
your shorts! The whole event is then concluded by a lie made to
yourself that "you’ll never do that again". Better to come in too
slow than too fast. Remember… slow in… fast out!
The second step here is to adjust your position. First adjust
your lane position to line up with the entry that you already marked
mentally. This is also the time to adjust your body position if
needed. Anytime you use body positioning for cornering it should be
done well before the entry to the corner.
Relax/press & stabilize:
Relax your body and grip… this is easier said
than done and one of the keys to becoming a better rider. It is
extremely common for riders to not relax their arms while
cornering causing the bike to become less stable and turn in
slowly.
Press on the inside bar. To make this work properly you
need to be relaxed. The key here is to relax the outside grip
while cornering. Those who don’t relax the outside grip while
pressing on the inside are performing isometric exercises. The
bike wants to turn in but the pressure on the outside grip
prevents this from happening.
Stabilize the motorcycle. There are three basic ways to
stabilize the bike
- Steady throttle… this works well when pacing a series
of corners that offer full visibility. The drawback to
steady throttle is that it leaves little room to decrease
speed without negatively affecting traction and generally
carries a higher entry speed.
- Trail braking… this is when we deliberately carry our
braking into the corner. This is a good way to stabilize the
bike but, just like using a steady throttle, it leaves fewer
options to deal with the unexpected. We work on trail
braking… also called throttle/brake transitions in the
performance level of our Advanced Street Skills event and in
the Total Control Advanced Riding Clinic.
- Throttle on… this is the most preferred method to
stabilize a motorcycle on the street. This is done by
selecting an entry speed slow enough to allow the rider to
apply throttle all the way through the corner. It’s
generally a light application of throttle from just before
the turn point all the way to the apex.
… once you have apex’d the corner,
add throttle to pick the bike up and out of the corner. It is
important to control how much throttle you apply until the bike
is completely vertical. If you apply too much too soon you might
overwhelm the traction that you have and… well you know what
happens next. Remember we are talking about street cornering so
traction can be unpredictable. This is the conclusion to the
"slow-in.. fast-out" theory of cornering. We will revisit each
of these concepts and much more in greater detail as the day
continues.
So there you have it… a brief overview of SMART cornering…
Scan-Mark-Adjust-Relax-Throttle. If you are interested in
learning how to corner better on public roads and learn skills like
how to read the road to determine traction and directional changes
even before you see the exit, how to stabilize your bike in a
corner, road perception and better street lines, then you will want
to come out and join
Puget Sound Safety at Pacific Raceways for the Advanced
Street Skills event. Space is limited; each session has a limited
number of spots to keep the track friendly and un-intimidating, and
since 2007 is the first season for the A.S.S. event, Puget Sound
Safety is offering a special introductory rate of only $225 for the
entire day!
SR!/Spring 2007 |
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