Turning/Cornering
There are three ways to take a corner on a bike. Lean the bike, lean your body and the bike and turn the
handlebars. Most steering is done by leaning, but learning how to turn the bike using the handlebars can be a
useful skill. By turning the handlebars instead of leaning the bike, you prevent the possibility of having
the tires slide out from underneath you on a wet road or on a gravelly turn.
The Most Common Mistake
The biggest mistake I see people make-and the one that can often lead to a crash-is cornering with the pedal pointing down. In other words, if you are making a right turn, then your right pedal should be up, not down. Why? Well, because as you lean your bike into a turn the pedal gets closer to the ground, it's actually possible to hit the ground with the pedal, resulting in a crash. So to repeat: for left turns, make sure your left pedal is at the highest point in the pedal stroke, and for right turns, have the right pedal at the highest point.Don't Pedal While Cornering
This leads into the second point, which is: don't pedal while cornering. You can pedal into the corner and pedal coming out of it, but while you are leaning into the corner you should be smoothly coasting through it. If you watch pros, they brake before the turn, adjusting their speed so that they can glide through the corner and then sprint out of it. If you pedal through a corner, you can hit the ground at the bottom of the pedal stroke.Look Through the Turn
As you enter a corner, look as far beyond the corner as you can in order to look out for obstacles—especially slippery gravel, potholes or glass—and find the best line through the turn. Don't try to corner fast if there are leaves or anything else on the road that could make you slip: believe me, I've crashed trying to look cool on a sandy road, and I paid the price.Use Your Weight
The vast majority of steering on a bicycle should be done by shifting your weight, not steering with your hands. As you corner, learn your body into the turn, and counterbalance by stepping more firmly on the outside pedal (the one that is down—e.g., for a right hand turn, the left pedal).Leaning in Turns
To turn a bicycle, you must lean inward toward the direction of the turn. The faster you are going, and the sharper the turn, the more you must lean. You have no choice about this, for a given speed and turn radius, the center of gravity of the bike/rider must be moved sideways a particular amount or the bicycle will not balance.What you do have control over is whether you lean the bicycle more than, less than, or the same amount that you lean your body, to get the overall center of gravity to the place that it has to go.
Leaning the upper body and the bicycle together, keeping them in line as when riding straight.
This technique has the advantage of keeping the steering axis, tire contact patches and center of gravity all in the same plane. This preserves the proper handling characteristics of the bicycle, and makes a skid less likely. You can verify this yourself by performing an experiment suggested by Jobst Brandt:"Some riders believe that sticking out their knee or leaning their body away from the bike, improves cornering.
Sticking out a knee is the same thing that riders without cleats do when they stick out a foot in dirt track
motorcycle fashion. It is a useless but reassuring gesture that, on uneven roads, actually works against you.
Any body weight that is not centered over the bicycle (leaning the bike or sticking out a knee) puts a side
load on the bicycle, and side loads cause steering motions if the road is not smooth. Getting weight off the
saddle is also made more difficult by such maneuvers.
"To verify this, ride down a straight but rough road standing on one pedal with the bike slanted, and note how the bike follows an erratic line. In contrast, if you ride centered on the bike you can ride no-hands perfectly straight over rough road. When you lean off the bike you cannot ride a smooth line over road irregularities, especially in curves. For best control, stay centered over your bike."
"To verify this, ride down a straight but rough road standing on one pedal with the bike slanted, and note how the bike follows an erratic line. In contrast, if you ride centered on the bike you can ride no-hands perfectly straight over rough road. When you lean off the bike you cannot ride a smooth line over road irregularities, especially in curves. For best control, stay centered over your bike."
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Riding Safety and Skills |  |
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