Cornering - hmph and yay

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Sticking the knee out lets the rider make very small course adjustments by using the very destabilising effect that has been mentioned above.

Next time you speed through a long corner with your knee out, try moving it a little, you will instantly notice the effect. If you pay close attention to what your inside knee is doing, you should be able to feel it making little adjustents to keep you on line all by itself.

 

[Chris James]

I don't intend to be a dog with a bone about knee in or out. Simply riding a bike in a straight line requires one to constantly make adjustments so there is nothing strange about adjusting your knee (for example) whilst cornering.

Personally I have always cornered (when freewheeling) as per Nick, but my inside knee in the same plane as it would be if I was pedalling.

If I remember / get chance I might dig out my copy of Bicycle Science and see what they say about the subject.

But going back to the original point, I think the biggest change in your descending was probably confidence. By doing what you know best you relaxed, allowing you to instinctively make the adjustments we have talked about and descended better as a consequence.

I consider myself a fairly good descender but I once had bad shimmy descending a fairly steep hill and ever since then there has periodically been a slight doubt in the back of my mind, especially at the beginning of rides before I have warmed up. Less so on my current bike as I have never experienced shimmy on that.

Going over Holme Moss once I noticed a lot of gravel chipings on the road. These played on my mind descending the other side. I was so worried about hitting chippings and slipping on the steep downhill towards Glossop that I found myself braking heavily. (Ironically the chippings were only in evidence on the Holmfirth side and the Derbyshire bit was pretty well surfaced).

I then started worrying that I was breaking so much that I would be over heating the tiny amount of air in the 23c tyres (the rims were getting quite warm at this point) and get a blow out - causing me to want to go even slower. I was a nervous wreck before the end of the descent, barely breaking20mph most of the way down, whereas normally I am good for 40mph plus with worrying too much. So I think the psychological aspect is probably more important, despite me arguing abut the physics above.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Chris James
But going back to the original point, I think the biggest change in your descending was probably confidence. By doing what you know best you relaxed, allowing you to instinctively make the adjustments we have talked about and descended better as a consequence.

I think that must be the biggest point really, unless one is riding at pro level, or at least at Cat1 / Elite level, cornering techinique is more about confidence to handle the bike.

I have more confidence cornering as if I'm on my mortorbike, and thus can go faster. Similarly if you tried to corner as I do I would bet you would slow down, as all the bikes feel and movement would feel 'wrong' to you.

 

[Kirstie]

Nobody's mentioned this yet so i'm going to: When you corner, where are you looking?

Do you consciously keep your head up, look far enough ahead until you've found the exit point to the turn, or are you looking just beyond the front wheel?

I find that if i've had a dint in my confidence due to a crash or whatever, I don't look ahead as much as I should be doing. So I have to force myself to keep my head up and once i've done it a few times the cornering works OK.
Maybe think about that and the next time you approach a corner at speed, just keep telling yourself to look ahead, focus on the exit and keep your head up and level as much as you can.

 

[nickwill]

If you look along the line you want to travel the bike should, and usually does, follow. I look ahead and towards the exit point.
I think that for me the breakthrough on descending came when I discovered countersteering, and that the lean of the bike governs the line it takes through a corner.