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New rider needs riding advice to corner faster

R

Rolling Road Block

Banned
I'm a new rider and bought a 2011 Ultra. I took the riders edge course but I'm still afraid to lean my bike in a corner. I want to go fast in corners but every time I try to turn the handlebars in the direction of the turn, the bike goes the opposite direction. It's really nerve racking. I try to turn right and turn the handlebars to the right and and bike leans left. What's going on? Please help me.
 
We have a post going on about this, as chance would have it. In short, when you are at speed the bike doesn't turn like a car does, Turn steering left, car turns left. The front wheel is spinning and acts like a gyroscope. Left preasure on the left grip will turn you left. When you do that either keep you weight centered on the bike, or lean slighty in toward the turn. I wish I was with you for 5 minutes, much easier to SHOW than tell.

Click on Unread Posts and scroll down till you find High Speed Cornering Mods. You find a couple posts with stick figure drawings that might help
 
Rolling Road Block said:
I'm a new rider and bought a 2011 Ultra. I took the riders edge course but I'm still afraid to lean my bike in a corner. I want to go fast in corners but every time I try to turn the handlebars in the direction of the turn, the bike goes the opposite direction. It's really nerve racking. I try to turn right and turn the handlebars to the right and and bike leans left. What's going on? Please help me.
Click to expand...

look up "counter steering" on the internet....one does not "STEER" a motorcycle, as one would a car.

Ask your local HD shop if they offer experienced rider classes. you'll get the same instructors, as the Beginner class, but you'll do the lessons on your own bike

You might want to invest in a "Ride Like A Pro" video

You might want to purchase David Hough's books
Profiecient motorcycling", as well as "More Profiecient Motorcycling"

As a new rider....my advice to you would be "calm down, and practice all those basic skills you leaned at the Rider's Edge class. There's more work involved in motorcyclig, than in driving a car... take your time... it ain't hard... but it ain't easy (to do it right).... all skills take time to develop

good luck, and practice, practice, PRACTICE
Frank
 
to turn you need to push slightly on the bar in the direction your wanting to turn so you'll lean that way, so to turn left, you push forward on the left bar. doesn't seem right but is very effective, also if you lean your body over( slide on the seat a little) in the direction of the turn, the bike won't have to lean as much. watch racers as they corner the knee is on the pavement, this will make it less of an angle of the bike. practice practice practice
harley
 
One more thing on this and then I'll leave you alone...

Where you look is where you will go. When you approach a curve, visually sweep the road for problems (gravel, pot holes, etc) then look at the apex (center) of the curve and head your bike that way. When you are appraoching the apex, look out of the curve toward where you want to go. LOOK UP not DOWN.

Straight roads are easy. We tend to do the right thing there. Looking down the road, enjoying the ride. Then a curve comes up. You start to concentrate, worry about the unknown, what if I'm going too fast, what if there are obstacles... next thing you know your eyes are focused about 10' in front of the bike. You either have to slow down or things seem like they are flying at you becasue your field of view is so small. Trust your peripheral vision. It's what tells your braing WHERE things are, and that's what matters when you are riding, right? Your focaal vision tells you WHAT things are. Example: Yu look with your focal vision and see "That is a rock" now look where you want to go to avoid the rock and let you peripheralvision help you avoid the rock. Otherwise if you look at the rock 9 times out of 10 you'll hit it. And when you hit it you'll be looking at the ground not up where you are heading.

Look up, look ahead, lean in, push the way you want to turn.
 
I made a little cheesy sketch to show what I mean. When you are heading into a corner, look at the apex. When you start heading toward that point then look out of the corner toward where you want to be. the red lines sort of show what I mean. Have fun!
 

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I've found what works best for me so far is to lean hard in the direction I want to turn and the bike will finally start going that direction. I've always just figured that Harley's don't corner very well. At least that's what all the metric riders say. I had no idea I wasn't doing something right. I'm doing exactly what they taught me in rider's edge course.
 
Bull Dog Jim said:
We have a post going on about this, as chance would have it. In short, when you are at speed the bike doesn't turn like a car does, Turn steering left, car turns left. The front wheel is spinning and acts like a gyroscope. Left preasure on the left grip will turn you left. When you do that either keep you weight centered on the bike, or lean slighty in toward the turn. I wish I was with you for 5 minutes, much easier to SHOW than tell.

Click on Unread Posts and scroll down till you find High Speed Cornering Mods. You find a couple posts with stick figure drawings that might help
Click to expand...

Bull Dog Jim said:
One more thing on this and then I'll leave you alone...

Where you look is where you will go. When you approach a curve, visually sweep the road for problems (gravel, pot holes, etc) then look at the apex (center) of the curve and head your bike that way. When you are appraoching the apex, look out of the curve toward where you want to go. LOOK UP not DOWN.

Straight roads are easy. We tend to do the right thing there. Looking down the road, enjoying the ride. Then a curve comes up. You start to concentrate, worry about the unknown, what if I'm going too fast, what if there are obstacles... next thing you know your eyes are focused about 10' in front of the bike. You either have to slow down or things seem like they are flying at you becasue your field of view is so small. Trust your peripheral vision. It's what tells your braing WHERE things are, and that's what matters when you are riding, right? Your focaal vision tells you WHAT things are. Example: Yu look with your focal vision and see "That is a rock" now look where you want to go to avoid the rock and let you peripheralvision help you avoid the rock. Otherwise if you look at the rock 9 times out of 10 you'll hit it. And when you hit it you'll be looking at the ground not up where you are heading.

Look up, look ahead, lean in, push the way you want to turn.
Click to expand...



I go along with Bull Dog 100%. except i cant draw as good
 
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