Every corner has its own unique nuances and subtleties, but every corner in the world can be broken down into three main parts - Entry, Apex and Exit. How you deal with each one is important, but how you put them together is crucial - you’re looking for a smooth transition between each part of the bend.
1. Entry
This can be subdivided further into Approach and Turn-in. The Approach is where you get down to a speed and gear that seems about right, and position yourself in the best place to tackle the bend. That means giving yourself the best visibililty, so for a left hand bend you’ll be as far over to the right as is practical, and for a righthander you’ll be as far over to the left. On a racetrack you can use the whole width of the tarmac but real roads have oncoming traffic, potholes, gutters and white lines which will mean you have to modify your line to suit.
The closer you get to the turn, the more you’re looking for your turn-in point. This is the point at which you really make the bike steer, rather than just following the road - on a very long or tight curve you might get three-quarters of the way round the bend before you actually turn in.
The way to spot the turn-in point is to know where the exit is, then draw the shortest practical line between where you are and that apex point. On a racetrack you know where the exit is because you have as many laps as you like to learn it, so you can work out a turn-in point in advance. On the road, you have to actually see the exit before you can identify the apex, which means you end up going deeper into the corner before you turn in.
2. Apex
This is the heart of the bend, where you’ll be leant over further than anywhere else in the bend it’s the balance point between the way in and the way out. You hear racers talk about hitting an apex, and they’ll mean hitting it consistently within an inch or so, lap after lap. On the road accuracy is still important, otherwise you’re wasting time. On a left hand bend the apex will be as far over to the right as it’s practical and safe to go, on the right it’ll be as far over to the left.
3. Exit
From the moment you hit the exit, you should be concentrating on the exit, and concentrating on getting there as fast as possible. That means getting the power down, which means balancing available tyre grip with increasing throttle. That’s a balance that changes from corner to corner and from bike to bike, but the crucial thing is to feed the throttle in firmly and gently, not just crack it on full in one go. The further you’re leant over, the less throttle you can apply, but as you gradually ease the bike upright you can apply correspondingly more throttle, until by the time you’re halfway back up to upright again you’ll probably be close to full throttle, powering out of the bend and on towards the next one.
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