Cornering Your Motorcycle

One of the most fun things to do with your bike is to ride it away from the city and find those wide-open twisties, those great two-lane farm roads with tight corners and no traffic. Or to find those highways that cut through canyons and around towering mountains, with spectacular views accented by switchbacks and tight S-curves. Or to get out there on the track and put a knee down at super high speeds, your racing bike straining beneath you as you push the limits. You know it and we know it: straight lines are boring. 

But before you get out there and start carving through those corners, you need to take stock of a few safety tips. Nothing is worse than getting a corner wrong and losing control of your bike. If you crash at high speeds, you can seriously injure yourself or worse. If you slide into another vehicle, you could also injure someone else - or worse. 

To help you avoid these potentially catastrophic circumstances, we here at Crystal Harley-Davidson have put together this guide to the basics of cornering your motorcycle. When you’re ready to shop for a new bike, or you need accessories or gear for your current bike, please come visit our dealership in Homosassa Springs, Florida, where we proudly serve customers in all of Citrus County. 

What Type of Bike Do You Have?

How you corner depends largely on what kind of motorcycle you’re riding. Cruisers and touring bikes do not corner the same as race bikes do. Street and commuter bikes also have their own handling characteristics, and scooters are a world unto themselves.

Racing Bikes

Race bikes are designed for fast, nimble speed. These bikes are lightweight and agile, built to be leaned over as far as the rider is comfortable, to the point where the rider is literally dragging their knee on the track as they turn through a corner at incredible speeds. These bikes have a maximum lean angle that’s much more extreme than their street and highway counterparts do. To take a corner on a racing bike, find the apex of the turn and use that as your guide for where to put your tires. Look through the entire turn and find the sweet spot where you can lean your bike over to its maximum angle. Once you’re past that point, use countersteering to guide the bike upright and throttle out of the turn. 

Cruisers and Tourers

Cruisers and touring bikes will likely have similar cornering characteristics. These are generally heavier bikes, with chrome fairings and accessories that can drag on the road if you lean them over too far. When approaching a corner on a big bike, remember that your bike is heavier than you think. Look through the entirety of the curve, think about how far you need to lean to take that curve safely, and slowly let off the throttle as you approach the turn. Use countersteering to lean the bike over to its ideal angle of attack for that curve, apply a little throttle for control, and then use countersteering to right the bike and throttle out of the curve. Again, it’s critical to be aware of all of the various bits of your bike that stick out, and how far they stick out, so you don’t end up touching the road surface with any part of your bike. Doing so can make you lose control (not to mention put a nasty scrape on your nice fairings) and that’ll put you in a world of hurt. 

Scooters and Commuters

Your basic commuter bike or low-powered cafe-style motorcycle isn’t designed for high-powered cornering maneuvers. You’re probably riding these bikes in city traffic, so you’re not really approaching a lot of high-speed corners. Still, you need to know, for example, how to safely take a full right turn off a major street onto a side street. 

Always assume automobile drivers aren’t paying attention and don’t know you’re there. Anything you can do to make them aware of you on the road is important for your safety. As you approach a turn, signal early to let any cars behind you know your intentions, and use an additional hand signal for even greater awareness. Slow down gradually until you reach a speed where you can make the turn safely while keeping control of your bike. Lean into the turn, looking at where you’re going to end up, and then right the bike and throttle out. 

For scooters, whether you’re riding a 50cc commuter or a big-engined maxi-scooter, cornering can be a little different. The principles are the same - lean your scooter as far over as you can without losing control of it, twist the throttle to maintain control, then right the scooter and throttle out, but the riding dynamics of a scooter will necessarily be different than those of a motorcycle. As long as you keep yourself at a safe speed at all times and maintain control of your scooter, you’ll be fine.

We hope this guide to cornering your motorcycle has been helpful for you. The best way to learn how to corner is to get out there and practice. And if you have questions, or if you want to buy a new bike, or gear or accessories, please come see us at Crystal Harley-Davidson. We look forward to seeing you!