Part 8 – Confront your cornering fears 2

Bikers are sometimes the victims of crazy or careless car drivers no doubt. But don’t kid yourself – most bike prangs are things we could avoid if we mastered our brains, our brakes, and the bends. Follow our series of guides on how not to crash, and start adding the years of accident-free biking to your riding life…

According to the latest figures, 40.2 per cent of bikers who crash do so on their own, in bends. Pay some attention to the specific negative thoughts your brain is in the habit of running through at the worst possible time, and you could make the difference between coming off and staying on.

‘The bike’s not following the bend’
If you get this feeling chances are the bike is changing line. This is caused by slowing down, speeding up or pulling on the bars.

Slowing down will make a bike tighten its line because it reduces the centrifugal and gyroscopic forces acting on the bike. Speeding up increases increases the centrifugal force, pushing you onto a wider radius line.

Bikes don’t need steering once they’re leaned over. But they do need to be told the right way to go in the first place. And the only way to do that is to use your eyes to read the corner – and as with a book, you haven’t read it until your eyes have got to the end of it, or the exit.

If you’re not looking at the exit you’ve got no way of giving the bike the right information about where to go, so it will wander. Next time you ride, practise lifting your eyes higher, on straights as well as bends.

‘The tyres are going to lose grip’
Many people get the feeling that leaning the bike is reducing the amount of grip available to the tyres. This is due in part to the sense the weight of the bike has ‘disappeared’ – because the bike feels so light and flickable on the move, your brain feels it’s lighter than it really is. It’s as if there is nothing pushing the tyres onto the ground.

But you’re wrong – just think about how heavy your bike is. Imagine it lying on you in your drive. That weight doesn’t disappear on the move – gravity is the main reason your tyres grip the road, and it’s always there.

‘I’m going to hit the kerb’
Breath holding, tension building, focus narrowing… we all know the sickening feeling of running wide in a corner. The brain’s natural reaction (stare at the hazard you want to avoid) creates a vicious circle – you run wider, panic more, freeze up, run wider…

You need to teach your brain a virtuous circle which sees you regaining control, reducing your tension and re-finding your line.

Detaching your eyes from a hazard a matter of split-seconds away is easy – but it can’t be learned in the instant you need it. Keeping your eyes roving in the direction you really want to go is the only cure for target fixation, but is must be practised.

Try making a mental commentary of everything you can see as far ahead as possible when you’re riding or driving. When you run out of things to say, you will know your eyes aren’t roving far enough ahead (or you’re on a really boring road).

‘If it tightens up now I’m dead’
You’re half-way through a bend, the pegs aren’t scraping but you’ve got the feeling you’ve run out of the power to steer.

This is a dilute form of what often happens in an emergency. When panic fills a rider’s body with stiffness ready to meet the anticipated threat, his arms lock and he can’t control the bike.

If you are to regain the power to steer you need to unlock your arms – get them bent, and regain the force of leverage on the bars. It’s thought that car driving encourages straight-arming. If you find yourself doing it when you’re on four wheels, adjust your seat forward to create a natural bend.