Part 9 – Everyday cornering improvements

At home
• Visualisation
Your imagination has a huge capacity to help the brain learn. Just ask Kenny Roberts – he thought himself three seconds a lap faster at Brands in 1974, by visualising in his trailer exactly how he was going to deal with each corner when he came to it: “That was the first time it dawned on me that my mind had more to do with fast laps than my skill” he said.

Think yourself through your twistiest local road. Imagine exactly how each corner will appear and what you’ll do. What would you do if there was a diesel spill half way round? What if you go in too hot? What is there was a tractor just at the exit?

In your garage
• Power steering
Take a bicycle wheel (most fronts are quick release these days) and hold it by the spindle. Get someone to spin the wheel fast. Now twist the wheel left or right, as if the spindle ends were your bike’s handlebars. Feel something freaky? Spin the wheel again and now push/pull on the spindle quickly.

Still don’t believe in counter-steering? This effect (the wheel heeling over powerfully in the opposite direction to the way you’re trying to turn it) is called gyroscopic precession – it’s what flops your bike over into corners. The harder you turn, the more help you get from physics to turn quickly and steer effectively.

On the road
• Counter-steering
We all counter-steer without thinking about it. But it’s a much stronger crash avoidance technique when you embrace it consciously. Find a quiet stretch of road or a car park and practise controlling the bike by using only pulling movements (pulling on the left bar to go right and vice versa).

When you ride normally, try and use both the normal nudging of the inside bar AND the pulling of the outside bar until it becomes habitual. This will give you maximum steering power in an emergency.

How not to crash – the conclusion
According to a study carried out by Cheshire’s chief road safety officer in 1998, 67 per cent of bike accidents could be avoided by the rider. That’s a lot of room for improvement. Let’s get started.