Riding Tips For Curvy Roads

[flavor]

One of the most unnerving situations for me is:
When I'm on a curve going to the right
No shoulder
In mountains where there the mountain on the right side of the road creating a situation that you can't see around the turn.
Realize that you have nowhere to go if gravel washed into your lane you don't have anywhere to go except the oncoming lane.

Take it easy in this situation.

Other than that ride within yourself and make sure you ride in a single file until you feel like the bike is part of you. Think of skiing. As said, counter steer. Maybe try an area where there's no traffic and just go left and right inside the lane back and forth like skiing down a hill.

[The Black Knight]

Originally Posted by glwilson

Better Cornering:

Sizing-up the corner
1: Choose your entry speed, braking if necessary before entry
2: Downshift to a lower gear. A gear giving you enough control to slow-down and accelerate with throttle use only.
3: Gear position also provides you with enough power to power-out of the corner, or potential problems.
4: Look to where you are going around the curve – up ahead, not right in front of the bike.
5: Enter the corner from the outside of the lane/road (far right side on a a left turn, and vice-versa on a right turn), and then move to the inside of the curve’s apex, and then back out away from the apex when leaving the corner.
6: Use acceleration when leaving the apex of the corner.

Body positioning for cornering.
The most common mistake by cruiser riders is remaining seated as if in a recliner. Taking corners safely, and most certainly at speed requires moving your body position on the bike.
1: Move your butt on the seat toward the inside of the curve so the inside edge of the seat is aligned with your butt-crack.
2: Lean your body forward over the tank and toward the inside mirror (your head will follow).
3: Keep your head straight up, perpendicular to level ground.
4: Push the inside bar (using counter-steering) to control the bike.
5: If more turn is needed, also pull inward on the outside bar.
6: If less turn is needed, simply let up on the handle-bar input.

Here is an article about proper body positioning on a racing motorcycle. This same principle holds true for cruisers and tourers (in fact all bikes), except not to the degree needed for racing.

Note the pictures showing not only the body positioning, but also the bike’s lean angle. Proper body positioning will reduce the lean angle while increasing the turn. Less leaning also allows for more room to turn if needed; while helping to avoid scraping bike pegs and etc. Bike parts scraping can cause you to crash as it can remove traction from the rear tire, causing a slide-out.

Also notice the picture attached showing the line through the bike's angle and where the body is positioned to the line. Most riders are equal (straight-up) with the line or above it (away from the low side).

A majority of the body should be at and somewhat below the line (toward the low side).

Bottom-line is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Start slow and increase as your skill and confidence does.

https://rideapart.com/articles/10-th...r-sport-riding

[Silent Sam]

..Learning to control your bike...cant be beat, if you start on a dirt bike/scrambler type bike...and spend lots of time "off roading"...

[ponch]

Originally Posted by dank

I don’t know if this is the case for you, but one thing I’ve noticed that many cruiser riders do is to tilt the bike into the corner and keep their body fairly upright, in essence pivoting the bike under them, instead of sliding their own weight toward the inside of the corner, off center on the bike, and keeping the bike more upright. Doing it the first way feels nice and relaxed, but it makes for an unstable configuration in the corner if the corner tightens or you went into it a bit fast for the line you chose. Very little ability to adjust that way. In the end though, , however you choose to sit as your approach the corners, just ride whatever speed feels comfortable to you.

Of course, as has been noted, getting a bike that handles twisties better is probably the best way to improve cornering speed. Greg’s and my ST1300’s glide through the corners easily at the speeds where Brad’s Victory is doing his so called “power slide.”

You are right with the cause, but there is another option. A motor cop told me to do the turn hula. Basically allow the upper body to tilt away from the turn and push down/away in the opposite direction on the bars. I've seen motorcops in AZ do it too. It forces the rider to counter steer, which is harder if you keep the body vertical. The other thing that makes it easier on a UJM riding position is gripping the tank/bike with the knees/thighs. With the feet under the rider, this allows better control and the rider can even put pressure on the peg that is on the inside of the turn when doing all of this. It becomes much more intuitive than the cruiser riding position once one gets it down. Couple this with the master yoda riding position and riding becomes more relaxed too. It took me awhile to learn it. I found out how well taking a left hand turning lane that had two lanes. A S1000RR was on the outside and I was in the inside lane. The light was changing and the other rider really cut a tight apex. I had no choice but to do the same. I just did the turn hula and cranked the bike over as far as it would go, grinding the pegs. I surprised even myself. We were probably doing 30-40 at the time. Not terribly fast at all, but it must have looked synchronised. Once you push a bike to it's limits, you'll gain more confidence. It's the only way.

[cliffordgos]

This video helped me.

[highwayman2011]

Just to add to the excellent advice here, make sure you have good tire pressure in your tires. When I first got back to riding after a 30 year break I was running recommended factory air pressure in the tires. I talked to a very experienced rider about why my Vulcan Classic handled the corners so bad and he said to up the pressures and it worked. I run 38 to 40 psi on my Voyager.