Feels good

[Ward P]

I'm sure we all do this naturally but it completely does my head in when i try to do it with thinking. I think this is why a lot of people including me get nervous about doing this and thinking about it for eg.
You come to a corner and you mentally think.."ok right corner turn the steering left!"
Wardy how do you overcome this thought process of causing panic.
Or do you ONLY be slightly conscious of it but just feel the bike through the corner as usual.

As I enter the corner I lean in that direction, my leaning doesn't turn the bike but as I lean inward, my body pushes my arm/hand onto the inside bar, and that turns the bike. It's more about just knowing what you're doing, rather than assuming it's the lean, or weight on the peg or anything else.

You have to just keep doing it consciously till it feels normal. Do the California Superbike school. Level 1 will save your life, or at least save you and your bike from an accident on the road in the future. I reckon 2 and 3 and more track orientated, but level 1 should be manditory before anyone rides on the road. When everything is going along smoothly your brain just turns the bike for you. But in a panic situation your brain stops doing this, and you need to "manually" steer the bike. Unless you have really practiced and practiced countersteering till it feels normal, a seconds panic where your brain doesn't react is enough to make you go wide, stop the bike turning, or run into whatever you're looking at.

I often do this - An easy exercise if you have a throttlelock, is find some twisties, set the bike to an easy pace, and just use 1 finger to push each handlebar, don't hook your finger over the bar, just use the tip of your finger, so you are not holding the bars at all. You'll soon realise it takes hardly any effort at all to push the inside bar to drop the bike into the corner, no need to touch the bars at all thru the corner, and a light finger push on the other bar to pull the bike back out of the corner. The bike will also be much more stable thru the corner because you aren't adding external stresses to your bike through holding the bars. This is all the input you ever need to apply to the bars no matter have hard or fast you're riding on the road.

For me, it's amazing how much faster I can go just by relaxing my grip on the bars, and then adding positive input only when needed. It just seems to make everything feel slower and have more time. (This is a tip from the Cornering School, but don't trust ideas and opinions from others. It's best to get it 1st hand from an Instructor)

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He was on his Ps and I asked him what happened after. He explained that his rear shock was set a bit too stiff, and that pogoed him too wide.
Not my job to tell him what I thought. - He probably wouldn't have listened anyway. Interesting how we all see things differently.

Maybe you should have said something Ward, he might have been truly grateful for the tip.

He had a couple of mates about all giving advice and agreeing with him, I am planning on giving him a couple of tips when I catch him alone.