Dan H
Bradley,
I'm not a coach and I'm sure many knowledgeable cyclists will disagree with what I'm going to tell you. I'm confident enough I'm going to put it to the list so less experienced riders can benefit.
Back in the mid to late '80's I read an article by Davis Phinney in (I think) Bicycling Magazine about how he learned to corner with the pros. After practicing his advise, I have learned to corner faster than most people so that I have to have room in front of me coming into a corner or I will run up on whoever is in front of me. It's completely the opposite of most people teach, of what most pros do and until you practice, it seems counter intuitive. I see almost nobody doing this. I will try my best to describe it to you but first, I will brag a little bit so you know I'm not just some guy that read an article.
I raced for 30 years from 1974 to 2004. I've done mountainous stage races such as Tour of Ashland, a bunch of cyclocross nationals, won some state medals on the track and did two mountain bike worlds (where I raced with Davis Phinney) including Mammoth Mt. Kamikaze downhills where my best speed was 55 mph.
Here is the technique:
Weight the outside pedal but not totally. How much will come with practice. The saddle should press against the inside of your outside leg.
Do NOT hang your inside knee out like the motorcycle road racers do! Instead, press it into the top tube to stabilize yourself against the bike.
Don't lean the bike into the turn. Hold it out away from the turn as upright as you can, steering instead of leaning. This is accomplished by getting real low over the bars and leaning your upper body into the turn. Point your nose into the turn and almost stiff arm the outside handlebar. In other words, push the bar away from your upper body.
If you start to slide, you can turn into the slide to correct it.
About that Tour of Ashland, it was before I learned to corner and I was somewhere behind the main field going down Dead Indian Road as fast as I dared. On the right was big rocks and the left was sky. No guard rail. If I touched the gravel shoulder, death was a real possibility. Suddenly, Robert Burney and 2 or 3 other guys passed me going way faster. (no speedo in those days) I accelerated to join the groupetto figuring if they could do it, I could do it. I followed them through one corner and got so scared I would go into the cliff, I had to let them go. Now that Davis has showed me how to corner, I feel I could descend with anybody.
One more thing: I work on a lot of bikes and 99% of the time I see rear brakes wearing out 3 times faster than front brakes. This indicates flawed braking technique. I suggest if you are right handed, you may want your front brake hooked up to the right lever. That's another story.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bradley Heintz
To: obra@list.obra.org
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:26 PM
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Tips for Cornering on a Road Bike
Looking for tips on how to best distribute weight to corner on a road bike. Any good articles out there? Coming from a mountain bike background and always considered myself a pretty good descenter until I road my new road bike with a group of racers. They (we) descended as a group - meaning there was someone right next to me as I negotiated a tight turn at high speed . I found having my line dictated by the group unnerving. I slipped to the back of the group then spent the next 5 miles tying to catch up!
The problem was that I kept finding myself halfway through the corner leaning with a certain turn radius only to find the corner got sharper. I found myself unable to get my body weight to lean harder to make the turn gracefully. Not to mention I found myslef unwilling to lean my body any further into the corner for fear of sliding out my wheels if I encountered gravel.
I read that an effective method for sharp cornering at speed is to put the weight on the outside foot and lean the bike underneath the rider. The rider remains upright while the bike is leaned over. I tried it and found it very effective for transitioning body weight into the corners. Even when the corner got progressively tighter I could lean the bike as much as needed. Plus my weight remained more upright allowing me to recover in the event of an emergency. (Like when rounding a blind corner to find a car partially in my lane.) Before I celebrate, thought I'd run this by experienced descenters to make sure I'm not setting myself up for a nasty fall.
Cheers,
Bradley
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