A Beginner who needs help...
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Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2009
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A Beginner who needs help...
Hey everyone on the cbr forum...i just turned 23 and finally sold my sportster that i had that i first learned to ride on and want to move to a 03 or 04 600rr. I have been riding for almost 2 years and love the cbr family with a passion, i am just finally getting around to aquiring my 1st cbr...the only thing i am shaky with is cornering. I never cornered with a sportbike before and i know you have to really lean and you get pretty low to the ground. I am just so dam frightened of hittin gravel and gone down or just leanin too low. Cornering is really my only issue so can any of you experienced riders give me some advice on exactly how to master cornering?? Thanks to all those who lend some advice because i have never seen pavement before and never want to! So thanks again
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You should always be looking past the corner and remember these bikes are made for that! If you use your skill and turn your head, you will flow through the turn....time is key!!!! Do not rush into getting low....but try it at lower speeds and eventually you will be MOTOGP....
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Congrats on finally trading up! lol
Just ride like a normal bike at first. Make sure you look where your going, push steer.
There's a few good vids on getting your knee down etc on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCg3B...e=channel_page
But after hauling that huge heavy sportster around corners, your new cbr will be a synch. I think you will actually be shocked how easy they handle.
Just ride like a normal bike at first. Make sure you look where your going, push steer.
There's a few good vids on getting your knee down etc on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCg3B...e=channel_page
But after hauling that huge heavy sportster around corners, your new cbr will be a synch. I think you will actually be shocked how easy they handle.
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From: Portsmouth, Ohio
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From: Northern Michigan
the only thing i am shaky with is cornering. I never cornered with a sportbike before and i know you have to really lean and you get pretty low to the ground.
You dont have to get low to the ground to corner. the sport bike will not lean over any farther than your sportster did on the same corner and same speed. If you take a corner at 45mph on your HD, and then do it on a cbr at 45mph, the bikes lean angle will be the same. You don't have to lean a cbr more in order to get it to corner. The ability is there so you can lean over farther and you can get off the bike and closer to the ground and have a higher corner speed..... if you want to, its not a requirement to get the bike to corner.
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^ That's what I was going to say. Sportbikes don't corner any different than cruisers do, at all. They just have the ground clearance and ability to lean over farther and to take corners harder. They don't at all require it. The physics of the lean angles don't change in the slightest.
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Joined: Aug 2007
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From: United Kindgdom
There is lots of good advice here and all bikes from cruiser to race bike corner the same way, by counter steering ... if you don't counter steer you can hang off all you want and you won't make your bike turn ... some folk think that by leaning off the side they want to turn (say a left turn) they are making the bike corner, when in fact they end up pushing with the left arm and pulling with the right arm on the bars since it's only small forces required on the bars to initiate turns ...
Here's an example post from the counter steering thread ...
Originally Posted by Juliet
.. when you lean off to the left there is a natural tendency to shorten your right arm and pull the right bar at the same time pushing the left bar ..you just dont notice this and think you turned by leaning, you didnt, you counter steered ...
You already have the link to that counter steering thread or click on link in my sig :-)
this page from it explains the NO BS bike and it has fixed bars, very interesting when the guys try to steer the NO BS bike by leaning ..lol
Here's a really good page on counter steering and the effects or not of body movement or lean ... too many people put so much stock in body lean and it's just not as effective as they think .. basically steering a motorbike in any kind of quick fashion and especially to avoid objects where an instant change is required is done soley through steering input and that means counter steering ...
http://www.superbikeschool.com/machinery/no-bs-machine.php
I think this bit is important :-) ..
No B.S.
At this writing, we have run nearly 100 riders of all experience levels on this double barred bike. It has made believers out of every single one--in the actuality of countersteering of course. Even at speeds of no more than 20 to 35 mph, no matter how much you tug or push or pull or jump around on the bike, the best we saw was that the bike wiggled and became somewhat unstable. Did it turn? Not really. Would it turn at higher speed? Absolutely not. Could you avoid something in your path? No Way. Could anyone quick turn the bike? Hopeless! The best result was one of my riding coaches. He got into a full hang-off position and was able to persuade the bike, by jerking on it, to start on a wide, wide arc in the paddock at Laguna Seca, a piece of asphalt that is about 500 X 800 feet. Like turning an oil tanker ship, start at noon and be on the turning arc at around 1:00 PM. It wasn't smooth and it wasn't very effective. We now call this bike "The NO BS Bike". There are no doubts in anyone's mind after they ride it that they have been countersteering all along. No doubts.
You can hear riders, who believed in the body-steering method, laughing in their helmets at 100 yards away once they get those solid mounted bars in their hands and try to body-steer the bike. They just shake their heads. No B.S.
Dangerous Misconceptions
Now if you want to look a little further into this, what you will see is this; riders who still labor under the misconception that they body-steer are devoting themselves in a system that can do a great deal of actual harm. Firstly, it is seriously misguided to add an additional series of actions to the steering process. When it is quick, critical steering that is needed to avoid something, that lag I have observed so many times in street riders, could cost you your hide. Adding 2/10ths to 5/10ths of a second, or more, to the steering procedure at 60 mph means that you have just gone another 18 to 44 feet, or more, down the road before you started to avoid that muffler lying in your path. Kids, don't try this at home.
I really like this bit and I do think they should carry labels because it is simply so scary how many people are not aware of counter steering or only do it subconsciously ... you simply have to consciously be able to counter steer in an emergency ... it's a life saver!!
WARNING:THIS VEHICLE COUNTER-STEERS.
IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND COUNTERSTEERING DO NOT RIDE.
SEEK THE HELPOF A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL Riding Coach.
Here's an example post from the counter steering thread ...
Originally Posted by Juliet
.. when you lean off to the left there is a natural tendency to shorten your right arm and pull the right bar at the same time pushing the left bar ..you just dont notice this and think you turned by leaning, you didnt, you counter steered ...
Superbly written! This is the reason why newbies and even "advanced" riders will tell you to "lean to turn" or "lean more." They themselves do not realize that the shifting of their body to one side causes the bars to be torqued in favor of the turn.
Something I find true and easy to understand is that "leaning intensifies the effects of countersteering." This is because leaning to one side of the bike, will make that side of it heavier, and therefore more prone to fall in that direction.
Something I find true and easy to understand is that "leaning intensifies the effects of countersteering." This is because leaning to one side of the bike, will make that side of it heavier, and therefore more prone to fall in that direction.
You already have the link to that counter steering thread or click on link in my sig :-)
this page from it explains the NO BS bike and it has fixed bars, very interesting when the guys try to steer the NO BS bike by leaning ..lol
Here's a really good page on counter steering and the effects or not of body movement or lean ... too many people put so much stock in body lean and it's just not as effective as they think .. basically steering a motorbike in any kind of quick fashion and especially to avoid objects where an instant change is required is done soley through steering input and that means counter steering ...
http://www.superbikeschool.com/machinery/no-bs-machine.php
I think this bit is important :-) ..
No B.S.
At this writing, we have run nearly 100 riders of all experience levels on this double barred bike. It has made believers out of every single one--in the actuality of countersteering of course. Even at speeds of no more than 20 to 35 mph, no matter how much you tug or push or pull or jump around on the bike, the best we saw was that the bike wiggled and became somewhat unstable. Did it turn? Not really. Would it turn at higher speed? Absolutely not. Could you avoid something in your path? No Way. Could anyone quick turn the bike? Hopeless! The best result was one of my riding coaches. He got into a full hang-off position and was able to persuade the bike, by jerking on it, to start on a wide, wide arc in the paddock at Laguna Seca, a piece of asphalt that is about 500 X 800 feet. Like turning an oil tanker ship, start at noon and be on the turning arc at around 1:00 PM. It wasn't smooth and it wasn't very effective. We now call this bike "The NO BS Bike". There are no doubts in anyone's mind after they ride it that they have been countersteering all along. No doubts.
You can hear riders, who believed in the body-steering method, laughing in their helmets at 100 yards away once they get those solid mounted bars in their hands and try to body-steer the bike. They just shake their heads. No B.S.
Dangerous Misconceptions
Now if you want to look a little further into this, what you will see is this; riders who still labor under the misconception that they body-steer are devoting themselves in a system that can do a great deal of actual harm. Firstly, it is seriously misguided to add an additional series of actions to the steering process. When it is quick, critical steering that is needed to avoid something, that lag I have observed so many times in street riders, could cost you your hide. Adding 2/10ths to 5/10ths of a second, or more, to the steering procedure at 60 mph means that you have just gone another 18 to 44 feet, or more, down the road before you started to avoid that muffler lying in your path. Kids, don't try this at home.
I really like this bit and I do think they should carry labels because it is simply so scary how many people are not aware of counter steering or only do it subconsciously ... you simply have to consciously be able to counter steer in an emergency ... it's a life saver!!
WARNING:THIS VEHICLE COUNTER-STEERS.
IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND COUNTERSTEERING DO NOT RIDE.
SEEK THE HELPOF A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL Riding Coach.
Last edited by Juliet; Jun 6, 2009 at 04:54 AM.