OK, a car and a bike are going around the exact same corner under the same conditions. Which vehicle should be able to take the corner at a faster speed? My instinct tells me the bike, but I wanted some more experienced riders' inputs.

 

a car is capable of higher cornerspeed, wider tires (like 10x the contact patch), weight is all low and spread out on four wheels, etc (there are more reasons but its late and I'm tired)

the only time a bike will have a cornerspeed advantage is in esses where a car will have to make a much greater turn due to its width, a bike can carry a much straighter line through just because its so much smaller

a car magazine did a test with them a 2 cars and two bikes and the bikes won just because they were so much faster than the cars in a straight line
the stupid thing was the test wasn't even fair for the bikes, they had it set up as a stock car vs a stock bike and a race prepped car vs a race prepped bike but their stock car was a Corvette or something with all kinds of performance mods and suspension/brake upgrades vs a literally bone stock ZX-6, then their race car was a literal RACE car (I think it was a subaru thats won a few championships in Europe) vs a ZX-10 with a slip-on exhaust and race bodywork lol
either way cars are faster in corners and on the brakes but they rarely have the acceleration that bikes to because of the power to weight ratios


but isn't turning a bike so much more fun than a car...

 

when i corner in my piece of **** ranger im on two wheels, does that qualify me as a car or bike, or just plain amazing?

 

JZ you're a clown.
This topic shows it's ugly head every couple of weeks. Depending on both is what your anwser is. For the most partI agree with Woodyperformance cars will corner better than performance bikes. But when you start comparingZ06s to cruisers or Neons to CBRs it's a all going to be realative.s

 

Hahaha - I was, "lol'ing" man!

I tell you whats fun is when I'm on our parkway system. If there is a sportscar ahead of me gettin' on it, I'll roll back on the throttle.I never leave 2nd gear - there's no reason to (I think that's why I lov second so much). Anyway, I can hear through my helmet them getting on it hard and I'm just going at a steady prolly 40mph. They're going up to 60 on the small straights, then down to about 25 in the corner and they try to power out back up to 60...

The whole time they are but a flick of the wrist away from me. They can try all they want (of course the car driver has a bit to do with it), but with all their acceleration and cornering and hammering the pedal... they can't leave me at all. Not even a bit. And the majority of the parkway here is absolutely not straights.

Cars suck. I almost hate being in one now.

 

That reminds me other the other day my buddy in his trans am wants to race me so hes getting on it while im in second with one hand in the air with the motion are you going to start while he sounds like the pedal is to the floor..And your always one flick of the wrist of being gone!

 

As everyone has said - it depends.

The british mag "BIKE" has a comparison between the Yamaha R6 and a Lotus Elise S on a track
in the UK. The reason for the match up is that they have the same HP engine.

Its in the Feb issue, www.bikemagazine.co.uk and is worth reading. The Lotus is a very light car,
and the lap times are almost identical. Corner speed at the apex is surprisingly similar, but entry
and exit are quite different.

Interesting read, although the lotus would be considered your 'normal' car.

Chris

 

The reason I asked the question is because I drive the same route to work all the time, obviously. I remember how fast I go around a corner in my car, and sometimes I compare that speed going around the same corner on my bike. It always seems like I can go faster in the car.

I just wanted to know if I was being chicken or not. But you're right, it is so much more fun to turn on a bike anyway.

 

bikes will be limited to their cornering speed by the lean angle they can achieve due to the way they turn, while cars are not, cars have the advantage in this particular aspect. thought hitting a hard corner on a bike is much more fun imo

 

i can take corners faster on my bike than my car