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Leaning less on left-hand turns


Calinazaret
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I can lean as far as I need to in right hand turns, but I panic for left. My tires are worn to the edge on the right side but I've got like an inch wide chicken strip on the other side; even my friend who doesn't ride motorcycles noticed it.

Is this common? How can I get passed it?

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Because you're working the throttle and therefore putting pressure on the throttle side right bar you may be more effectively counter steering in right hand turns.   I've seen it before.  Try adding a little extra forward pressure to the left bar for left turns.  

 

By any chance are you worried about running wide on left handers and double apexing?  I've seen that, too.

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There's those round abouts in Dubln and Gahanna, turn lap after lap on em when there's no traffic lol.

Cool, I'll give this a try :-D

By any chance are you worried about running wide on left handers and double apexing? I've seen that, too.

What I sometimes do is hit the apex way too early and hug the curve all the way around, sometimes overcompensating, blowing wide and then just generally being all over the road.

I think it has to do with feeling farther away from the throttle when I lean left but idk.

The fear of the yellow line will also cause this, nobody wants to go left of center, your mind has been programmed never to do it, so subconsciously you shy away from really tipping it in on lefties...

Makes sense!
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Also, don't forget that on the street, right hand turns have a smaller turn radius. Roadways are aligned by centerline. A track day would be helpful.

Hmm, I never thought of that. Yeah I need to do a track day. But I'll be leaving the country in less than a month so it doesn't make sense at this point to invest in the gear
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Your left and right arms may be fighting each other for

control of your steering.  This book will read in English

no matter which country you move to.

 

Total Control -- High Performance Street Riding Techniques

by Lee Parks.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Total-Control-Performance-Street-Techniques/dp/0760314039

 

Chapter 2...Steering.....page 17

 

Steering Technique

"It is my ardent belief that when cornering, you should

use only your inside arm to steer...."

 

Read the book.  It will help anyone to ride better and

to understand more about the how's and why's of what

a motorcycle does when we try to make it do what we

want it to do.

 

Go right to page 21 on the book preview at the link above.

You can read it there without buying the book.

 

.

 

.

Edited by JackFlash
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I had the exact same problem.   I felt incredibly comfortable on right handers and felt nervous on left handers which caused me to have more problems. 
 

The three things that I realized that cause this.  I wasn't looking far enough through the turn which hurt my confidence and sped things up.  Remember to look through as far through the turn, it takes some practice, but with time you'll be able to look through the corner and maintain good corner positioning with your peripheral vision. 

 

Second thing, when you go right you can easily relax your left hand because you are using right hand to throttle, but when you go left, you have to use your left to counter steer but maintain your throttle hand so it's easy to be too firm with the throttle hand which makes it feel harder to go through the corner going left.  Relax your arms and make sure they are loose. That really helped me going left and right also, but more so left. 

 

And the final thing I noticed when I struggled left was my body positioning. I was able to get a comfortable riding position through right corners which gave me extra confidence in case of a road hazard I could get lower or maneuver quickly, but going left, I struggled getting into the correct body position, so I didn't feel that same escape position in case something happened.  Changing those three things for me allowed me to feel much more confident going left. 

Edited by DerekClouser
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correct body position will help this because on a left turnyour right knee has to be locked into the tank. and your right arm should be across the tank. this doesnt allow it to move as easy with the throttle as in a right hand corner where you throttle hand is very close to your body... JMHO take it for what its worth..

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Turn with inside arm. Upper body relaxed. Push off peg with the outside leg. I find I have to constantly remind myself of this for right handers though. I also stopped trying to lean over the tank and keep a more upright position while still leaning ahead of the bike.

Also a bit I took away from golf. If you're in the middle of a game (spirited ride/ track) don't try to alter how your playing/riding and just keep going. Its called practice for a reason. And the more you try to change your form the more frustrated you'll get and your game will suffer or as the case of a motorcycle, you'll probably crash.

And abondon parking lot is great for practicing riding. If you can control your body at sub 30mph speeds you can do it at normal speed

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Turn with inside arm. Upper body relaxed. Push off peg with the outside leg. I find I have to constantly remind myself of this for right handers though. I also stopped trying to lean over the tank and keep a more upright position while still leaning ahead of the bike.

Also a bit I took away from golf. If you're in the middle of a game (spirited ride/ track) don't try to alter how your playing/riding and just keep going. Its called practice for a reason. And the more you try to change your form the more frustrated you'll get and your game will suffer or as the case of a motorcycle, you'll probably crash.

And abondon parking lot is great for practicing riding. If you can control your body at sub 30mph speeds you can do it at normal speed

I don't know where to begin with this.
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Where are all of Brian's threads with tips and tricks?

Track day for the win.

Controlled environment: no animals, no cars, clean asphalt, medics, CR's, many willing to help and watch what you are doing, list goes on...

Edited by snot
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