Want to fly through the corners like a Pro?

Overview of Corners.

Throughout you time in Motocross you will find that the corners are the thing to master! The majority of the time you will find that when you pass someone it is near or on a corner - So learning to corner correctly is a crucial skill.

Apply each of the following as rule of thumb:-

On your approach to the corner you should be looking well ahead, the entry to most corners will be rough with different tracks in them - try to follow the smoothest entry line.

Approaching the corner you should be standing up in the attack position to brake effectively and also to allow your legs and arms to soak up some of the bumps.
As you finish braking move smoothly into the cornering position in one fluid movement, that is with your inside leg out and forward to weight the front wheel.

Never lock your knee, try to keep your foot parallel to the ground to allow it to skim along. Keep your toes pointing ahead, if you let your foot turn out or in and it catches on a rock or some other obstacle on the track you'll give your knee an awesome tweak! Not Nice!

With your leg out weighting the front wheel also put as much weight as you can on the outside foot-peg, this is especially important on flat and off camber turns.

In the corner you should be looking through the corner picking the exit line you want to follow.

One of the tips to remember when cornering in motocross is 'Steady in - Fast out', brake as late as possible but  be sure to stay in control as you enter and exit the turn.

The fastest line through a corner will usually be a sweeping line across the apex, similar to a road racers but this line can leave you vulnerable to an inside pass if you have a rider right behind you. In that case a better line would be tighter and closer to the inside of the corner so as to not leave an opening for your opponent to flow through!.

Corners can be averaged into 3 types - Bermed, Smooth or Rutted.

Berms.
Berms come in all shapes and sizes and normally you can carry more speed through them. Many motocross riders automatically head to the berm.  Cornering around the berm can quite often be faster, particularly in wet conditions when there is a lot less traction, a lot of the time the inside line around a motocross track whilst feeling slower will actually be quicker!

Take a good look at the berm, if the corner is quite wide then following the berm round to get better speed may not be of help - it may be the case that you would be travelling three times the distance therefore loosing ground to someone who has taken the inside of the corner!

On the same token though - although the berm may be on a wide corner, the fact that you can lean the bike into the berm and gain speed may equal or gain you ground - This depends on your riding capabilities.

The steeper the angle of the berm the more you can lean the bike into it therefore gaining speed and having a nice line out of the corner into the next.

Probably the best way to tackle a berm is to aim high on the entrance to the corner and then drop down the face as you exit. This allows you to have a smooth line instead of  squaring off by locking the back wheel to slide it around and then driving down the face. This is actually slower than holding a smooth flowing line.

The exception to this is when you need to avoid a rough section on the outside of the berm where you would normally exit or if you need to square up your line to get good drive to a jump straight after the berm.

Squaring off in berms can be good for block passes. These are done by out braking the rider in front of you and taking the inside line into the berm and going under the rider you want to pass, brake slide your back wheel onto the higher line on the berm and the rider who is now behind you will have to brake or take evasive action to avoid hitting you from behind.

You probably won't make a lot of friends at motocross races with block passes but they are an acceptable, legitimate form of passing!

Smooth Corners.
Due to the fact that you may have a neutral or an off camber in smooth flat corners - Body positioning on a motocross bike is essential to get the most traction and drive.  As you finish braking for the corner, slide forward into the cornering position on the bike.  The cornering position is as follows:

You should be seated with your inside leg out pointing towards the front wheel.

Your body should be up on the corner of the seat so that as the bike is leaning over for the turn - your body is still vertical, lean heavily on the outside foot-peg, this will help weight the bike for increased traction.

Look through the corner and aim for the line that you want to exit on. Once you pass the middle of the corner you should be accelerating just enough that both wheels of the bike are starting to drift. Exercise good throttle control, because flat corners have so little traction - it's very easy to be over-zealous with the throttle and have the rear wheel step out.

As you exit the corner, straighten the bike up to get better traction and increase the amount of throttle.

Rutted Corners
You either love them or hate them!!! Most people if they are truthful will say they do not like them as they feel they are losing control of the bike - Yes you are - your wheels are forced to follow the rut. This type of cornering takes a combination of skill and confidence. Ruts make so many motocross riders chicken out because the technique requires the rider to allow the rut to steer the bike. Because of this learning to corner well in ruts can make a huge difference to your lap times and your overall confidence as you are not constantly worrying about the corner coming up with that awful rut!

Entering the rut is the most important part of the whole process, dropping into a rut partway through a corner certainly is not the best option as it will distract you as you are suddenly not in control of the bike!

Make sure you brake hard into the corner but approach the rut at a steady pace.

Enter the rut with your weight forward, your elbows up and your head over the cross brace, lean with the bike into the rut making sure you weight the outside foot-peg.

Allow the rut to steer the bike, if you try to fight it the front wheel will climb out and you'll be in a bit of bother!

As you pass the centre of the rut start accelerating - the more speed you can carry through the more centrifugal force you'll exert on the bike causing it to really stick in the rut allowing you to accelerate hard out.

As always - look through the turn and focus on your exit line. As you exit the rut the bike will start to sit up and you can accelerate harder into the straight.

Practice really is the key to cornering in ruts, with confidence the whole process becomes so much quicker and easier.  Just remember that practice makes perfect! Half is skill and the other half is confidence!

Cornering