Where to Look in a Turn
Sep 9th, 2008 by Leo
Where do you look in a turn?
- At the the cute girl/guy standing on the corner
- At the apex (the middle point of the turn you plan to make)
- As far into the turn as you can see
- At the nice scenery whizzing by
- None of the above
The correct answer is…well I’ll let you figure it out (okay it’s “5″ you happy?). The truth is most of us have trouble with turns. And most of the trouble comes from where we do or don’t look. The most common mistake people make is the lazy turn, turning-in way too early. The problem with that is you can’t see what you’re riding into: there could be a stopped car right beyond the corner, or a pedestrian, or a sick squirrel…you get the picture. What you want to be able to do is ride right up and turn in late once you’ve seen what’s ahead of the turn. But when you (or most people) try to do that, you wind up going really really slow into the turn. That’s not such a bad thing, but it can make the traffic behind you kind of antsy. If this is you – or if you’ve ever felt rushed or confused going into a corner, chances are your problem is not knowing where to look exactly…
Fortunately the motorcycle gurus have the answer for you: Any basic rider training will tell you to “look into a turn,” or “look where you want to go,” but for sharper and faster turns you might need a little more advice.
Look to the Center
The teachers of the Lee Parks schools suggest that you’re probably turning in early because you’re unable to do tight turns with confidence… So their secret to sharper turning is: you’re not actually supposed to look “where you want to go” (not exactly), you’re supposed to look to the center of the turn radius (see diagram 1). So for sharp left turns you need to look a little further left than where you actually want to go, to the center of the turn radius. The more you lean, the sharper the turn, the more left you’d need to look. When you’re riding on city streets, that means you will sometimes need to look further than your turn, or over a highway divider rather than directly where you plan to go. Now this was helpful for me with certain (really tight) turns – but if it doesn’t help you or sounds confusing, I say shelf it for now and check out the next one.
The Two Step
Keith Code offers a less confusing approach. He recommends the visual “Two Step.” Step one is to find your turn in-point: the point on the pavement you will turn the bike. Step two is to simply look into the turn. Once you’ve chosen your turn-in point (early, even before you start braking), you can start looking into the turn while keeping the turn-in point in peripheral vision. Code suggests that the reason you feel rushed in corners is because you haven’t decided on a turn-in point so you wind up turning too early, or start looking into the turn too late. By deciding on a turn-in point and then looking in while setting the entry speed, everything will feel slower and safer (even though you will wind up taking the corner more swiftly and smoothly). Cheers!
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