Getting comfortable with lean angle…
Jul 21st, 2010 by Leo
Lean angle…it’s one of those things people get mental blocks over. You want to be able to lean it over, but fear takes over, and it bothers you. Now if you don’t care about lean angle, that’s fine! Better to keep the bike as upright as possible. But if you want the option of being able to lean further than you do right now, then read on! You don’t need to be a super-talented rider to lean your bike over all the way. But not being able to lean it over is kind of like not being able to turn your car’s steering wheel all the way…
First, how far can you learn to lean it over? Most sport tires give a little more than 50 degrees of lean angle (if riding straight up is 0 degrees). That’s pretty much the angle from the picture above. Regular Michelin Pilot Powers can go a few degrees further. The rear view cam of Rossi below shows a lean angle of around 65 degrees. You can’t do that with regular street tires. And most street bikes won’t even come close. Many street bikes have pegs that touch down before or around the 45 degree mark. So your bike’s maximum lean angle is probably somewhere between 40-50 degrees.
Now a word of caution. The closer you are to the maximum lean angle (let’s call it MLA), the more problematic tire slips become, or if there are bumps on the road… So you really need a good road surface to get close to your MLA. You also need good throttle control: too much throttle will overload the rear tire, and too little throttle (or no throttle) in a turn will overload the front tire sooner. So you need to use proper throttle control. And, of course, you can’t use the brakes as you get closer to the MLA.
But assuming you have the basics of throttle control down and know how to find a good line through a corner – what can you do to get over lean angle anxieties? Here are three simple tips:
Tip #1 “Turn your head and torso.” You don’t need to overcome your fear of lean angle, you really need to bypass them. Your brain doesn’t like leaning over sideways toward the ground. We humans are not built to lean that way. If you look at our anatomy, there’s only one direction in which we are comfortable leaning over, and that is FORWARD. But don’t just turn your head, turn your torso, and even your legs and hips… So that your entire body is facing toward the turn (and at a slightly different angle from your bike). That way the lean is not so much sideways, as it is forward. You lean forward into the direction of the turn… Kinda’ like a runner leaning forward…
Tip#2 “Get down.” The lower your body is to the ground, the easier it is to lean over. With your chest all the down on the tank, pointed toward the direction of the turn – the lean angle becomes less distracting. You should feel like your trying to touch the ground with your hands…
Tip #3 “Focus on where you are going.” In order to do the first two you will need a visual focal point that your body is leaned toward. For some people (and schools of thought) the focal point is the apex of the turn (or after that, the exit), or wherever you want to be at the end of the turn. For others, it’s the center of the turn radius (think of making a circle around a cone, you’d focus on the cone and ride in a circle around it – in the same way some schools suggest looking for the center of a turn’s radius as the focal point). Either way (whichever works better for you), you need the right visual landmarks in order lean over.
If you do these three things at a comfortable pace, you will learn to bypass the survival reactions that keep you from leaning the bike over. Be careful though… You might find that the maximum lean angle is so easy to reach that you’re tempted to go beyond it. That’s the point at which you need to start to really focus on body position so as to maximize your bike’s turning ability.
One additional note before I turn it over to anyone who wants to comment! As you work on this, make sure to keep your arms and hands loose on the bars. Even experienced riders return to the death grip technique when they’re pushing their lean angles… Stay loose and take it slow, and you’ll be scraping pegs in no time!
Any other tips for folks getting over lean-angle phobias? Share the wealth in the comments section!
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