When, Lean Angle?

C. Chaos said:

As I sit here thinking about my cornering, which I am comfortable with my ability at the moment...I think about my mental barricade that keeps me from getting lower.

You know...that feeling you get when you think that you are over as far as you can go, yet you are still 6" from dragging...of course lots of things come into play (i.e. speed, body position, throttle control etc)...let's just focus on the lean angle for the sake of this thread.

The biggest thing that holds me back I guess in a question is,

"May/can you add lean angle at ANY point throughout turn?"

I ask this in order for the placebo effect to play a role for one of you to tell me yes and my confidence is pushed further.

I am sure a lot of you have felt this feeling...I do all the time...you feel that once you have that line and your lean set in, you need to stay right where you are throughout the turn.

Click to expand...

There are too many variables in play here to answer a solid yes or no.

On the street, you should never push to the point where you have no room for error or escape. So in that situation, if you are riding safely on the street, then yes, you may/can add lean angle at any point through the corner.

However, once the pace picks up, the margin or error goes out the window, and you start really pushing the bike (on the track), the amount of changes you can make mid-corner get less and less. Any change, be it lean angle, speed, BP, hand/arm/leg/foot position, and you can lowside with the quickness. The idea is to be able to make small changes as smooth as possible. For example, if I am in a long corner, and need to scrub off speed (like T1 at Roebling), I will allow the bike to run wide, keeping the same lean angle, which in turn will slow me down a bit. I will also feed in a little rear brake if I need to tighten up my line mid-corner, but that is something I don't recommend anyone trying unless you are very experienced since it can lead to very bad outcomes.