How to Do Cornering Techniques When Cycling
Cornering on a bicycle becomes slightly more complicated as you increase your speed. This article will discuss basic cornering with safety tips along with an advanced cornering technique called "counter steering"..
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Instructions
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Know that at low speeds, your handle bars turn for a reason. You don't have to lean or use your body much other than for turning the handlebars.
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Be aware that turning at higher speeds will involve more of your body. Leaning to turn in conjunction with slightly turning the handlebar is the next higher speed maneuver. The faster and sharper you turn, the more important it is to to position your body for the turn. The correct way to do this is to lean into the turn with your upper body turning the handlebars slightly and making sure to raise your inside knee to the highest point of your pedal stroke. At the same time, you are positioning your outside leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke and pushing down. This stabilizes you and the bike and should help you avoid wrecking. Reverse your legs, and you're very unbalanced and will likely go down at some point.
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Know that it is possible to take very sharp turns on your bicycle and you will know over time just how sharp is advisable. Sharper turns require you to put more pressure on your outside leg, raise your inside knee higher, bend your inside arm and keep your outside arm as straight as needed to maintain control. The difference in the images for Step 2 and Step 3 is the aggressiveness of the turn and the position of the rider's bodies. Step 2 is a gentle turn with some leaning, raising a knee, pushing down with the outside leg, but the arms are straight because the tilt of the bike is not so extreme. The opposite is true for step 3.
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Know that an advanced move for cornering at high speed is called countersteering. This might be a little more difficult to wrap your head around. In the most simple form, countersteering is pushing down on the drop of the handlebar on the opposite side of the way you want to turn. The bicycle will do almost what looks like a wing wag on a fighter jet. It will lean initially to the side you push down on and then react by diving toward the opposite direction. This allows you to turn sharper and quicker into the turn. You can take advantage of the countersteering maneuver more by leaning harder into the turn. Remember to push on the outer leg as you swoop into the turn.
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Tips & Warnings
Practice countersteering in a flat area with nothing around to run into.
Make sure you have your feet positioned correctly going into a corner. Inside knee up in the 12:00 position, outside leg in the 6:00 position.
Make sure you bend your inside arm slightly and extend or straighten your outside arm for best control.
