We will focus on one skill at a time for five 20-minute sessions. Don’t expect to get any of it perfect, but you’ll get a pretty good idea of what we’re talking about and you’ll take it with you onto the street and you’ll be a better rider for it. The emphasis will be on individual skills, control, and proper technique. If you’re going to take anything away from this experience, what we want is for you to be smooth as glass in everything you do on your motorcycle. Your motorcycle will like it, your brain and heart and soul will prefer it, and besides, it looks really, really cool.

It is important to keep in mind that Minnesota Sportbike rides revolve around the concepts of Nick Ienatsch’s article, “The Pace.” We swear by it. If you haven’t read it yet, make it a point to do so and commit it to memory before the event. You can find the full article at www.mn-hsta.org. Click on the “Way We Ride” and enjoy.

Some sessions we’ll ask that you use only certain gears and that you don’t use the brakes except in an emergency. This is to allow you to concentrate fully on the skills being practiced. If you want to learn, follow the instructor’s directions. If you don’t give a shit about learning, ignore us and do your own thing. Hopefully you’ll learn something anyway. As long as you follow the rules, you can do whatever you want out there. But here’s what we’re going to work on:

Session One: Looking through the turn, posture, 3rd gear no brakes

There is no more important technique for cornering than using your eyes to guide you through the turn. This is as life-and-death as it gets. Your bike will go where you look, simple as that. (Or put another way, there’s no way your bike will go somewhere you’re not looking.) Look at a brick wall, bad news. Look at the entrance to the next corner, that’s good.

What’s great about doing this out at Dakota County is that there is no traffic, no cars, no stop signs, no animals, no speed limits, no sand on the road, no nothing. You can suspend your paranoia (normally necessary on the street) for this session and focus only on yourself, your concentration, and your “visual directional control” the fancy way of saying you’ll go where you look. Look at the bushes while you’re trying to negotiate a tricky corner, I dare ya—the bushes are where you’ll go. Look at the big fence midcorner instead of the exit, guess what? You’ll become one with the fence. Look at the big manure pile, guess what? A skilled rider ignores everything else while they’re cornering and focuses only on where they WANT to go.*

*Relationship to street riding: in the real world, this is the case, too. A skilled rider in a corner is focused SOLELY on where they want to go. They worry about sand, traffic, dead animals, whatever, WELL before they get there. This is your opportunity to practice the ideal cornering technique in a controlled environment. Try it. You’ll like it.

Oh yeah, one other thing. We’ll also introduce posture in Session One. You can’t ride well without being in the right position: head and eyes up and focused well ahead (3-4 seconds), eyes level with the horizon at all times, back straight, knees firm and tight against the tank, arms and shoulders relaxed. If you can’t take either hand off the handlebars at any time in a corner, you’re doing something wrong. Don’t ask too much from your arms. Use your lower body to grip the bike and keep your arms free for steering.

In this session, we want you to remain in third gear and do not use the brakes unless you absolutely have to. Use engine braking to slow. This will allow you to concentrate more fully on where you’re looking.

Session Two: Countersteering, focal points, 2nd/3rd gear, no brakes

The second most important thing about cornering is that you understand “countersteering.” This means that you press the left handlebar to go left, you press the right handlebar to go right. In this session, instead of focusing only on looking through the turn, focus on deliberately using the LEFT handlebar to make the bike go left, the RIGHT handlebar to make the bike go to the right. We want you to get a feel for how the motorcycle reacts to specific inputs into the bars. Notice that it’s not so much the force you put into the handlebar, but the duration of the force that determines how much the motorcycle reacts.

You can use either 2nd or 3rd gear, but once you decide, don’t change. Keep it in one gear so you can focus on your countersteering.

(In Session Two, we’re going to flash back to Session one for a minute with our focal points. During Session Two, we also want your eyes to focus on your EXIT. Beginning from looking through the turn in session one, we now want you to also focus on WHERE you’re looking. When you turn your head and look through the turn, you should be looking SOMEWHERE. Think of it as the “anchor” for your corner. Where you are looking keeps you where you need to be. Focus on a point that’s about 3-4 seconds away.* Focus on where you and your bike are going to be in about 4 seconds.

*Relationship to street riding: three to four seconds is your immediate path of travel on the street. Anything that you come across and need to deal with, you’ll need to know about it 3-4 seconds in advance. Look at least that far ahead and improve your safety. If you see it four seconds in advance, you have time to adjust your speed, position, or direction to avoid the hazard. Sessions One and Two will teach you not only how to control your bike in a corner, but also how to do it while searching for hazards 3-4 seconds ahead.

Session Three: Separating braking from turning, 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear

Okay, use any gear you want now. Shift as much as you want. We want you to speed up in the straights, and slow down for the corners. We want you to speed up on purpose so you HAVE to slow for the corners. Accelerate and slow down (using both brakes) SMOOTHLY. Anybody can be jerky on a motorcycle. Flitting from corner to corner smoothly shows real skill. The trick to being a skilled rider in the corners is in understanding the limits of your bike. Your bike won’t corner well and brake well at the same time. BRAKING AND CORNERING NEED TO BE SEPARATED. (Note that this is a basic/beginner-level premise. Some expert riders teach hard braking that blends into hard cornering with a fine line separating the braking from turning forces. These skilled riders use braking and turning together, in a way. We’re not teaching that here.)

According to the article The Pace, you should ride at a similar speed in the straights as you do in the corners, braking rarely if ever. That’s good advice. But sometimes that’s not realistic—imagine all the 20 mph corners at Dakota County. You don’t want to ride 20 mph all day, do you? But if you keep it at 50 or 60, corners will sneak up and bite you hard in the ass.*

*Relationship to street riding: you need to know how to slow down to make it safely through that curve—by braking in a straight line, well before you get to the corner. You can’t slow down after you’re already committed to the curve.** You need to know how to separate braking from turning.

(**Actually, you can. If you don’t know how and would like to, ask Pat at the end of the day and he’ll explain it to you. By then you will have already learned how to do it without even knowing it. Yaaay, subconscious!)

Separating braking from turning: it’s very simple. When approaching a corner, do all your braking and downshifting while you’re going in a straight line and your bike is straight up and down. When it’s time to look through the turn and countersteer, you’re done braking, in gear, and steady on the throttle. Simple. Spend Session Three practicing doing ONE thing at a time: either braking or turning. One or the other ONLY. Separate braking from turning in both time and space. If your brake light is on when you’re leaned over in a turn, we’ll tar and feather you when the session’s over.

One other note: when you slow down for a corner, slow down just a little bit MORE than you really need to. (You’ll see why in Session Four.) Once your corner entry speed is set, keep the throttle steady (NOT decelerating) and concentrate on cornering SMOOTHLY: eyes on the exit, smooth, precise inputs into the handlebars, without bobbling the throttle fast-slow-fast-slow. Keep it steady and smooth.

Session Four: Throttle control / traction management

Okay, you know where to look, you know how to countersteer, you’ve successfully separated your braking from your turning, now it’s time to roll it on.

A bike is meant to handle best when it’s coasting at a steady speed or is accelerating slightly. When you whack open the throttle or close it suddenly, the power transition in the engine destabilizes the bike and you have less traction and control than you would if you did it smoothly. It either lightens the front wheel or puts too much weight on it—both things that could cause you trouble when you’re trying to steer in a corner.

You’ve already practiced the visual directional control, you know how to use the handlebars to countersteer the bike, you know that you have to finish your braking before the turn, but now you’re going to work on the turn itself: as soon as you’re done braking, look through the turn and roll on the throttle SMOOTHLY. Accelerate out of that corner. Remove the weight from braking from the front wheel, give yourself some traction on the rear, and let your bike corner like it was meant to: with the power ON. Rolling on the throttle compresses the suspension, distributes the weight more evenly, and helps stand the bike up.

Imagine what this is going to look like to the corner workers: here you come, the howl of your bike in your ears as you decelerate on the straightaway. With flicks of the wrists and feet, you brake and downshift to find the best gear for the corner, then you release the clutch and brakes smooth and easy. Your head turns smoothly and your eyes find your exit and focus there. With your eyes pinned on the exit and your corner entry speed selected, there’s nothing to do but roll it on, baby. Listen to the motor growl as you sweep through the curve, in total control, looking 3-4 seconds ahead, already thinking about the next curve. THAT’S what motorcycling’s all about.*

*Relationship to street riding: most of the control in a corner comes from application of the throttle to the rear tire. Managing your throttle wisely will pay off when in the more dangerous and uncontrolled street environment.

Another thing to remember for Session Four: you’ll have just come off of an hour break and a lunch—an hour of relaxing or thinking about something else besides where your eyes are, countersteering, and separating braking from turning. You probably aren’t as focused as you were at the end of Session Three. Take care and pay attention to the fact that you need to get your mind, body, and tires warmed up again. Lots of crashes happen right after breaks or meals. Take it easy for the first few laps.

Session Five: Smooth, quick transitions

Now you’re going to put everything together, but you’re going to work on being really, really smooth—and quick. I want you to get all your braking and downshifting done as quickly as possible. One motion, squeeze and press, that’s it. I want you to turn your head sharply and quickly. One motion: snap. You’re looking where you want to be. I want you to countersteer the bike ONE time: one input into the handlebars, the bike leans over, and BAM! you’re cornering. But be careful not to accelerate too quickly. I still want you to accelerate smoothly and steadily.

The purpose of making smooth, quick transitions is to minimize the amount of time you spend on an unstable bike. Going from riding at a steady speed to braking hard momentarily destabilizes the bike. Going from braking hard to leaning and cornering momentarily destabilizes the bike. Pressing the handlebar to lean the bike to countersteer momentarily destabilizes the bike. You want to get these transitions over with as quickly as possible, and get back to where you’re in the most control again. You are minimizing your periods of relative instability, and maximizing your periods of good stability.*

*Relationship to street riding: a stable motorcycle has more traction available for evasive maneuvers (braking, swerving) than an unstable motorcycle. If your motorcycle is always stable, or if it is only seldom unstable, the more traction you’ll have available when you need it—like in an emergency.

This is another good time to practice being loose as a goose with your upper body. Hold onto the bike with your lower body, grip the tank with your knees, and keep your arms and hands RELAXED. You should be able to flirt and wave at the (very good-looking) corner workers while in mid-corner. If you can’t take one hand off the bars at any time, you’re too tight. Loosen up, Francis. Hold those handlebars like you’d hold a baby bird.