Cornering is the most exciting part of riding the dirt bike. Dirt bike cornering is not as smooth as you think. You require a lot of practice and hard work to master it.
To do better dirt bike cornering always remember to chooses bigger radius of turns because it allows you for more speed, always try to avoid tilting the dirt bike on a slippery road, tilt the dirt bike by measuring the safe distance from road, never ever try to change the dirt bike gears while turning and after completion of your half-turn don’t forget to accelerate gradually.
Cornering a dirt bike needs lots of practice but there are also many tips like dirt bike whipping and wheelie a dirt bike also needs too much dedication, these are also popular tricks among riders.
These are the things which play an essential role in dirt bike cornering :
Body position: Body positioning is one of the crucial aspects of dirt bike cornering. Body positioning will help you to go faster while turning around the corner.
Whenever you lean your dirt bike to the left side, fingers of your left leg should always be on the peg and the toe upwards, and the right side leg should be tuck to the dirt bike tank firmly.
Counter steering: Counter steering also plays a vital role in learning the dirt bike. In simple words, if you apply some amount of pressure on the handle of your bike to the left, then the exerted pressure will make the bike move left.
Corner speed: Corner speed is the most important thing to consider while riding your dirt bike. It would be best if you always carried that much speed so your body can be in a position quickly.
Basic of Cornering:
A corner is generally divided into three sections. The corner preparation, the corner entry, and the acceleration.
The corner preparation:
Before starting to break, it is essential to stand on the ball of your foot and to have contact with the bike with your knees. They should also be well centred and not move forward during braking. The head is centred over the handlebars, and the hips are tilted backwards. After mastering these techniques you can also learn how to jump the dirt bike?
Corner entry:
It is essential to break into the corner evenly and to control the front wheel. Elbows should be high, and as soon as the corner starts, the bike should be tilted inward.
Acceleration:
Sit down in the front third of the seat and extend your inner leg. Establish contact with the bike with your outer knee and put pressure on the outer pegs.
Build up body tension, look ahead, and accelerate evenly. The stretched out leg should be back on the pegs as soon as possible, in order to put more pressure on the back tire during acceleration.
To learn the above techniques quickly. Choose a track with a different corner radius and concentrate on the cornering technique. To improve your balance and the contact to the bike in corners, try to ride corners only standing or only seated.
Why do Suzuki dirt bikes corner so well?
Suzuki’s dirt bikes are one of the best dirt bikes in the market. Suzuki makes economical dirt bikes, and their bikes only require little maintenance. Suzuki’s dirt bikes are considered best for beginners, and also it’s advisable by many experts for beginners and even for professionals.
When it comes to cornering, lots of things matter like crank placement, weight ratio on wheels, seat height, the rake, centre of gravity, trail, overall weight, the position of the engine weight, etc.
Overall the Suzuki’s dirt bikes come with all the essential features which are best for cornering. It also comes with adjustable footpegs and a lot more excellent features, which will make your cornering great.
How to corner a Dirt Bike while Standing?
So why is cornering standing up usually better? Your legs act extra suspension, and you can throw the bike around more and have more precise cornering control. Some motocross guys even remove their seats when training to Force themselves to stand and not get lazy.
The keys to good cornering technique when standing legs bend to act as extra suspension, make bodyweight low to lower the centre of gravity, lean the bike over keep your body, upright knees gripping the by Your butt, swings out to the outside of the corner, weight the inside peg on entry to the corner, weight the outside peg on the exit, keep your arms up especially the outside one and look ahead.
Don’t let your front wheel start with some significant slow rates. This is great for Transitioning from left to right-hand corners, rapidly keep that throttle steady and the speed down.
If you’ve got a big enough flat area, try some more prominent figure and slowly build the momentum up. Practice keeping a throttle and braking gently to offer.
We are aggressive on brakes and throttle because we’ve become addicted to the bad habit of trying to swing that rear wheel out in a power slide. If you see the top professional riders, those people are crazy fast but get that rear-wheel stepping out.
Leaning the bike having your legs bent and your butt hanging to the outside means that it either wheel brakes traction. You can quickly correct this with body positioning. This sort of body positioning.
It also keeps your body nicely balanced for both braking and accelerating. The bike should be tilted over far enough to see the front applying, just enough rear braids to have the rear wheel slightly skidding into the corner.
How to corner a Dirt Bike while sitting?
A lot of Dirt bike riders automatically sit down through corners. It would help if you practised standing on the pegs until you are equally comfortable. It’s best to sit down for corners tight up the 90 degrees; it’s imperative to sit forward on the by with your butt directly over with eggs.
It keeps your centre of gravity low for slower and tighter. It also weights the front and rear suspension equally so both will work for you.
Your body should be upright, not bent forward, which stops your head from being shaken around, and the extra weight on the front wheel provides traction and reduces washouts.
The bike will steer faster, and you won’t need to fight the bar to make the turn, it’s also easier to transition between sitting and standing before sitting down move off the seat until you only have one butt and cheek.
On the seat lean the bike over and keep your body upright, extend your inside front leg so that it’s in line with the front paws, and your food is near the front axle.
This will help with balance, and you can drop your foot to the ground if needed for stability. This body positioning ensures the bike will turn quickly and allows plenty of body movement.
If needed to compensate for either tire slipping as you apply power and push down hard, the outside would pick. This will feel awkward at first that it ensures excellent traction by weighting the rear wheel.
Make sure your elbows are angled outward and not down. It’s essential to practice all of this slowly at first and get the technique right.
Keep that throttle smooth, many of us dirt riders apply big handfuls of the throttle as we like to roost and push the bike into power slides, but in most cases, you’ll want traction of wheelspin as this technique becomes ingrained.
Try picking up the speed and try breaking later into the corner and accelerating.
Important cornering tips:
Tip number one
Always be a little bit wider and set yourself up to get into the rut to carry more speed. If you’re far inside you, have to drag your rib break and then square it up and then get in the rut, and then you will be off-centre.
So always make sure you’re arcing your corners, you’re going wide to inside, and if you can’t go wide, make sure you’re somewhere where you can get into the rut nicely and not straight into it because that’s a bad thing.
Tip number two
The most important out of these five is body positioning. If your body positioning is off, your bike is going to do things that you don’t want it to do.
The corner elbows should bent, one or two fingers on the clutch, always looking ahead, never look down at your fender because you still want to know where you’re going, one or two fingers on the front brake entering the corner, make sure you look forward on the bike, inside leg up, open up your chest, look ahead and stay in the front of the bike.
Always remember to follow these things for proper body posture and positioning. This step will turn your riding safe and fun.
Tip number three
Always be prepared for things that you don’t see. If you’re looking down at your front fender, you’re not going to see what’s 50 feet in front of you.
It could be a downed rider, it could be a rock, it could be a square edge, and it could be a kicker on a jump. So always remember to keep your eyes focused just ahead.
Conclusion
Dirt bike cornering is not an easy thing but it requires a lot of willpower along with passion and practice. Quality output only comes when quality input is there.
In this post, we talked about why do Suzuki Dirt Bikes corner so well and how to Corner a Dirt Bike while standing and while sitting? We have also shared cornering tips with you so that when you will try it you’ll also become a master in it.
