Line Choice is an Art! Yes, choosing a proper line is an art which takes time and much practice to achieve.
I was just reading some of Keith Code’s writings about line choice and it sparked much thought on my behalf. I will attempt to manifest some of his points into my thoughts here.
Keith says: Riders crash on both track and road. Often it is a single-vehicle accident explained as “Loss of controlâ€. That means the rider concocted his very own set of circumstances that led to the crash. From a technical perspective, citing “loss of control†is about as useful as tits on a bull. There is always an inciting cause for the incident and it isn’t always obvious.
While there are many choices in lines both for safety and for speed, not everyone who rides is adept in the fine art of choosing a line. And it is an art! Compared to the street, track riding is more forgiving. A racetrack may be 40 feet wide, whereas your slice of a two-lane road could be as little as 8 feet. That means an error in line judgment on the road is roughly five times more critical than on a track: i.e. a 1-foot error on the road is equivalent to a 5-foot error on a track. Thus your turn-entry position, mid-corner and exit all must be five times more precise. One point: If you couldn’t hit your lines under control on a track, it would be hopeless to think you could do so on the road. From a coaching perspective, seeing someone make 5 or 10 foot errors on a track….well, you wonder how they survived this long.
Get your exit right and all is well. Get your mid-corner or apex on the money and you are good to go. It can also be argued that a right choice on turn entry influences the others. All are true to a degree. But which one do riders struggle with the most? Their turn entry position, hands down!
Consider a corner’s three main divisions: entry, middle and exit. Which of them seems the busiest to you? Even the best riders run wide every now and then. Proper cornering technique begins with not blowing your entry.
Having the corner’s entry under control generally gives rides a breath of confidence. Getting entries wrong tends to start one off on high alert, induces panic mainly because the moment to correct the line passes too quickly. What apex and exit lines can be achieved past that point is more luck than skill.
Control inputs, too, become haphazard and often misguided, like an untimely grab of the brake or throttle chop and steering corrections - possibly all three in a really dire circumstance.
Are there solutions to perfecting lines? Many will tell you it’s all about visual skills like picking reference points and looking ahead: that it can’t be done on unfamiliar roads: that you have to be smooth or just slow down. This may be good advice but something tells me you may have other problems that good advice won’t cure.
Here is my advice: Get out on the track and make your mistakes: get coached: get trained. Whatever speed you go is irrelevant. Once you are running consistent lines, within 1 to 3 feet, you will be doing way more right than wrong. And your chances of surviving spirited street rides will soar.
I was just reading some of Keith Code’s writings about line choice and it sparked much thought on my behalf. I will attempt to manifest some of his points into my thoughts here.
Keith says: Riders crash on both track and road. Often it is a single-vehicle accident explained as “Loss of controlâ€. That means the rider concocted his very own set of circumstances that led to the crash. From a technical perspective, citing “loss of control†is about as useful as tits on a bull. There is always an inciting cause for the incident and it isn’t always obvious.
While there are many choices in lines both for safety and for speed, not everyone who rides is adept in the fine art of choosing a line. And it is an art! Compared to the street, track riding is more forgiving. A racetrack may be 40 feet wide, whereas your slice of a two-lane road could be as little as 8 feet. That means an error in line judgment on the road is roughly five times more critical than on a track: i.e. a 1-foot error on the road is equivalent to a 5-foot error on a track. Thus your turn-entry position, mid-corner and exit all must be five times more precise. One point: If you couldn’t hit your lines under control on a track, it would be hopeless to think you could do so on the road. From a coaching perspective, seeing someone make 5 or 10 foot errors on a track….well, you wonder how they survived this long.
Get your exit right and all is well. Get your mid-corner or apex on the money and you are good to go. It can also be argued that a right choice on turn entry influences the others. All are true to a degree. But which one do riders struggle with the most? Their turn entry position, hands down!
Consider a corner’s three main divisions: entry, middle and exit. Which of them seems the busiest to you? Even the best riders run wide every now and then. Proper cornering technique begins with not blowing your entry.
Having the corner’s entry under control generally gives rides a breath of confidence. Getting entries wrong tends to start one off on high alert, induces panic mainly because the moment to correct the line passes too quickly. What apex and exit lines can be achieved past that point is more luck than skill.
Control inputs, too, become haphazard and often misguided, like an untimely grab of the brake or throttle chop and steering corrections - possibly all three in a really dire circumstance.
Are there solutions to perfecting lines? Many will tell you it’s all about visual skills like picking reference points and looking ahead: that it can’t be done on unfamiliar roads: that you have to be smooth or just slow down. This may be good advice but something tells me you may have other problems that good advice won’t cure.
Here is my advice: Get out on the track and make your mistakes: get coached: get trained. Whatever speed you go is irrelevant. Once you are running consistent lines, within 1 to 3 feet, you will be doing way more right than wrong. And your chances of surviving spirited street rides will soar.
sure is hard to fix a lousy turn entry...
