Dirtbike Riding techniques Cornering

Cornering
99% of the corners you turn on your motorcycle are going to require you to slow before the entry to the turn. i.e. use braking. Correct braking will be the first skill to conquer in learning to corner the motorcycle efficiently and smoothly. If you don’t know front wheel braking equates to the majority of your stopping power. I estimate in ordinary conditions approximately 80% of your slowing is done by the front brake. So think about this if 80% of your braking is being applied to your front wheel this is going to cause the effect of your front forks compressing, under heavy braking the forks will compress around 70% of their suspension travel, equating to more than 200mm on your modern dirtbike. Your front wheel is now heavily weighted and the rear lightened. The trail of your fork is now noticeably decreased which helps the motorcycle to turn. It is possible to counter act the compression of the fork a little by moving your body weight to the rear of the motorcycle this is a must when braking over rough terrain or down steep slopes as to stop the motorcycle diving to far through the fork travel or even somersaulting.
A rider on the brakes slowing to the entry of a corner, note: the compressed forks the rider has moved his body weight towards the rear of the bike to help compensate the motorcycles balance

But as I have mentioned every time the suspension compresses there is a coiled energy waiting to rebound. A large key to cornering success is to control your suspension, brake smoothly in a progressive action. You want your front forks to compress evenly with your body position moving from standing to sitting and your body weight forward as the fork reaches its most compressed point.
The body weight towards the front of the motorcycle helps slow the fork rebound and keep the motorcycle more settled and balanced as we transition from braking to accelerating. A fast fork rebound can un-weight the front tyre or send the motorcycle into a wheel stand under acceleration.
Ryan Dungey in the seated position weighting the front of the motorcycle

If you miss-judge your braking it is better to slow more than required, rather than releasing the brake early, as releasing the brake early will cause the forks to rebound prematurely and unsettle the front end.
Transitions are the times on a motorcycle you are most susceptible to crashing. What do I mean by transitions? Transitions are a change from braking to accelerating or vice versa. The transition needs to be seamless or can even overlap in the case of braking to acceleration. A lapse in time making a transition gives the motorcycle, or more to the point the motorcycles suspension, an opportunity to have a mind of its own and a small bump, rock or unforeseen obstacle can send you tumbling in a transition period.
Kevin Windam in a transition period, note his right hand and fingers as he overlaps his transition from braking to accelerating

The next and final section to corner is the accelerating out of the corner, again the same as we operated the brake in a smooth progressive action, we operate the throttle in the same manner, we are aiming for drive not uncontrollable wheel spin, a little controlled spin is ok, however again we need to be conscious of our suspension, a rear wheel biting and letting go hunting for traction, or a rider revving and chopping the throttle to bring the motorcycle under control will cause the rear suspension to load and unload amplifying the loss of traction, and the possibility of the motorcycle rear swapping from side to side.
Christophe Poucel exiting a corner. note: outside leg against the motorcycle, finger still covers the clutch, outside elbow high, inside leg near the front wheel, knee not locked.

Here are the body positions relevant to all corners.
• The inner leg of the leg to the outside of the corner tight against the motorcycle
• Foot pushing down weighting the outside foot peg to give the rear tyre better traction.
• Outside elbow kept high
• Inside foot of the peg and held close to the grounds service near the front wheel as close to the motorcycle as you comfortably can
• The knee of the inside leg does not pass the handlebar (injury preventative)
• Knee not locked
• Fingers covering the clutch control and front brake if possible
The above techniques are common to all corners next I will talk the side of the technique that alters to work more effectively for different styles of corners.
here are 2 points to think about.
Static Sag
Without the laden weight of its rider, the dirtbikes suspension is weighted and compressed about 25-30mm or about 10% of it suspension travel from the weight of the motorcycle alone. We call this static sag. Motorcycle suspension for road racing are engineered to remove static sag, thus helping the motorcycle settle better in the corner and help reduce wheel standing under hard acceleration out of the corner. For a dirtbike we learn to control static sag and use it to our advantage.
A Motorcycle Clutch
If we used the clutch in our motor cars like we used the clutch on our dirtbikes we would be abusing our motor car clutch and it would not last very long. forget what your driving teacher taught you when it come to dirtbikes. Our dirtbikes clutchs are constantly used to control traction, and to adjust the speed of the motorcycle to what is needed.

Steering the Motorcycle
A motorcycle has a steering mechanism operated by the handlebar. At low speeds we corner by turning the handlebar. However as our speed is increased and we have enough momentum to balance the motorcycle we use the lean to turn the motorcycle.
We can steer a motorcycle using 2 different methods or any combination between the 2 methods. One method is to counter steer the other method is steer with the rear wheel steer .
Counter Steer
To counter steer we actually turn the front wheel a little in the opposite way to the direction of the corner and lean the motorcycle into the corner to make the motorcycle turn i.e. We turn a little right and lean left to make the motorcycle turn a left corner. It may sound crazy but in fact what we are doing is making the motorcycle fall over as the front wheel is steered away from the way the rider is leaning.
Some examples of where counter steering works well to turn are
• A high banked corner also known as a berm
• A sandy surface corner
• a long sweeping corner.
James Stewart Counter Steering on a sandy berm

Kevin Windam counter steering on a flat sweeping corner

Steer with the rear
This is best for tight corners. To do this we over steer using the handlebars turning the front wheel in the similar direction to which want we want to go, then we accelerate breaking traction to slide the rear to the direction we won’t the motorcycle to point.
Ivan Tedesco has turned his front wheel he now will steer with the rear to square up a corner

Jeremy Mcgrath Steering with the rear wheel