Racers Cornering in Slow motion | EXPLAINED

[Music] racers cornering in slow-mo a true feast for the eyes Lync once and you might miss a crucial part of their technique [Music] why does marques flick his hand after releasing brakes why is McAllister pushing the bike down going into the corner but then leaning his upper body into the corner on the exits why is Piers pulling the clutch all the way into the corner why is Rossi pushing his upper body down even more in the middle of the corner wise Miller applying the rear brake in the middle of the corner let's figure this stuff out figuring out what pro writers are doing by watching them go at it at full speed can be really hard almost impossible even for someone with the trained eye what especially because writers use different techniques for different corners and situations we also need to consider that different writers within the same classes of racing use various styles this is especially true in supermoto there you will see some riders pushing the bike down with their foot out while others are hanging off them there are those like me who mix all the styles I'm pretty sure a beginner watching me riding a super model track would be very confused in order for you to understand the answers that I'm going to give to the questions that I post in the beginning of the video it's important that you understand some basic concepts of cornering technique and chassis geometry therefore I'm going to walk through a corner step by step explaining each step in detail these steps apply to Superbike racing moto gp and the asphalt sections of supermoto to keep things simple the corner we're going to look at is going to be at the end of a straight this is an important assumption because it affects what body position the rider has and what state the bikes chassis is in when moving towards the corner step one is set up before entering the brake zone the rider has a tucked body position to minimize aerodynamic drag and maximize their top speed the rider is accelerating hard which extends both the front and a rear suspension the front extends because of low transfer the rear extends because of chassis geometry so the swing arm has an angle which you could say forces the rear wheel under the bike when you accelerate furthermore the chain pulls on the axle at an angle which adds on to this force this is called anti-squat and a chassis is designed that way so that the rear suspension does not run out of travel when accelerating because of the way that the swing arm pivots extending the rear suspension will decrease the total wheelbase of the motorcycle this will decrease the stability of the motorcycle which is not necessarily something desirable but a trade-off one might be willing to take in order to get the anti-squat characteristic using simple geometry when the front fork extends this increases the trail of the motorcycle which increases the overall stability of the motorcycle in this state the motorcycle is very stable but also requires more force to steer if you want a more in-depth explanation of motorcycle geometry check out the video that I did on the subject right here ok so the rider is tucked on the bike accelerating hard the bike is as stable as it can ever be before or at the very beginning of entering the brake zone the rider will set up for the corner what this means is that they are positioning their lower and upper body for entering the corner the reason the rider is setting themselves up before the corner is to keep the bike as stable as possible as soon as the front brakes are engaged the load will transfer forward which will compress the front forks decreasing the trail this makes the bike unstable but easy to steer some riders use the g-forces from the initial brake input to move their lower body without much effort moving just when initiating the brakes will indeed make the bike slightly unstable but also minimizes the effort needed to move as usual and racing it's all just a trade off a supermoto rider that pushes the bike down beneath them sometimes called dirtbike style cornering will move their butt out and far forward on the bike this puts them on top of the bike which makes it easier to control and save slides you'll see some riders sitting all the way up on the tank this way they transfer low to the front tire which will provide more traction up front and less in the rear if you want a more in-depth explanation of tire traction check out my video on the topic right here when the rear end the sliding the front wheel is going to naturally counter steer even without rider inputs this is because of the trail on the front fork and something called self aligning torque of the front tire the self aligning torque is created by something called pneumatic trail which is caused by progressive buildup of lateral force along the length of the contact patch such that the lateral forces are greater towards the rear of the contact patch the whole worry if you don't understand what a mighty trail is I scratched my head for a long time trying to understand that subject what you need to understand is that in order to have maximum control over the front wheel it is easier to sit on top of the bike with elbows up in the air as opposed to hanging off to the inside of the bike step to initiate braking and shift out as soon as the rider releases the throttle they begin breaking pull the clutch and shift down to the appropriate gear for the corner when and how the conscious released is very important because it controls the amount of engine brake applied to the rear tire step three turn it the rider turns into the corner by countersteering or applying a quick torque to the handlebars in the opposite direction of the turns the movement of the front wheel around the steering head generates a front tire lateral force that has the effect of leaning the motorcycle into the turn in addition to this the gyroscopic effect generated by the front wheel and the steering rotation causes a gyroscopic movement that also helps lean the bike into the turn so the rider turns in stay on the brakes using what is called trail braking where the brakes are gradually released into the corner you remember what is happening with the chassis when the front brakes are applied the front forks are compressed and the rear suspension is extended what will happen if the front brakes are suddenly released the front fork will extend making it harder to steer ends as the trail is increased it will transfer low to the rear tire decreasing traction on the front furthermore the movement of the front fork extending will destabilize the entire bike if a rider does not trail break they will go into the corner like they're on a pogo stick bouncing back and forth that is certainly not a desirable way to enter a corner at high speed now is a-- so the rider is moving towards apex remember I mentioned that when the clutch is released is very important [Music] you've probably seen riders backing it in where the rear wheel comes out into a slide the slide is caused by two major things one the weight transfers forward cost by applying the front brake and a rider moving forward which makes a rear wheel light to the rear wheel being slowed down by engine braking application of rear brake or both at the same time engine braking can be controlled by modulating the clutch so in other words the rider can control how much the rear wheel slips by working the clutch now pretty much all modern race bikes come standard with something called a slipper clutch which enables the rider to release the clutch quite rapidly without getting the rear wheel hop so some riders will release the clutch completely before entering the corner sometimes they don't completely release the clutch and now we get to answering one of the questions posed in the beginning of the video why is Piers pulling the clutch all the way into the corner you already know the answer to the question don't you he's controlling the rear end slide by modulating the clutch and working the rear brake in fact we can even see that he's releasing the rear brake at exactly the same time as he is releasing the clutch here is a racer going through the same corner by using both engine brake and rear brake completely releasing the clutch before the corner so why would you choose one over the other well it simply comes down to personal preference of the rider using the clutch gives more direct control over the slide as compared to just releasing the clutch this is because if you pull in the clutch and release the rear brake the slide will stop so a rider who is already pulling on the clutch can regain traction much faster than a rider who has to reach for the clutch and pull it in the downside of using the clutch and rear brake is of course that it requires a lot from the rider to control all of that at the same time if the rider uses a superbike riding style they will move their upper body with the bike as it leans into the basically diving inside step 4 mid the corner divider is moving towards the apex of the corner gradually releasing the front break as soon as the front break is released the rider starts twisting on the throttle so why does Marquez flick his hand after releasing the brakes wells for two reasons one to be able to accurately control the throttle input two to be able to move his right elbow freely you see if it doesn't shift his grip around the handlebars he would lock his elbow in a way that does not allow him to move freely if turning left he will extend this hour over the tank if turning right he pushes his elbow into the turn this leads nicely into the question why is Rossi pushing his upper body down even more in the middle of the corner so why is he doing this well it's quite simple he's tightening up his line so that he can be on the throttle harder and accelerate out from the corner faster you see when a rider hangs off to the inside of the motorcycle this transfers the combined center of gravity of them and the bike which enables less lean angle at the same speed if the lean angle is kept constant but the rider moves their upper body even further into the corner they will tighten up their line if you're on the throttle it will enable them to keep the bike as upright as possible during this crucial part of the corner so ladies and gentlemen I know you've been waiting for this one why is Miller applying the rear brake in the middle of the corner let's again have a look at the chassis geometry at this point in the corner the rider is releasing the front brake this will transfer a load to the rear which is good since the rider is soon going to be applying throttle which will require traction from the rear tire this will also increase the trail further stabilizing the bike though we should also remember that when the front brakes were being applied the rear suspension was extended which decreased the wheelbase and the rear suspension is potentially so extended that it won't follow down bumps as efficiently it is outside of his optimum range what can an expert rider do about this drag the rear brake by dragging the rear brake the rear suspension is kept in check and the wheelbase is extended which stabilizes the motorcycle they are dragging the brake enough to cause this geometry change but not so much that they are slowing down to any large extent they now have a chassis geometry that works well to get on the throttle and drive them out of the corner kinda cool huh step five exits the rider is smoothly adding more throttle going out of the corner in the Superbike riding style in order to get as much traction out of the corner as possible the rider stays to the inside of the bike and does not follow the bike up this is simply to have a small amount of lean as possible enabling greater acceleration in a pure dirt bike riding style the rider would stay on top of the bike and straighten out with the bike in the dirt the bike is going to be sliding around since there isn't much traction so why is McAllister pushing the bike down going into the corner but then leaning his upper body into the corner on the exit he's combining dirt bike and Superbike riding styles to go through the corner as quickly as possible he is pushing the bike down going into the corner in order to control the rear end slide but on exit he wants as little lean angle as possible to maximize the drive out of the corner so he leans to the inside when getting on the throttle I hope you've learned something today and that this has sparked an interest in you for motorcycle dynamics as well as cornering technique feel free to question any of my assertions down in the comment section that's it for today over and out [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mike on Bikes

Views: 3,869,971

Rating: 4.892385 out of 5

Keywords: Racers Cornering in Slow motion | EXPLAINED, motorcycle racing cornering, motorcycle slow motion, motogp slow motion corner, motogp techniques, motorcycle cornering, motorcycle geometry, backing it in | explained, trail braking, marc marquez riding style, motorcycle physics, tire physics, motorcycle traction explained, suspension setup motorcycle, motorcycle racing, counter steering physics, motorcycle body positioning, moto gp, supermoto racing 2019, Marc marquez

Id: A4B9Sp1T78Y

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 29 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/gdericci]

This is awesome. I’ve only ridden cruisers before, but I’ve come into corners way too quickly and natural responses helped me get through them. Now I know why my reactions helped me through them.

[u/birdy888]

Excellent stuff. Thanks