More Cornering Thoughts

I rode outside again on Saturday, basically the same ride as Thursday. My knee still didn't feel perfect, but it was improved over Thursday, so I feel like I'm still on track. I'm still not planning to do anything hard on the bike for another week and a half.

Anyway, I spent more time working on my cornering. In the parking lot, I worked on initiating the turn by counter-directional steering. It seems to work pretty well, and I got pretty comfortable with it by the time I was done. I like that it forces the bike to lean, and that it doesn't put much weight on the handlebars. I think this parking lot cornering practice has been pretty effective.

The second thing I noticed was out on the trail. There's a slightly off-camber right hand corner that follows a little descent. Nothing too extreme, but I feel that I need to brake going down the hill. These are the kind of corners that I tend to have trouble with when I ride. Saturday, I discovered one reason why. I was going down the hill after having been brakes at the top, so my cranks were level (which, I think, is the proper position for braking and descending). When I got ready to turn, I felt that familiar bound up feeling that I sometimes do, and I ended up not taking the corner very well. What I realized later was that I'd never moved my feet to the 6-12 position, so my body wasn't in a comfortable cornering position. I repeated the hill a little later, got my feet in the correct position before I turned, and went though the corner much more smoothly.

What I'm working toward here is a little cornering sequence. Obviously, mountain biking is pretty variable, so you don't need to do everything for every corner. For example, there are times when I do prefer to corner with my cranks level, like during a quick sequence of open corners. In general though, my sequence might be something like:

1. Look at entry
2. Pedals to 6-12
3. Look at apex
4. Initiate turn (push inside hand forward)
5. Weight outside pedal, point hips into turn
6. Look at exit

Obviously, if you think about each steps while you're doing it, the corner will be over before you get through the list. But I think it's helpful for review and for practice. The way I see it, you need to have some idea what you're trying to get your body (and bike) to do before you can do it... with any consistency at least.