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That's not true is it? Imagine going round a roundabout. you start going round, gently accelerate, your knee touches down, you continue to increase speed and your lean angle increases, boot touches down, peg etc. Basically the faster you go the more lean angle you need to hold a constant radius turn. In long, constant radius turns to follow the throttle rule you will end up with more lean angle than when you started the corner.

I think I'm missing part of the point here: is more throttle and more lean angle always bad? There are three long corners I come across on a regular basis: 1. double apex RH. Entry is over a crest, first apex is early, run out wide accelerating all the while, 2nd apex whilst still accelerating, picking the bike up and driving 2. very long (210degree) very fast RH. narrow entry, treated as double apex. entry fast, closed throttle slowing to mid corner 2/3 of the way out then accelerating towards 2nd apex, pick up and drive. 3.long LH (170deg). carry lots of speed in using engine braking to tighten line. hug curb. accelerate. pick up bike on exit pick up and lay onto rhs for rh bend sequence All of these corners (for me) are characterised by the same thing - at some point well before the 'apex' I am accelerating and this generates more lean angle. Is this bad?

I'll call once the date are up, thanks. He will be 18 this Christmas.

My eldest son has been doing Enduro for about a year now and wants to ride on track. He has no intention of getting his bike license but wants/needs instruction and guidance preferably before he does his first track day. He has an ACU race license 2 questions: How does he stand with regards to going to a Superbike school event in the UK or the USA? Is a supermoto a reasonable first track bike to learn the ropes on? (I have a Husqvarna 449 he can use) Thanks

I'm going to be in the 'States in order to see the MotoGp at Laguna Seca and then a couple of weeks off road riding Mohave - Death Valley - Grand Canyon - Bryce etc PLEASE tell me there is going to be a Superbike school at Laguna Seca around that time. Its on my bucket list.

Only use the back brake when negotiating heavy traffic, filtering etc then I have a hand on the throttle, hand on the clutch, foot on brake and foot on gear shift - no one gets left out! My track bike still has the original pads in after 4 years of track days and my main roadbike has the same rear pads it came with 50,000 miles ago.

If I can add my 2penny worth here (2 cents for our American cousins!) It seems that we have 2 separate activities: Locking the outside leg into the tank and Weighting the outside peg. If I could deal with the latter first: Weighting the outside peg aids traction when accelerating out of a corner. It does it through 2 things: weighting the outside peg transfers weight and enables the bike to sit on a fatter part of the tyre for a given corner speed. 2ndly and more importantly when the rear breaks traction pre-weighting the outside peg helps enable the bike to stand up more quickly as the tyre starts to spin which rolls it onto a lager radius and a fatter contact patch helping the tyre regain traction. Still skeptical? Try it on a dirt bike - weight the inside peg as you go round a tight bend and apply the power. Pick the bike up off the deck and try the same maneuver whilst weighting the outside peg. Locking your outside leg into the tank enables you to secure you to the bike to perform a number of operations without unsettling the bike : power steering, hip flick, etc.

I thought I knew the answers to these questions but I have recently come across people who are equally convinced that I am right and some that are convinced I am completely wrong. Everyone seems to have an opinion but what are the FACTS? What is actually effected by dropping the yokes down or raising them up the forks? Rake? Trail? And how do they affect turn in, grip, stability and feel Is changing the rear ride height the same? What effect does raising and lowering the rear ride height do? What is the effect of raising or lowering both by equal amounts? (answer to include, please, not just the effect of CoG on cornering speed v angle but what the effect is on braking and accelerating / pitching)

Let's see: GT500 CB125T CB125T Z1000 Z1000 IIIJ Z1100R CBR600 VT250 GPZ750 Turbo VF750 Z1100 ZZR1100 Moto Guzzi Daytona 1000 Triumph Trident 900 Triumph Speed III BMW K100RS ZZR1100 ZXR750 R1 Aprilia RSV Mille Aprilia Falco SL1000 Aprilia Falco SL1000 Kawasaki ZX6-R 636 R1 Triumph T595 R1 Suzuki Hayabusa Yamaha FZS1000 Fazer R1 ZX10R KTM Superduke KTM Adventurer Kawasaki GTR1400* KTM Superduke* RVF400* Z1000 CR250* *Current bikes Looking at this list I know I've missed stuff out: I've certainly had more than 5 carburettor fed R1s and I know I've had 2 T595 Triumphs but can't work out exactly where to fit them into the list chronologically.

I've been out on a couple of bikes recently with foot forwards riding positions and it definitely works to brace the outside foot and pull on the outside bar to get a good, fast and stable turn in. I guess either works provided you are properly locked into the bike and can brace against the force you put through the bars so you stay still and the force is transmitted directly into turning the bars.

How strong your arms are has absolutely no relevance to how quickly you can turn a bike. There is a reason MotoGp stars spend all their time on CV and leg work: upper body strength is simply not that important. The decision to push or pull the bars is all about how many problems you are asking the bike to solve at the time you are flicking it into a turn. If you pull on the bars it is much more difficult to keep your upper body still in relation to the bike than when you push especially if you are already locked in (which you should be) and can push all the way from the outside footpeg. If the rider flops about as the bike is being steered there is a significant amount of mass moving about on the bike making it unstable as it moves from an upright to leant over position.

When you do level 3 you learn there is a big difference between pulling and pushing. Before I did level 3 I used to both pull and push in order to help keep a better balance on the bike. Anyone notice the bike is a little unstable when you flick it into a corner? Bracing the outside leg and pushing from the ball of your outside foot, through your quad and your back into the inside arm which shoves the bar away from you means the bike can really slam on its side without any instability at all. For me, then, its always push not pull to turn into a corner although I do pull on the inside bar to stand the bike up on the way out of corners.

A top level BSB rider told me that Josh and many others go over the mountain pinned and the engine management sorted out over revving and wheelies. If that's true then the constant revs you hear when the bike is in the air is due to Snr Magnetti Marelli doing what he does best. The same BSB rider said the reason that Josh is a bit quicker than many of the top level guys is because he jumps the bike over both crests and that means he has the bike with both wheels in contact with the tarmac for the longes and therefore puts the most power down. If you speak to Josh he will tell you that is at least part true: he does jump both 'bumps' and he believes that is what makes him quickest at that point on the circuit.

Its amazing to me how many top racers insist on telling you to weight the inside peg both to turn and to maintain a line mid corner. I have even had a heated discussion with an international enduro and supermotard champion who teaches all his pupils to weight the outside peg (for all the reasons we all know) but maintains that on proper track bikes you must weight the inside peg because: a) he's been taught that by a 500cc GP racer (who publishes a lot of advice on riding techniques) otherwise when the rear steps out it might high side you rather than a low side crash Having said that; all my life I've been weighting the outside peg and improved my technique considerably by doing level 3 some years ago but have always had issues with ground clearance on my bikes and was advised by many people (Andy included) to lean off the bike more - an action I found very difficult and still maintain a 'traditional' outside leg anchor point. Eventually I was 'bullied' by one of my riding 'gods' into 'weighting the inside peg as an experiment and reduced my lap times by a significant amount. Basically, I'm too short to retain the braced knee position on many bikes and still hang off enough. I spent some time talking to Andy about this. My 'new' technique involves still weighting the outside peg - using the outside peg, through my quads and back to power turn the bike, uses both pegs for the hip flick but uses both inside and outside pegs to give me a really secure locked in position for corner entry, mid corner and corner exit - but transferring more weight through the outside peg and back of the seat as I exit or as I 'hook' the turn. What I'm still struggling with is upper body position and rolling the bike more upright underneath me on corner exit - all I can do is move my upper body more into the corner which I should be doing anyway. Looking fwd to doing level 4 this year to help resolve / improve in this area.