Quick Turn

[littlefield]

A group of us recently went riding in WV and of course got caught in the rain. We started talking about wet road techniques at a stop. One of the guys said he didn't like to turn quickly in slippery road conditions because the sharp turn would require more traction. I agreed that intuitively you want to minimize input into the bars in the wet but really a firmer push doesn't cause a sharp turn. It does make the corner radius decrease at a more rapid rate but you still end up needing less lean angle and traction to negotiate the turn.

The concept that a firm push on the bar and quick turn results is less lean angle required makes sense to most folks. What seems harder to convey is what happens during the transition from straight up and down to leaned over. People picture a kink in their line, like the transition is abrupt when in reality the radius is just decreasing more quickly. This is hard to draw on a board and I can picture during the Level 1 instruction some of the lines shown had the appearance of a sharp radius blending into the exit line rather than a continuously decreasing radius.

Anyway, the long winded purpose of this is to suggest a training aid. If you've ever done drafting by hand you've used a French curve. It's a drawing template that has a changing radius of curvature along it's length. Different curves have the radius changing at different rates. It may be handy tool to help illustrate more clearily the transition from the line going into a curve to the different lines exiting a curve.

[racer]

Actually, I think a hook turn done well is a sharp kink. Check out pages 59 and 68 in TOTW II.