To lean or not to lean?

[robodene]

I am no wild child on my bike but I usually lean myself a bit into corners. But now that my rear tyre is squaring off, I am wondering if I should have remained more upright and let the tyres wear more on the edges. What do you think?

 

[LiamI]

I prefer always leaning when I can. Say later on down the road, figuratively speaking, that you come into a corner faster than you meant to, or you have to lean fairly far in order to get out of harm's way. There are a few benefits to always leaning into turns. One, you are familiar with the lean feeling so when the time arises, you don't freak out and start reaching for controls randomly. Also, when you lean on every normal ride, you don't get the squared edges on the tire. That makes it so that, when you have to lean far for whatever reason, the tire doesn't skip from the middle of the tire to the edge, causing you to low side. I'd always lean at the same angle as the bike as well, always maintaining equal pressure on the tires as best as you can so you can get the best grip in each corner. If you lean in sharp corners or lean with the bike, then the only things that should cause squaring on your tire are improper tire pressure (my stepdad doesn't check his busa tire pressure. When I pointed out it was low, he filled it and he has a good three inches of chicken strip in the middle of his tire) and your everyday riding style in terms of your speed into corners and your normal/maximum lean angle. If your maximum lean angle is fairly far, you shouldn't ever have a problem with the tires skipping during a lean


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[johnnakay]

most if not all road bike tyres square off unless you going in circles all the time.
most road bike spend more time upright so tyres will inevitably square off.

 

[robodene]

Many thanks for your responses. Back to leaning.

 

[sdrio]

Many thanks for your responses. Back to leaning.

You're battling with physics by trying to change the lean angle, without changing speed.

Unless you're going to slow down to 10mph for every corner, you'll be needing to do the GP racer arse out of saddle knee down pose to do anything sbout the angle of the bike.

That's OK at circuit da cataluna, but on city roundabouts, not so much.

 

[Ralph]

Theres the style were the rider leans opposite to the bike were the bike as a greater angle of lean,
then the classic style were the rider stays in line with the angle of lean were the bike leans shall we call it normally,
then there's the modern style were the rider leans off the inside of the bike , moto gp style were the bike is kept more upright.
Riders that use more angle of lean and ride a little more sportily without being silly about it but so you use most of the width
of the tyre will often get better tyer miles than someone that keeps it as upright as possible and ends up with the center
bit down to the cords but the edges untouched.

 

[robodene]

You're battling with physics by trying to change the lean angle, without changing speed.

You can change the bike lean angle by changing your posture in cornering on the bike at any speed. Sitting vertical means the bike itself must lean more to deal with the physics . That gets the tyre off the centre section but it is more unnatural, for me at least, and ever ready countersteering has to help to keep on course. Therefore, stability seems to be reduced. I'll lean.

 

[LiamI]

Well there's the racing lean (and I don't know any official lean names so I won't bother with them) that is usually where the rider moves his/her butt slightly off the seat towards the turn, which reduces the necessity of the bike to lean as far (I believe so the bike can turn sharp without hitting the footpegs) but it'll still turn fairly sharply. Then there's the normal way, which is always leaning at the same angle as the bike. Then, for tighter turns such as on a side street to turn around, there is the turn that you lean your bike but keep your body straight up which turns the bike sharper, like a U turn.


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[bobh]

I find I tend to use MX/Supermoto-style (i.e. keep my body upright) on slower turns such as turning into side streets and going round mini-roundabouts. Then for faster out-of-town sweeping curves I use more of a racing technique, shifting my upper body at least into the turn. Whichever method you use, try to keep your head level - if you tilt your head your brain thinks you're going to fall over, and makes you sit the bike up.

 

[nobull]

I used to do a bit of club racing, and can safely say 8 road years after having stopped that I was faster & more able to deal with higher corner speeds whilst road riding during my racing years, when I always used to hang off (I can remember it just felt alien not to, as I did most of my miles on track), whereas nowadays I'm significantly slower in the corners, & although I hang off a bit, its nothing like I used to. Yes I'm getting older/family/mortgage etc, and getting used to the hanging off body position may look a little silly on the road (who cares though?), but it definitely helped me - I felt safer then than now, as I could adjust more for unexpected crap in the road etc (Audi drivers!) for a given speed. As for tyre wear, personally it doesn't worry me as long as they grip, wear is some way down the priority list for me, new tyres are cheaper than insurances excesses & lost wages. So definitely hang off, I've been trying to get back in the habit (whilst hoping nobody recognises me!)