Im need to improve my comfort level with breaking harder into corners. As it is now when I work on breaking deeper in to sharp turns the breaking consumes all of my available attention. As a result I am not ready to turn the bike. Any tips on how to improve in the space? Can adjustments to the forks help the feel of breaking harder? ( I think I need higher rate springs in my tubes)
You rarely want to break when coming into corners. I've done it plenty of times and it's never fun. As for a serious answer, if late braking is causing you problems, then brake earlier and simply let off sooner. Ever heard the phrase "fast in, slow out.. slow in, fast out"? It means basically that if you overcook your entry into the corner, you'll get scared, brake too hard, screw up your corner speed and ruin your drive out. If instead you take it easy into the corner and are comfortable, you can carry a higher corner speed due to your comfort and thus your drive out will be much better. Adjusting your suspension will definitely help you, if you've never done it before. Where in Seattle are you? I live in Greenlake.
Braking earlier and softer will help you get used to carrying more speed into the corner. This seperates the actions of braking and turning and helps you pay attention to them seperately. -start by braking into the corner way earlier than you typically would, and let off the brakes when you are comfortable with your entry speed (before you enter the corner). -The first thing you will notice when you do this is that you are entering the corner way too slow... You will also notice that the chassis is not being upset by trying to brake harder and later... This will also help you focus on your entry speed. -Now, continue to start braking earlier and softer than usual, but let off the brakes sooner (slowing down less) until you are comfortable with a faster corner entry speed. -NOW that you are comfortable entering the corner faster, you can start to move your brake marker later and possably break harder. The idea here is to break up what you are doing so that you can focus on one thing at a time insead of trying to brake later, brake harder, and enter faster all at the same time. don't not overwhelm yourself... no good can come of that.
After making suitable other adjustments, such as restricting your speed in the run to the corner, and understanding the purpose of the exercise is to help you over your fear of using the throttle to accelerate gently as soon as the bike is turned in the corner. It also will help you get over the need to be braking until your brain catches up with the speed you're actually going - and help you recalibrate your brain's instinctive 'that's too fast!' reaction. Don't just think he's telling you to go into the corner all-out and pray you'll make it... it's a real drill that will help you improve. Hell, I do it at trackdays every once in a while.
Rushing the corners means one thing. You miss your apex. That means you entered too fast. Adjust accordingly. I assume you are trailbraking.
I had the same problem with coming into a sharp turn from high speed. The tip i got from a cr was to look thrpugh the turn. I was so concentrated on stopping the bike in time that i was forgetting to look where im supposed to go in the first place. Fixed it real quick.
Some good stuff in here. What I got out of the posts was. don't boil the ocean. Work on specific parts of the breaking problem.
