It’s the classic mountain motorcycle demise. You’re clipping along, feeling your oats, enjoying the rock and roll through a series of curves feeling like you’ve got this stretch of road dialed in when suddenly the next curve throws something at you that wasn’t expected. Maybe it shuts down and gets tighter than you expected. Perhaps you grabbed a little more throttle than you should have coming out of the last one. Could be there’s a huge patch of gravel in the path you’d chosen. Whatever the reason, you’re coming in too fast and your sphincter seizes up.

The result too often goes like this – rider tenses up and sits bolt upright to react. Next he focuses all his attention on the problem – the patch of gravel, or most likely the edge of the road where he knows he’s going to go off. Taking your eyes off what’s ahead is a sure way to blow a turn. In desperation he grabs a handful of brake to try to kill his speed. The hesitation brings him too far into the turn and by the time he feels he’s got to lean the bike over it’s too late. Once that front tire rolls off the pavement it’s all over.

The more experienced rider may try to dive into the corner harder. Laying on the brakes, the bike is hesitant to pitch over, but he wrestles it down. Braking causes weight to transfer onto the front wheel and the back end gets light just as he’s really stomping on the rear brake. The rear wheel starts to slide. The bike pitches further on its side and something makes contact – a floorboard, foot peg, exhaust pipe, center stand, frame, whatever, and the rear tire lifts off the ground. The result is inevitable.

Admittedly, there is a point at which the speed you are coming into the turn is just plain too fast and there’s nothing even Casey Stoner can do to save it (he’s one of those racer guys for those of you that don’t recognize the name). But take a lesson from Casey, there is something you can do that will make a huge difference – move your ass.

For most of us, the idea of hanging off a bike with your knee and sometimes elbow sliding on the pavement, face only inches above the tarmac at 150 mph is sheer lunacy. It should be. That’s hardly “safe” even on a race track. There’s no place for it on the street. But there’s a reason those guys do it. By shifting their weight down low and inside on the curve, the bike can be kept more upright. More upright means better contact between the road and the tires. If the tires do break contact, the bike tends to slide and drift sideways instead of going down, at least most times.

There’s no need to start stitching knee sliders into your leathers, that’s not where this is going. But you can take a lesson from the pros that may save your ass from meeting the road. Learn to shift your weight in a turn.

It’s all about the center of gravity and relative mass. No wait, that’s a little too much out of the physics textbook. Put the calculator away. It’s so much easier to just go out and try it yourself. Shifting your weight, even just a few inches, has a dramatic effect when going through a curve. I’m not talking about hanging off the bike like a monkey. Just sliding your butt cheeks over to get one off the edge of the seat and lower your torso while dropping it to the inside of the turn will produce remarkable results.

It works on a bicycle. It works on a full dressed Harley. Try it. When the road tightens up, get in the habit of moving around a bit. Once you’ve made that initial adjustment, it’s easy to slide a little further if needed. You’ll have more control and better traction. While it’s a little more effort, that little effort could keep you out of the hospital, the repair shop, or worse when a curve throws more at you than expected.

Wayne@americaridesmaps.com

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