Straight line cornering!

If you want to learn to corner, first learn in a straight line, by this I mean on a straight bit of road, this will help you understand what you do when you do go round a bend/turn. You first need to learn how and where to place your weight on your bike to make it turn, you will then have a far better understanding of what you actually do to get round a corner.

First find a quite bit of straight road, preferably traffic free. Always check over your shoulder before the following.

Riding down the left hand side of the road, first get into the drops keeping your arms/elbows relaxed, placing the left foot at the bottom of the stroke, keeping your right leg/ knee relaxed, then place some weight on the left pedal, feel like you are pushing the pedal into the ground, when you do get to go round a corner this will help you feel like you are pushing the tyres into the tarmac, don't just have the pedal hovering at the bottom of the stroke with no weight on it, next keeping the left arm relaxed, push the right side of the handlebars down and see what happens........the bike moves to the right, the more you push with the right arm the more the bike moves (this helps the tighter the corner becomes), have you actually turned the bars to move the bike to the right? No. What you have actually done is lean the bike underneath yourself, pushing the bar into the corner.

To move the bike to the left it is opposite to above, right pedal down and some weight through it, then push the left side of the handlebars down.

There is a bit more to better cornering than this, but all the above will help you have a better understanding of what you do when you do go round a corner.

Watch Fabian descending this is a great example of what I mean.

Bike fitting - feedback, foot/toe issues

Hi Adrian,

Chris here from Sheffield, i came in to see you the other week about a problem with a pain in my toe that I had had for a while now.

After having a better look you cut a hole in my footbeds to try and take the pressure off that area. Anyway just wanted to give you a quick update.

The results have been fantastic, I have gone from been in pain for 90% of a ride to been pain free for 90% of the ride, so a huge improvement. I have been able to increase my distance and today was the first day I enjoyed a ride in almost a year. The bike fit is perfect and I had almost forgotten how amazing it is to ride in the peak district.

I will take what we did to my insoles to my podiatrist next month and see if we can transfer it across to my regular shoes as well.

Il keep you posted on how I get on, but just wanted to say thanks for your help, I know it was an unusual one but I think if you saw anyone else with a similar problem in the future you would be able to help them too.

All the best

Chris