Better Riding: how to be on the right line, every time

Our BikeSocial Better Riding series is made up of articles, blogs and videos which have the primary purpose of maxing your enjoyment of riding by being safer and smoother. We’re going to help you get more out of your motorcycling with this self-help series brought to you in partnership with Honda Motorcycles UK because safety is one of their key business pillars and their quest for safety inspires their innovations in products, technology and education.

In this episode we focus on how to ride the right line, every time. 

The first two episodes have demonstrated how to improve cornering on a motorcycle by learning what counter steering is and how it can help, as well as how to improve you cornering confidence. Afterall, there’s always something new to learn about riding and if we put the hours in to actively learn and practice the correct techniques then we can all become better and more confident riders. Win win.

Our professional Motorbike Coach is Mark McVeigh – an experienced rider coach, an ex-MotoGP engineer, a riding academy owner for over 20 years and the inventor of motoDNA rider training tech.

Better Riding – the right line, every time

Using the safety bubble technique, and reference points

How to find the right line, every time?

We touched on this in episode two, and that is the ‘safety bubble’. At our school we developed the modern riding system of Skill, Craft, and Mind, and part of that Craft pillar is the safety bubble which will basically help us ride the right line, every time. It’s not just a simple way to ride defensively, but it’s a system that is designed to make your riding flow. It’s important to understand your line around a corner is dynamic and it changes depending on the hazards around you. It’s like an imaginary forcefield to maximise your space and optimise your speed relative to those hazards. When you’re riding, imagine a circle around you. The more space you give yourself, the more time you have to see and react to those hazards. When the hazards get close, the safety bubble gets smaller so you reduce your speed to reflect that, and then when the safety bubble gets bigger you can speed up because your risk reduces.

Above: Just like a traffic light system: green for go, red for no

What do the colours of the safety bubble represent?

The colours are pretty simple, like a traffic light system. So green means you’re hazard aware and you’re looking at your positioning to maximise your space away from that hazard.

As we move to yellow the safety bubble gets smaller and that hazard risk is increasing so you’re slowing, you’re looking at your positioning, and you’re covering your brakes. Then red, that’s the biggest hazard risk so you’re on the brakes, cautious of positioning and you’re ready to stop.

Above: the four main reference points of a corner

So, is the Safety Bubble like a virtual circle?

Exactly right. And in reference to those lane positions, let’s refresh ourselves so imagine lane positions 1, 2, and 3 when approaching a right-hander, then lane position 1 would be on the outside of your lane to give yourself the maximum view through the corner, whereas position 3 is on the inside of the lane, and that would be close to the central line and the oncoming traffic.

When you’re cornering you effectively joining the dots where the dots are reference points. Typically, there’s four: braking point, turn-in point, apex, and exit point. So that helps break a corner into manageable sections. Using the above as an example, if you’re coming from the middle of the road head into lane position 1 as you begin to brake for a right-hand corner. Remember, ‘see and be seen’, we begin to brake.

The next reference point is where we turn-in, and often we’re still slowing down with a bit of brake or engine-braking. Then we tip into the corner and search for the middle of the corner, known as the ‘apex’. And then the final reference point is the exit point as we begin to accelerate out of the corner, using the full width of the lane and we’re back up to upright.

Why do we need reference points for cornering?

Reference points are a great way to prevent getting lost on a corner, proactively looking ahead to plan and position your bike. 40mph is the equivalent of covering around 60 feet per second which means that loosing concentration for a split second could result in you ending up in a field, or worse.

How do we deal with distractions?

It is easy to become distracted with scenery, other vehicles, the angle of the corner, for example, it’s important to be able to react quickly, effectively, and safely and that will only become a natural if the correct reactions are practiced. How do those reference points work with the safety bubble system?

This is when things become dynamic. Imagine yourself heading towards that same right-hand corner but this time there’s a car in the other lane heading in the opposite direction. So we need to adjust our line. We can’t apex in lane position 3 because the car would be too close and as a result the safety bubble would be red, so instead let’s think about that oncoming hazard and keep in lane position 2 this time, giving us more space to the car. Of course, once we’re past the hazard and we’re back to green, then we can continue on our way.

What happens if the car driver is distracted, or trying to take his own dynamic lane, what happens if the car is in an unexpected position, perhaps even coming across the central line into our lane?

This happens a lot, this head-on situation. Lane position 1 is where you need to start and cover the brakes too, but this situation demonstrates how important looking ahead is. With the vision to see and be seen you can then pick the most appropriate line and lane position to avoid the hazard. In this example, if the bike was in lane position 3 it wouldn’t have ended well.

During every ride we have to process a lot of information from what the road ahead entails – its direction, camber, elevation and surface condition. Other road users. How far ahead or laterally can we see, what might appear in front of from the sides, light, weather, and so on.  The amount of data your eyes are soaking up is vast, and we are vulnerable road users. Any connection with an animal or other vehicle can have potentially disastrous consequences, so practicing which position will maximise that ‘see and be seen’ ethos is essential. I often commentate to myself by picking out hazards, surface changes, vehicle speeds, whether I can go for that overtake or not, what I can see that could affect my progress, etc. It’s a good habit to get into and while talking to yourself might seem unnatural, nobody needs to know!

Generally speaking, the more we ride the better our sixth sense becomes, and by creating safety buffers to hazards and focusing on the right place to position the bike makes riding systemised and intuitive. You can increase your presence on the road with a little lateral movement too – think about how your headlight looks in the rearview mirror of the car in front. A little side-to-side movement will make that driver aware.

Practising the right skills and having the mindset of continual improvement will make your riding so much more enjoyable. The Better Riding series continues next time with episode 4 where we’ll be discussing overtaking and filtering.

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