This Man Will Teach You to Ride Better

By: Steve Westlake

"So, I suppose you’ve come here because you want to be a world champion at the end of the day," says Keith Code. He could be talking to Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, John Kocinski or umpteen other racers he’s coached, taught and taken to the top, but he’s not. He’s talking to me and the rest of the class attending the California Superbike School at Cadwell Park.

We Shift in our seats and some make quiet grunting noises that could easily be interpreted either way. "Of course you are," he answers himself, smiling. "I wouldn’t want it any other way." It’s a joke and we all dutifully chuckle, relieved that although we’re being taught by a legend, he’s not taking us too seriously.

How could he? We’re a motley bunch ranging from racetrack virgins to looking for confidence and skill for the road, to racers who want to understand more.

"When you’re riding at high enthusiasm levels, how often do you go through a corner and go ‘Yes. That was great! I got that right’," Code asks. "One corner out 10? Well today we’re going to up that ratio."

Keith Code has made riding a motorcycle into a science and it’s one he thinks any rider who puts their mind to it can learn. There are a few principles- and Code mentions them alot-that are central to his philosophy on riding a motorcycle well round corners.

Good throttle Control crops up in just about every lesson and is based on the fundamentals of motorcycle design. "It should be your intention every time you lean the motorcycle to use smooth throttle through the corner," Code says. A bike’s suspension is designed to work best under moderate acceleration, according to Code.

Under braking and with a trailing throttle the weight of the bike tends towards the front and loads the front tyre so that it’s more likely to lose traction in a corner. The tyre has to work harder and the suspension becomes compressed and can’t deal with bumps well. Under hard acceleration the bike’ weight tends towards the back, making it more likely to slide because it can’t cope with the power, or the suspension won’t work over bumps because it’s compressed. Hard acceleration can also make the front drift wide because it goes light.

In between, with moderate acceleration, the suspension performs best. Bumps are absorbed better because the suspension can move freely and the tyres are loaded for most grip. Good throttle control is when the bike is kept at this optimum attitude, which is achieved by gently rolling on the throttle through the corner. Sounds easy, but there are many obstacles and, according to Code, most of them are in the mind.

SURVIVAL REACTIONS are the involuntary adjustments your body makes in situations that it feels are dangerous. "The body isn’t smart," says Code. "It’s only interested in right now." Survival reactions are bad. They make you brake too hard, turn in too early, tense up, get tunnel vision, chop the throttle and do a host of other things that interfere with good riding. With practice and skill they can be defeated.

ATTENTION Code believes you only have a certain amount of attention to share between the various tasks of riding a motorcycle. There are certain "high interest items" when going through a corner that is likely to trigger the survival reactions if you feel they get out of control. These are:

• Speed- are you going too fast?
• Lean angle- are you leant over too far, far enough?
• Traction- are the tyres going to grip?
• Road surface:gravel, diesel, bumps?
• Directions: are you going the right way?

If all your attention is focused on one aspect of riding, probably due to a survival reaction, then you won’t be able to ride well. Keith calls this "being busy."

The California Superbikes School is based on classroom sessions followed by track time with an Riding Coach. Code himself takes all the classroom sessions which means he can’t instruct on the track.

The exercise: go round corners without changing gear and without using the brakes.

Why? The first part to cornering well is getting the entry speed right. You’re forced to concentrate on entry speed and nothing else, which shows you how different entry speeds, feels in a corner. Most people habitually brake before a corner. Most people habitually brake before a corner, whether they need to or not, so they don’t pay to much attention to their entry speed.

Keith says: "If you go into a corner too fast you get busy trying to correct it. If you go into corner too fast you get busy trying to correct it. If you go in too slow you get busy too. When you go in with no gear changes and no brakes, what else is there to think about apart from your entry speed? Most people use the brake lever for comfort, like a teddy bear-they have a quick squeeze to make them feel better. Some people use the brakes hard, but if you do this every time and go in too slow, then you’re not qualified to use the brakes hard. Approach the corner and judge the speed by experience and memory, not mechanical devices like the speedo and tacho.

"At the start of this exercise you think that you’ve got to ride slowly, but racers can usually get within three or four seconds of their racing lap times using no brakes and no gear changes."

Results: mixed. We were told to go round in fourth gear, including taking the hairpin. Most of the lap was spent trying to achieve the right speed for the harpin, but you learn that you can go into corners faster than thought possible.

The exercise: turn into the corner at a specific point- usually later than normal. Why? For every corner you go round, you should choose a turn in point, which determines your line through the corner. If you’re riding quickly, the survival reaction is to turn early, but this only causes problems later in the corner when you have to turn more or may run wide.

Keith says:"The turn in point is the single most important part of taking every corner because it decides whether you can have good throttle control. A good line through a corner is one where you can roll the throttle on smoothly right through the corner. If you turn in at different places every time, you’re turn in at different places every time, you’re effectively going round a different corner every time. On roads you don’t know you should let the bike run in a little deeper and turn late. It’s difficult because turning in late goes against survival instincts. Your body says ‘you’re trying to kill me’, but must overcome that."

The exercise: steer quickly into turns. Why? In counter steering you put pressure on the handlebars in the opposite direction to the turn. So, for a right hander you push the right handlebar forward to turn. Most riders us this technique already, but some may not be aware they’re doing it. It’s much quicker and more accurate than trying to turn using your body weight.

The point is to counter steer strongly and quickly. The bike is leaned early so that it takes a smooth line round the corner and you don’t need to lean the bike as far over. If you lean the bike over slowly it won’t turn sharply until you reach the maximum lean angle. In effect, you lean further to make up the turning you didn’t do when the bike was more upright.

Keith says:"Once in the corner with the throttle on, the bike will stay where it is. There’s no need to ‘hold’ it in position. Counter steer once at the start of the turn, then, if you’re on the right line, you shouldn’t need to make more steering input. There’s no need to pull on the bars at the end of the counter steering action. When you stop pushing, you stop counter steering.

"This applies to riding in the wet too. The biggest fear in the wet is leaning the bike. Counter steering quickly reduces the amount you have to lean. You can’t counter steer as strongly in the wet as in the dry, but it’s possible to steer quickly as long as you’re smooth."

Results: At first it’s a bit scary to turn the bars hard, but as soon as you realize it works it’s a revelation. You do the steering bit at the start of the turn let the bike go round the corner (always remembering to roll on the throttle).

The exercise: Relaaaaaaax. Don’t tense up. Why? Relaxing in a corner serves two purposes. First, it settles the bike because you’re not moving about or making more steering inputs. And second, it means that if the bike moves due to a slide, or the bars shake because of a bump, the fact that you’re not tense will help the bike cope with the problem. If you tense up, a slide will be worse and shakes will be transferred through your body back to the rest of the bike.

Keith says: "When you’re taking someone on the back of the bike what do you want to do? Nothing. You don’t want them to move at all- just go with the bike. That’s what makes a good passenger. And the same goes for you. You can set yourself up for a corner, anything you do is wrong. Just relax. The amount of work you need to do to ride, a bike fast is small. If you’re getting tired, you’re doing it wrong. The human body absorbs stuff well, until you tense up. If a bike slides in a corner it’s difficult not to tighten up-but, if you do, the slide will be worse."

Results: This makes a big difference. To be relaxed round fast corners feels great. I didn’t test whether it’s better for sliding the bike for obvious reasons related to fear and skill, but as much as anything it’s far more comfortable when you’re not all tensed up.

The exercise: Look before you turn. Why? If you fix a firm turn in point, it’s easy to become fixed on that point and neglect the route through the rest of the corner. This can also lead you miss the turn in point. So, identify the turn in point and then look where you want to be in the corner before you turn.

Keith says: "This will improve your consistency. You should be able to ride within one or two feet of the same spot every time. As soon as you look in a direction other than one you are traveling in, your survival reactions will shout ‘go where you’re looking’ and you’ll start to turn. You must resist this."

Results: It’s difficult to judge. And to put it all together at once is going to take practice. But looking in to the corner before you turn certainly helps with smoothness and forward planning, especially on the road. Bike

This article originally appeared in the October 1998 issue of Bike. It is reprinted with their permission.