Cornering Lines - Part One

 The Line is something that racers, and even street riders who
 take their riding seriously, are forever looking for and striving
 to improve. At the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School we don´t
 believe that there is only one correct line. Watch videotapes
 of Schwantz throughout his career and you´ll see he often
 made use of unconventional lines allowed by the agile
 handling of his Suzuki RGV500 and his occasionally
 unorthodox riding style and racecraft. His cornering lines
 often varied over the course of a race as his bike´s fuel load
 lightened and his tires´ traction deteriorated. Or perhaps it
 was something that he picked up from watching his
 competitors strengths and weaknesses as he sized them up
 for the final laps. In fact, Schwantz is famous for being able
 to pass using unconventional lines and his spectacular riding
 style.

 The line through a corner also depends on the bike you´re
 riding, your strengths and weaknesses as a rider, and the
 available traction from wet or dry pavement. Kevin likes to
 tell students with his signature smile, "If there really is only
 one right line around the track, the race would be pretty
 boring after everyone filed through turn one on the first lap,
 wouldn´t it?" With all these variables, the line isn´t something
 that can be defined by (as a student at one of our recent
 schools suggested) drawing a chalk line around the track
 (Road Atlanta is 2.52 miles around - think of the amount of
 chalk!) or down your favorite road. But there are some
 definite parameters to guide you to finding your own perfect
 line. And at the school we often place cones at key points on
 the track to help students get their bearings.

 As we mentioned in our previous column on reference points,
 the acceptable line through a given corner gets narrower as
 your speed increases. At street pace the many acceptable
 lines may be several feet from each other, but pick up the
 pace and that variance often narrows to a matter of inches.
 Our end goal is to make riders comfortable placing their
 bikes anywhere on the track or road - but always doing so at
 the speed appropriate for that line. As we discussed in our
 previous column, reference points for our beginning braking
 point, turn-in point, apex point and exit point are what we
 use to define our line. We strive to join the points together in
 a flowing line, not using a simple, straight connect-the-dots
 style that´s often seen in riders learning the basics of lines and
 reference points. Those three or four reference points per
 corner (depending on whether you need to brake or not) are
 just the most basic framework. In fact, as KSSS students
 find out by watching the video of Schwantz´s line around the
 track, there are often several additional reference points
 between them to help the rider define the line in ever-
 increasing precision.

 We teach that your exit point is an excellent indicator of how
 effective your turn-in point and apex point were. (And, of
 course, you know by the speed you´re carrying at your turn-
 in point how well you chose your beginning braking point.) If
 you´re running out of track ...

 Text: Troy Hendrick
 Photography: Christian Neuhauser
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