3 A corner is tighter than you expected
Swinging along on an unfamiliar road, you line up a benign-looking bend, go out, peel in... but instead of the exit opening out before you, the corner continues to tighten and you’re already leant over as far as you feel comfortable...
It’s a classic cornering cock-up.
Whether it’s because you’re in a fraction too hot or for some reason you haven’t quite read the road properly; either way, things now happen quickly. A tide of panic comes first — a split-second feeling of things going wrong. You tense up and instinctively try to slow down by rolling off the throttle and hitting the front brake; exactly the wrong thing.
Fact is, if you have enough grip to brake your way out of the Danger Zone, you have enough grip to go round the corner in the first place. But in the split second, you haven’t time to rationalise it!
So instead of hitting the front brake, try bringing in a touch of back brake instead. What you’re trying to do is slow the bike enough to regain some comfort with its speed matching the tightening corner radius, but also to avoid weight transfer to the front and standing the bike upright. A gentle drag of the rear brake ‘pulls’ the bike into a tighter line, even as it slows slightly, without increasing the load on the front tyre.
The rear brake is almost a magic, ‘get-out-jail-free’ card; it cures all kinds of chassis instability, from tank-slappers to weaves to dealing with low-speed hairpins. But when it comes to magically getting a bike round a corner your brain has already given up on, the lever under your right foot is invaluable. SH