Wednesday 27 April 2011

Keith Code? Cornering Lines? That's Just Plain Wrong . . .


Many riders (and readers) don't like the Keith Code books and 'style', but it works for me.

OK, the books take a bit of 'translation' - both from the US-speak and because they're track-oriented rather than road.  That said, I've found them useful and they've influenced how I train other riders.

But Keith also places articles on his web site forum, the most recent is about cornering lines:
Lines

Usually they're an interesting read (although you need to gently peel away the sales blurp that's knitted within the text ;) ).

But this one had me muttering, at the line: "The most obvious component of riding is the space the rider used to negotiate the bend, in common speak it is his line."  To be fair, the rest of the article makes sense.

The gist is that you should hone 'accuracy' of lines on a track (by taking training ;) ) before you try lines on-road.  To a point I agree - although he's talking about 'accuracy' from some riders of 'within +/- 5 feet'!!!  That's a good part of the width of a typical UK road!  With that degree of random riding, being on a track has to be good for road safety.

But as far as skills and 'training' for on-road cornering go, I emphasise the approach, set-up and negotiation of the bend long before getting into the necessity of 'lines', as the basic skills should be fluent before essential brain capacity (Code's '$10' to spend) is used for planning and implementing 'lines'.

See the specific cornering page for more details.



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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Keith Code, himself, said on his book that he discovered counter-steering. Do you really think so? Do you check this history yourself?

Unknown said...

Keith Code, himself, said on his book that he discovered counter-steering. Do you really think so? Do you check this history yourself?