Left turns

[bdub]

I have a phobia (strong word) about left hand turns. If I'm turning left where should I be in regards to the yellow line?
Yesterday while caging into town I met three bikes, all of us going thought he same turn. I'm curving to the right and they are curving to their left. They hit the apex next to the yellow line. All fine and good as they were not leaning very much and going the proper speed (my perception). However they were hugging the line. I feel I do the same thing and since I have issues with left turning I wonder if I should be closer to thecenter of my lane when leaning my bike into a left hander?

[Drjones]

Depends on if you have a clear line of sight through the turn.  If I can't see through the turn then I try to apex in the middle of the lane instead of hugging the yellow, because there may be billy bob in his F250 coming around the same curve.  If I have a clear line of sight through the turn then I'll take it tighter to the yellow.

[stopintime]

My personal opinion is that cutting corners is wrong.
It's done to reduce lean angle or to get from A to B as fast as possible.

There is much more to learn by staying center lane - as soon as you drift away from center, you know something wasn't going according to your plan. This feedback will tell you what needs to be changed.

Cutting corners work well on the track, but if you do it on the street you use most of your error margins.

If cutting corners is a required technique to get you through, you went in too fast or are not able to lean over enough.

Don't get me wrong - I do it too, but I make an effort to avoid it.

I recommend finding Nick Ienatsch's article "The Pace".
Very wise and very fun technique.

In my opinion

[bdub]

Depends on if you have a clear line of sight through the turn.  If I can't see through the turn then I try to apex in the middle of the lane instead of hugging the yellow, because there may be billy bob in his F250 coming around the same curve.  If I have a clear line of sight through the turn then I'll take it tighter to the yellow.

That's a good answer.
And stopintime is spot on to.

These guys weren't cutting the corner. They were pretty much where they should have been. I guess I'm just wondering how far to the center line is safe.  I worry about mirrors, and don't really like the center of a lane, and the outside just seems wrong.

[thought]

like previously said, if you have clear lines of sight through the turns and know what's coming up, being close to the yellow line is fine imo.

it's when the turn is blind and you cant see through that i stay pretty close to the right hand side of the lane.  i've read/heard far too many stories about being clipped coming through a turn.

[bikepilot]

One thing to watch, that I see a lot of riders screw up, is your head/body location relative to the yellow.  Riders who bother to stay on their side of the road often then lean over and put their head/body into the path of oncoming cagers.  Cagers usually give-way, but its not a good situation.  The bike/rider combo is pretty wide when leaned way over, to stay totally in your lane run the tires to the right of center by a bit.

[bdub]

I re-read the pace and the article below it. That's always a good pep read. Bikepilot, I think you just answered my concern "tires to right of center", I'm going to do that. My roads are pretty narrow and country, (farmers,bicycles,horses,deer, rednecks w/ wide mirrors (such as myself,only I have a F150). But the feedback has helped. I don't post much here and just do alot of reading but this place is great.

Thanks a bunch,

Still need a track day and am checking into Rodger Lyle at Summit

Thanks guys