Theory of Fast Riding
racers & other semi-lit
revisited
,
Part VII:
Mechanics of blind corners
By Lane Campbell
Way back in Part I of this series, I
said you could have all the fun in
the world within the width of
your own lane. I still believe it; by
st icki ng to your own lane, yo u 'll
be neith er quick nor dead. You
can have p len ty of fun putting
togeth er racing lin es in a lan e's
width wi th a mo to rcy cle, an d go
significantly faster with safe ty th an ean
a car co nfined to the same lane's widt h.
Vet in California I've o bse rved a lo t
of peopl e wh o _ uld ra th er be q uic k,
wo
an d lane-cu tt ing is all too co mmon for
anyone 's good. If th e shoe fits , yo u
sho uld reall y study these simp le sets of
co rners I've wo rked up .
Why lan e-cut in the first place ? Th e
people who d o it go a b it fas ter , and in
th e heat of the mo m ent, all else is often
fo rgotten. Take a simp le 90 degree
left-bander with a 10 0 foot radius,
twenty feet w ide (10 feet to a lane). A
safe co nstan t speed/radi us line of 122
feet radius can be scribed in yo ur lane
without
crossing
the
ce nterline .
Maximum safe speed at one "g"
cornering is 63 ii.lsec. or 43 mph . By
crossing th e cen terline and using all 20
feet of roadbed, yo u ca n scribe a 154
fo o t ra d iu s th ro ugh th e same c o rner
wit h a one "gH limiting speed of 70 .5
flo/sec. o r 48 mph . That's adifferenceof
about a h ike leng th a seco nd .
Fo r some, that h ike len gth a second
is all th at ma tt er s, hut to gai n it . yo u've .
exposed yoursel f to o nco ming tra ff ic in
th e o p posing lan e for a di stance o f 130
fee t, wh ich at speed works o u t to two
seconds in jeop ard y . We'll return to th at
le ft-hander shortly .
It's one thing to lane cut for two
seconds if yo u can see what 's co ming.
Mo re to the po in t. for comp lete safety,
you should. b efore co m m itting to a
la n e-c u t t ing line, be able to see any
on coming traffic th at will be in your
line during the ti me yo u're across th e
centerline. For a figh ting chance at
survival, you must see anything that w ill
he in your line fa r eno ugh ahead to ta ke
