Remember that, despite the surprise, if your bike isn’t dragging hard parts, you have the ground clearance to lean the bike over even more — probably more than you think.

Before we discuss the challenge of decreasing radius corners, we should quickly review an easy one. This will make sure we have the same techniques in mind. In an idealized constant-radius corner, the rider can see from entry to exit. So, the bike’s approach would be wide at the entrance, and setting the appropriate speed before the turn-in point.

A rider should look through the corner, initiate the turn, and begin rolling on the throttle. Rolling on the throttle settles the suspension and keeps the bike from falling into the corner as the bike heads towards the apex. After the apex, acceleration can increase as the bike begins to stand up, putting a larger footprint on the pavement and following its line to the outside of its lane at the exit of the corner.

If the entire corner could be seen at the entry, the tightening of a radius could be planned for from the beginning — just like with our idealized corner. So, in order to address the fear of the decreasing radius, we should look at the proper way through the corner and then backtrack to see how we can apply this knowledge to corner entry — even when we don’t know a decreasing radius lies ahead.

If you’re taking the classic line through a corner and the radius tightens — even just a little — it will have the same effect as early apexing a corner: The bike will run wide at the exit. So, when approaching a decreasing-radius corner, the best tactic for a street rider would be to set the entry speed for the tighter portion of the curve, hold a wide line at the entrance of the corner, and dial in more lean until the line heads towards the apex of the tightened radius.

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