MX101's Tech Tips: Rutted Corners

May 9, 2005

By Kevin Tyler and the crew at MX101.ca

For this week’s tip, we are going to look at rutted corners. This is one of the most challenging skills to learn and also one of the most vital since most corners develop ruts and so many riders struggle with ruts. Learn how to attack rutted turns with confidence and you are on your way to shaving considerable time off your lap times.

     
In the photos, we are looking at an intermediate soil (sweet Georgian red dirt) with a small rut beginning to form. This is a 90-degree turn with a slight uphill slope. It is crucial to have all of your braking completed before you enter the turn and to remain standing past the last braking bump.

While maintaining the attack position with your elbows up, make sure your get the inside foot off the ground and push it into the bike to aid balance.

       
Setting your speed correctly coming into the corner can make a huge difference on your corner exit speed. Approach the corner too slow and you will not be able to use the rut effectively for banking and your bike will want to push or “tuck” the front wheel to the inside of the corner. Over aggression will cause you to fight the bike from jumping over the rut and ruin any chance of maintaining speed, as the bike will want to stand straight up.

One finger on the clutch helps you to feed the power on smoothly while maintaining grip on the bars with three fingers. Once you are back on the gas, you should maintain smooth throttle delivery while fighting the urge to blip it. You must remember to look ahead—never watch your front fender.

       
Leaning with the bike is vital to making a smooth round corner as opposed to bouncing on and off of the rut several times. You need to find your comfort zone of speed the first few practice runs through the corner so that you can practice the proper techniques until they are second nature. Once you are comfortable and able to maintain perfect form, increase the entrance speed so that it feels unnatural again. Repeat that speed until you are again able to feel comfortable and maintain form. This will allow you to gradually raise your corner speed in a progressive manner while hammering your brain with the basic techniques until they are second nature.

As you round out the corner, you should have already picked your line to the next obstacle. The farther you look ahead, the slower things come at you which gives you more time to react.