Do You Ride "The Pace"?

The street is not the track - it's a place to Pace

The Pace places the motorcycle in its proper role as the controlled vehicle, not the controlling vehicle. The Pace ignores outright speed and can be as much fun on a Ninja 250 as on a ZX-11, emphasizing rider skill over right-wrist bravado. A fool can twist the grip, but a fool has no idea how to stop or turn.

Learning to stop will save your life; learning to turn will enrich it. What feels better than banking a motorcycle into a corner?

Using all of the available lane while entering the corner (square line) provides a number of benefits. It allows you to brake while upright, see farther through the corner and use a later corner apex. With a later apex, you can get on the throttle earlier as you stand the bike up out of the corner. The low entrance line (dotted line) forces you to lean over even after the apex and is a major contributing factor to overshooting a corner. Always give the centerline some room: stay right except to pass.

The mechanics of turning a motorcycle involve pushing and/or pulling on the handlebars; while this isn't new information for most sport riders, realize that the force at the handlebar affects the motorcycle's rate of turn-in. Shove hard on the bars, and the bike snaps over; gently push the bars, and the bike lazily banks in. Different corners require different techniques, but as you begin to think about lines, late entrances and late apexes, turning your bike at the exact moment and reaching the precise lean angle will require firm, forceful inputs at the handlebars. If you take less time to turn your motorcycle, you can use that time to brake more effectively or run deeper into the corner, affording yourself more time to judge the corner and a better look at any hidden surprises. It's important to look as far into the corner as possible and remember the adage, "You go where you look."

The number-one survival skill, after mastering emergency braking, is setting your corner-entrance speed early, or as Kenny Roberts says, "Slow in, fast out."

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