books

YBL had a great time talking to columnist and author Ken Condon, author the new book "Riding in the Zone".

YBL had a great time talking to columnist and author Ken Condon, author the new book "Riding in the Zone".

Click here to listen to "Ken Condon, author of "Riding in the Zone!"

He at least saved me from a serious accident!

I was out riding on Tuesday. I had just finished Ken's *excellent* book, "Riding in the Zone" the night before and was looking forward to practicing some of the techniques he described.

One in particular that stuck in my mind was the idea of having a "Cornering Plan" - each corner we come to has a different method of travel through and, if you have a plan ahead of time, the corner becomes that much smoother. Another thing I was practicing is a bad habit I have - when I hit the apex of a turn, I'm often far too close to the centerline and sometimes my helmet/upper body is over it. It's never been an issue but I wanted to try and break the habit.

I was out on familiar roads, thinking about Ken's thoughts on approach, entry, apex and exit and make sure I had good lines into the turn. I was focusing on delaying my entry into a turn and making my imaginary apex point the center track and not the yellow center line as I have done in the past.

I come up on a fairly blind, left hand, decreasing radius turn - exactly the kind of turn I might be too close to the yellow line at apex in the past. I set up wide to the right, delay entry well past where I would normally have turned in and flicked the bike into the entry. Just like Ken teaches in the book, I've got a little throttle on to steady the bike, I'm looking through and leaning into the turn. This is fun!