Cornering Tip: Hip Angle and Pre-Positioning Will Make You a Better Bike Rider

It's rare that a cyclist can focus on one single riding tip and see immediate and meaningful results, but adjusting position before a turn can provide more confidence, more speed, better control, and reduce the likelihood of a crash in all circumstances. 

I snagged the picture above off the Julianna Bikes homepage because the woman shows textbook-perfect pre-turn body positioning. But what does that mean? Look at her hips. What do you see about her and what can you tell about what she's planning to do in the next few seconds? 

We can't see where the trail's going, but we know it's bumpy and sloping. The bike's front tire looks to be rolling dead straight, which might indicate that the trail's straight too. But the woman's hips, knees, shoulders and head are all pointed to her right, and her body weight bias leans to the rear wheel. 

From these clues we can tell that she's anticipating a sharp, descending right-hand turn. 

By angling her body towards the turn direction she's reducing the inertia needed to turn the bike and body. In skateboarding this is called "winding up," in skiing this is called, "facing the mountain." You see it in figure skating, baseball, boxing... At the highest levels of any physical activity you'll see practitioners angling their bodies before the moment of action. Cycling is no different. 

Pre-positioning can also be useful when going straight. The grainy photo below shows professional rider Laura Battista angling herself to go directly towards the camera. 

The terrain is too lumpy and angled to efficiently roll straight over, so Laura lets the bike re-angle and move around underneath her, yet her hips, knees, and head telegraph exactly where she wants to go. 

The two examples so far show skilled professionals riding correctly. But for comparison's sake, let's examine an amateur with incorrect positioning:

Viewed against the previous images, what does this photo tell us, other than the date it was shot? 

Does this picture make you nervous? Why? Could it be the fact that he's sitting on his saddle instead of standing on the pedals? Could it be that his knees are pointing different directions? Could it be that his body weight is biased towards the font wheel even though he's descending? Yes his head and shoulders are pointed in the direction he wants to go, as is his front wheel, but the rest of his body screams, "RESIST!" The rider does not look confident, and I'm gonna guess that's why he's wearing all those pads. 

HOW TO PRACTICE BODY ANGLE IN TURNS

You don't need a mountain trail to practice good turns, you can do it in a vacant lot. 

Simply stick some cones or twigs or whatever in the ground, like a slalom course, and focus on preparing your body angle before turning the handlebars, then lean the bike and follow through as normal. Do it over and over until you don't need to think about it anymore.

Bonus trick! Grab the rear brake and use the momentum of your re-angling body to whip the back of the bike around. That's a fun way to kill your back tire. 

 Heck, you might already be practicing correct body placement naturally, and you don't need the coaching. Lots of people have an innate sense of these things, although I still think it's worthwhile to examine how much the pros telegraph their body movements before they turn the bike. 

Once you've unlocked your full turning potential, play around and see what you can do around any and every turn you see. Pretty soon you'll be stunting 'round switchbacks like Jeff Kendall-Weed:

This post is kind of an add-on to other cornering lessons. If you want to read more about that, check out this post about target fixation, this one about basic technique, or this one about the fundamentals of tire grip.

An equally useful add-on skill is the concept of pre-turning, which is explained here:  https://sandiegomountainbikeskills.com/2019/08/02/pre-turn/