Perhaps one can imagine what the incredible acceleration of a superbike is like, although in reality, your notion could still be trumped. This can lead to unpleasant bodily reactions, particularly as far as the pillion passenger is concerned. We'll now turn to the subject of cornering, and I must say, when I see the leaning-off angles that are sometimes ridden, I rather believe, that the laws of physics are being ignored.

Nonetheless, we have to stick to the physical laws. How one approaches a bend, is explained in part 2, in any event, one does not steer directly into the curve, rather, either by leaning into the curve or shifting one's weight 'hanging off', in the direction of the curve, once the action has been started, the radius of the curve determines the balance between the vertical weight-force (green arrow in the above picture) and the centrifugal force (blue arrow).

Of course, not only the centrifugal forces straighten the motorcycle up but also the gyroscopic forces. By shifting one's body and allowing the knee to almost touch the road surface, the tilting tendency is increased. Nevertheless, this balancing act is still a fragile situation. Should anything at all change in the road-holding, the machine will react, then a great deal of feeling (and courage!) is required to get the bike back into line.

When cornering, a great deal of processes occur, so to speak, automatically. Problems can arise when changing the speed while cornering. More acceleration causes the machine to straighten up, decelerating causes it to tip further into the curve. Both phenomena must be compensated for by the rider, if one is to come out of the curve as planned.

Thereby, the dynamic changes should not be made too suddenly. Because of the very low weight to power ratio, hard acceleration is almost as bad as sudden and hard braking. A lot of progress has been made both in the field of braking-dosage (ABS and integrated brake systems) and in the stabilizing of the drive-train (anti-hopping clutches and indirect throttle response).

In the popular comparison between bikes and sports cars, it is technically more difficult to master cornering with a bike than with a car. Here, despite being able to use the whole road (track), tenths of a second can be lost, which have to be made up again by accelerating hard, on the following straight. Then, a lot depends on how much of the course is suitable for high-speed straight riding, indeed, even that is made difficult due to the poor cW-value (drag-coefficient) of motorcycles.

Of course, apart from the center of gravity point, the net-weight of the machine is also important. With a motor car, first of all one reduces the unsprung weight because that has a double effect. With a motorcycle, the gyroscopic forces come into play again, because everything that rotates has an influence on a certain direction, this is what makes, e.g., a sensitive racing motorcycle so skittish. This is also why particularly light rotating parts, like the wheel rims, are possibly made from composite materials. 06/12