Webmaster posted on December 06, 2010 14:35
Drifting is our third Advanced Fundamental skill, and it is essentially the same actions and execution as we used for last month’s topic, which was Grinding. Except unlike with grinding where we are sliding the bike pretty much straight along the edge of an obstacle, with drifting we are sliding the bike around the arc of a corner situation. This drifting skill is a huge help in us being able to maintain control of the bike while maximizing your ability to roost around a corner. Make sure to practice this skill in varying conditions and situations such as loose ground, hard pack, gravel, and even pavement if possible.
To be able to drift your bike well you need a good understanding and ability to adjust the three key points of cornering, which are 1. Throttle position, 2. Lean angle, and 3. your body position in relationship to the Principle of “The 90 Degrees of Traction”. We will discuss these more soon in our upcoming cornering article.
Find a smooth location, preferably with consistent traction, and start doing some varying sized circles, slowly increasing your speed until the rear tire starts breaking traction. You then just go a little faster focusing on achieving a continual drift. You maintain and control the drift by adjusting the 3 key points and using counter steering. If your bike is not sliding enough you either apply one or more of the following; 1. more throttle, 2. increased bike lean angle, 3. or turn the front wheel more towards the inside of the corner you are going around. Which one to adjust is dependent upon the conditions present. We will discuss this in next month’s article.
We give instruction and show actual demonstrations of this in Volume 1 of our new series of Advanced Instructional DVDs, that is now on sale through our online store. You can view some examples of this skill in the Promo teaser for Volume 1 at
www.shanewatts.com Make sure you check it out!