How I Stopped Being Scared in Corners

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I almost gave up on motorcycling, a culmination of struggles led to a single moment that had me ready to hang up my helmet and taking up knitting instead.  What happened? What did I learn from this experience? It’s story time on this episode of moto-philosophy.

I remember the corner like it was yesterday.  It was a gentle, downhill, slightly off-camber, or fallaway corner to the right.  I set up on the yellow line, slowed way down and tipped in. But the corner was steeper downhill than I thought and more off-camber than I thought.  So I did what I was taught. I added counter-steer and stayed on the gas. The bike started running wider and wider, I added more and more lean, but it didn’t help and soon I was coming face to face with a silver Honda Accord.


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  1. Michael Stevenson 28 October, 2020 at 22:07 Reply

    Dave, I had an almost identical experience riding some twisty roads in the Ozarks on a drizzly day. A right hand, off camber, decreasing radius curve where I encountered an approaching mini-van. I stood the bike up, crossed in front of the mini-van and thankfully ended up on a smooth, grassy shoulder where I could maintain my momentum and get back on the road without stopping.

    Like you I have re-lived this moment many times and have tried to analyze what I did wrong, but your video was incredibly helpful for me to understand my mistakes and what I need to work on in my cornering.

    Thank you for what you do, I think these are the best videos to be found for riders like me.

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