Right turns lean further

On September 29, a camera fixed to the frame recorded the bike's lean through every drill. In every drill that turned both ways, Rich leaned further going right than going left, by 2 to 6 degrees in most of them.

Median peak lean in left and right turns for each drill, right leaning further — Median peak lean per turn, left in blue and right in orange. The labels give each side's median turn radius in meters and the number of turns.

A motorcycle in a steady turn needs a certain amount of lean. It depends on how fast the bike is going and how tight the turn is. It doesn't depend on which way the bike is turning. A right turn and a left turn at the same speed and size need the same lean.

The turns were about the same size both ways, 6 to 7 meters (20 to 23 feet) in radius. In the figure eight and the dual U-turn, the right turns were slightly wider, which should have needed less lean, not more.

So the difference isn't the physics. It's the rider. Plenty of riders have a side they favor, and the fix is simple: ride more of the harder side. The hard part is knowing which side that is. That's the kind of thing MotoDrill should be able to point out.

This is one session, one rider and a handful of turns each way. It's a first look, not a verdict.

The full write-up, with every chart: Countersteer, caught on two cameras.