I recently started riding a motorcycle. Why does “leaning in” while turning allow sharper turns at higher speed?
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Tires are wide. When you lean in, your contact to the road moves to the side of the tire.
You have to put a lot of weight into the turn to prevent the bike to simply spring back vertical.
Imagine you are driving straight and your wheels are mounted 8 cm to the left. Then in a turn you also increase the g force.
This means, for a 120kg bike, turning about 1,4g, you have to compensate point of contact and mass and g force, .08m x 120 x 1,4 = 13.4 kgm. Let’s say you weigh 67 kg, you need your body to go 20 cm in the turn to compensate that momentum that tends to raise the bike.
It doesn’t really work like this, as when you ride you can shift forces with the handlebar, you steer out to keep the bike in, but having the weigh shifted in makes everything more natural and balanced. You feel a lot more in control.
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