Why You Need to Be Able to Drag Your Motorcycle in Corners

The camera makes it look spectacular, but the rider (the author) anticipated and was comfortable doing this dozens of times for the camera. Click the photo for the larger view. Photo by Kevin Wing.

If you have nevevr dragged a footpeg or some other part of your motorcycle, you should do it. Cruisers are generally supposed not to lean over very far when cornering. Because of this and the desire to keep centers of gravity and seat heights low, there is a trend to design new cruisers with ever less cornering clearance. The Royal Star is a good example of this. It is easy to drag the replaceable skids on the footboards. This creates something of a contradiction: Because their riders don't lean over very far and are unlikely to drag anything, designers give cruisers less cornering clearance. Because they give them less clearance, they are more likely to drag.

It's likely that you have never dragged anything on your motorcycle, but you should be ready to do so if you need to. How could you need to drag something? If a turn tightens up much more than you expect. If traffic crosses into your lane or some other obstacle requires you to pull it down hard to avoid a collision. Leaning deeper should be a viable escape option, and even if you have never dragged anything, any stock cruiser has the reserve to perform such a maneuver if called upon to do so.

Assuming your bike has quality tires in passable condition and the road surface isn't wet, oil-soaked or sandy, leaning over far enough to drag things poses no particular threat. The tires and suspension are quite capable of handling the forces involved without excitement. However, your reaction to unexpected dragging, especially if it is an unfamiliar experience, can cause problems. The other potential danger lies in what you drag (and we don't mean your shoulder).

The noise of a footboard or sidestand scraping the road surface may startle a rider unused to the experience. More than one rider has reacted to the experience by pulling the bike upright and running off the road or into whatever else he was attempting to avoid. On other bikes, your boot may be the first thing that touches down. Neither the noise nor the sensation of your boot rubbing the ground should distract you from the task of riding the motorcycle safely. If you have never done it, however, the surprise may get you into trouble. Therefore you need to go do it so you are not surprised.

Some cruisers lean over fairly far before dragging, but they still can drag things without adventure, as long as the rider doesn't get surprised.

Bikes with their footpegs set well forward sometimes position your feet so that your heels drag during hard cornering, which can yank your foot off the peg. I had a similar experience while cornering vigorously on the Road King tested in this issue. My boot was overhanging the edge of the footboard and caught on the ground, pulling it off the board to bump against the passenger footboard. More attention to foot placement was in order, but the experience didn't make me run wide either.

A bigger problem confronts riders of those motorcycles that grind the pavement with solid parts rather than components like folding footboards or footpegs. When a solidly mounted piece touches down, it becomes a fulcrum about which the bike gets levered in you put enough weight on it. The problem is greatest if the part in contact with the ground is located near the centerline of the motorcycle (not usually a problem on cruisers) or far forward, where it can lift the front wheel off the pavement. For example, the 800 Intruder has a footpeg bracket that runs under the pegs fairly far forward on the motorcycle. You can scrape this gently, but if you plant it firmly on the pavement, it lifts the front wheel, which can produce disastrous results. Other bikes have forward-set controls with even more solid mounting arrangements positioned to drag in corners.

It's not a bad idea to learn what drags first on your motorcycle before you actually drag it. One way is by reading road test. We will tell you if something dangerous drags first. You can also do this by leaning it over at a stop, or if it's too heavy for that, using a flat surface like stiff, straight-edged piece of cardboard. Position this with one edge running down the centerline of the motorcycle between the wheels and lift the opposite edge to see what piece of the undercarriage it touches first. Remember that as the suspension compresses under load, the contact point shifts inboard slightly. If the first item to drag is something flexible or rear of the crankshaft, you probably won't have much problem when it drags. On many cruisers it will be a folding footpeg or floorboard, sometimes with an extended "curb feeler" added just to be the first thing that drags.

If your bike seems have a safe contact point, you might want to actually experiment with dragging it during your practice, assuming you can find a smooth, clean place to lean over at moderate speeds. A good way to quickly become comfortable with leaning over farther than you normally do is at one of the racetrack motorcycle safety schools. (For more information or to find a racetrack safety school in your area, see For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the skills schools story in the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com). The point is to become familiar and comfortable both with leaning your bike over that far and with dragging things. This gives you one more evasion technique and the confidence to use it in an emergency.

Aside from simply slowing down and thereby leaning and compressing your suspension less, two techniques permit you to increase the cornering clearance available to you. You can hang off the inside of the bike roadracer-like, which moves the center of gravity with less actual bank angle of the bike. However, this is most effective if you pre-position yourself, so it isn't very useful in emergency situations, although you can use it to keep from grinding up your bike's nether bits. You can also use the Throttle. Closing the throttle will cause the bike to lower on its suspension. This is particularly true on shaft-driven bikes or those with soft suspension (or both). With the throttle open, the bike rises on its suspension, creating more clearance. When you close the throttle, the bike drops, reducing clearance. Since most riders close the throttle in a moment of crisis while leaned over, this can work against you. How do you use it to your advantage? Apply additional rear brake to slow the bike while applying throttle to lift the bike. Since this technique runs counter to what you have taught yourself in years of riding, it definitely takes practice.

On most cruisers, those grinding noises are nothing to be afraid of, and you can help yourself escape more important threats if you are comfortable while making them.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since this was published in 1996, I have received more comments from readers about how going out and deliberately dragging something for the first time helped them to ride with greater confidence and pleasure than any other column we have published. Several readers have also told me that their dragging practice has enable them to ride safely out of a crisis situation, either because they were not statled by dargging or because they had the confidence to lean deeper.]

Art Friedman
You can tell Friedman to lean over at Art.Friedman@primedia.com or at ArtoftheMotorcycle@hotmail.com.

For more information on safe-riding equipment, strategies, techniques and skills, see the Street Survival section of MotorcycleCruiser.com.