Biking Techniques (Part 1)

Smooth, but sometimes so quickly it isn't

Everyone says that the fast riders look really smooth. They do all sorts of things with the bike and it's always a smooth transition from one position to the next. What they don't say is that even when you don't look smooth -- like in the depths of some twisties, or diving into the tight corner, you still have to be smooth.
What smooth means is that as the bike transitions from one state to another -- accelerating to braking, or braking to turning, or turning to acceleration -- there's no sudden break from one to the other. Each blends with the other to make a progressive motion, with no jerks or sudden changes. That progression is what smooth is.

What many riders don't understand is that you can be smooth so quickly that it doesn't look it. When you move from braking to turning to acceleration rapidly enough, you can't see the smooth transition. All you can see is that bike is going on one direction now, and in another direction now. When you turn in to some corners today, you'll want to move the bike around that quickly, but you still need to be smooth when you do it.

Give the bike a chance

As we'll see when we talk about dynamics later, bikes don't go from one state to another instantly. It takes time for a bike to go from upright to a lean, it takes time for the forks to compress under braking, it takes time for the bike to react. Being smooth means giving the bike a chance to get settled in one state before throwing the next one at it.
That's one reason why we blend braking into turning, rather than finish braking and then turn. It lets the bike come smoothly out of braking, and smoothly into turning, while doing both at once so we don't waste time.

Squeeze the brake -- Turn the throttle

Part of giving the bike a chance is that we don't do anything suddenly. We squeeze the brake, not grab it. We turn the throttle, not whack it. That goes for the other direction too -- we don't let go the brake, we ease it out.
Sure, we do these things very rapidly, so that if you weren't thinking about it you might assume that you let go the brake and whack the throttle, but we must be smooth with all the controls -- in all directions -- if we want the bike to be smooth.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation