Biking Techniques (Part 36)

Elevation and Camber

There is an added complication that has to be taken into account in the line -- changes in the slope of the track, whether uphill or downhill (elevation), or banked or sloped outwards (camber). This affects how much total traction you have available, and in some corners can change the line quite radically.

Traction

Simply put, whenever the bike is being pushed up by the road -- uphill, or a banked turn -- it's like you have extra weight on the tires, so you have more traction available. That lets you brake harder, turn harder, accelerate harder, and mix those more radically.
Whenever the road is dropping away from the bike, you have the opposite effect -- less traction. That means you can't brake as hard, turn as hard, accelerate as hard, or mix those as readily.

So you want to take advantage of uphill and banked sections to do most of your turning there, and try to keep fairly straight in downhill or off-camber sections.

Ground Clearance

Camber also affects how much ground clearance you have while cornering. You can use much more lean angle in a banked turn, and that emphasizes the need to make use of the banking to do most of your turning. On the other hand, in an off-camber turn, you can't use as much lean angle, and so you need to be more careful.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation