What Gear Should I Be In for These Corners

[No Worries]

I can get up to 50mph or more between these switchbacks on Lookout Mt., but the hairpin turns are 15mph. To come blasting out of the curve, especially going uphill, you have to be in first gear. Most riders unfamiliar to the road won't downshift to first before the curve. Then they find out it really is 15mph. You are leaned way over, you're in second gear, the engine is at idle, and you open the throttle and get bogged down.

Do you downshift to first in the curve, wait until you straighten up, or just give it more gas hoping the revs will increase sometime? I've done all three. Braking from 50 for the switchback is unnerving enough, but shifting down to first while blipping the throttle, leaning heavily, and looking up and around the curve adds to the thrill. Several times I wish I had a gear indicator.

Sport Rider magazine has an article on gear selection for curves: http://www.sportrider.com/ride/RSS/1...nge/index.html, but I think they confused horsepower peak with torque peak. I like being below the torque peak, and smoothly roll on the throttle when going quickly around a curve. Any wheelspin from too much torque would be like hitting sand in the corner.