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Sharp turns
Have you ever watched motorbike racing on the telly? When the racers go round corners they lean so far over to one side their knees sometimes touch the ground. So they have to wear reinforced knee pads – otherwise they’d get some rather nasty grazes! It’s not just the motorbike racers who have to wear this sort of protection, though. Anyone riding a motorbike should make sure they’re fully “padded up”.
Have you ever wondered why motorcyclists lean over when cornering?

You might like to …


• test the materials that racing motor cyclists use to protect their knees (or investigate other sorts of protective clothing used by normal motorbike riders).This website show the kind of protection motorcyclists use:
• compare the ease of cornering in two-, three- and four-wheeled vehicles
• find out why there are steep banks on the corners at some race tracks and not others
• devise a model to show how steep a bank should be for different speeds.