Technique video: 6 simple ways to get faster round hairpins

Bit of fun from last Summer in France ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kogqzXUMPY

I use the Armstrong technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haEbtHiUcBc

Oh well that's me on the naughty step

Care using the edges of the road like that - steep hills often have grit and pebbles that can have you off or skidding, and the inside of the bend where the rider comes closest to the edge has grit washed out that you can't see till you're committed, and that's also where the gradient can be steepest, so hardest to recover. Nice line though ...

Look out too for long vehicles ascending (coaches, trucks, flatbeds, campers) that have no choice but to come way over the centreline in the bend - I just hang back until they've finished.

That is a really awful strategy and video to apply to anything other than a closed road. Unless you've had an extended view of the road down, including whether there are any motorbikes coming up. you should aim to be nicely positioned on your side of the road as you come round that bend.  As I taught my son: Out, In, Through: go wide, go in to the apex, and go through assuming that of course there'll be a car coming, so you don't get surprised or flinch as you come round that bend. That hairpin as done in the video is precisely what I've given him a lecture about as in the "what not to do" story. Special case: you've had a long view down the hill before you start the hairpin sequence: no vehicles on road, but even there you need to imagine there's someone coming up at 50 mph so the "clear zone" shrinks as you go down.

To finish then, here's my example: descending Col de Madeleine on an MTB with an 8 year old on the tagalong behind, so I'm keeping my speed below 30 all the way. Bikes on the bends, cars on the bends, no need to worry as we are lined up. My friend mark, he's off to one side and I'm worried about him, but he lives in the Alps and drives like a local ... https://youtu.be/EzpHQunWDQg

An important piece of advice that is missing here is to apex late. To achieve that, you'll need to run a little deeper into the corner, bleed off more speed while you do so, and turn a little later. Doing so will cut you quite a bit of slack should you encounter anything unexpected in mid-turn or as you exit (e.g. "the gradient steepened a lot near the apex").

I suspect that the real reason your man needed to brake mid-turn is that he set his apex too early and was at risk of running wide. As a cautionary tale, the video makes for a good lesson!

Good advice for cornering technique on a bicycle here: 
http://www.flammerouge.je/images/factsheets/Corner%20Schematic.pdf

> Bloody dangerous crossing into the other lane on blind hairpins. 

Definitely, but on many high mountain descents you can have a really good look down the road from above in which case, if you can see that it ius clear, you can safely use the whole road. IMHO, of course.

Unless its closed road event, stay on your side of the road.  Bloody dangerous crossing into the other lane on blind hairpins.  I sat at the top of mont Ventoux last year, several riders nearly wiped out by crossing across the white line for a car to suddenly appear.  by all means enjoy the speed but stay on your side.

It's almost although people are being wilfully contrary here.  I'm no pro so ymmv but I don't think I've often hit a hairpin apex at exactly the right speed such that I don't need to have the option avalable  to gently feather the brakes a little through the corner (or realised I could've been going quicker - damn!) but of course that's the aim and heaven when it happens. Brake levers have a little travel before the pads engage so you would not be able to tell exactly what was happening in the video just from the lever position.

Obviously if there's traffic you don't ride on the opposite side of the road but when riding a hairpin you often (as in the example) have really good visibility of the road below and hence what is coming up so you can choose your line accordingly after a look down. There's a calculation to be made that's quite rapid so experience matters and for the most part I would suggest staying close to the centre line rather than the outside of the corner unless riding a closed-road event. I have three kids so I select my commitment to a corner with that in mind but confidence levels build and things get re-normalised later in the ride

In the video example the rider is on the "wrong" side of the road coming towards the corner and will have had a lot of time to see whether something is coming from below that they need to avoid (and people with cameras making the film giving them signals?) and if there was they would have stayed on the right of the centre line. The apex is the "right" side of the road so no problem there although it looks "wrong" to UK viewers initially. For a video like this, showing how to use the whole of the road illustrates the techniques better even though in real-life you usually need to show more caution.

If I ride like that in the alps on holiday, there's a good chance I wouldn't make it home. Crap video. 

I would recommend definitely not stepping into the opposing lane. If a fast motorcycle rider appeared, the bicycle rider on the video would be unable to avoid him/her at such speed with skinny 23c tires. This is a very wrong riding line for public roads.

Theres a lot of braking going on mid corner in that video...or was that supposed to be a how to go round a corner slowly badly?