Occasionally I will hear one person or the other, or one magazine or the other, discussing racing lines and street lines and what type of line you should take on the road. As of late, the theory goes something like this: You should use a late apex, slow entry, fast exit approach on the street due to the fact that it will help you see further into the turn, especially blind turns. Now if all that sounded Greek to you, the next couple of paragraphs should help clear that up as I will explain some of the basic terminology used throughout this article.

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The Classic Racing Line - Note: Yellow Line Simulates A Real World Road

A dictionary gives the following definition for apex: a·pex (pks)
n., pl. a·pex·es or a·pi·ces (p-sz, p-). The highest point; the vertex: the apex of a triangle; the apex of a hill. However, as it relates to motorcycles, an apex is the point in the turn where you are closest to the inside edge of the road or more precisely, where you are about to run out of road on the inside of the turn. This creates wonderful ambiguity and misconceptions about the "proper line" because it can be in a number of different places depending on who you are talking to and the type of machine they are riding. Look at these diagrams in the next two paragraphs for the two most common styles. The first picture (this paragraph) is the classic racing line which looks to carry as much speed as possible throughout the turn and generally favors smaller bikes with lower horsepower and marginal acceleration. While that sounds great, as most modern motorcycle racing has proved, it is not always the fastest way around the track. It is also SUICIDE on the street because you will have NO room for error and will cross the double yellow lines TWICE. This leads to the current theory about late apexing which we will discuss in the next paragraph.

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A Late Apexing Line - Note: Yellow Line Again Simulates A Real World Road

Late apexing means that the apex of the turn will happen further down the track or "later," hence "Late Apexing." At first glance, this line looks much better, and it is, as you don't have to cross the centerline like you might with the classic racing line. The big problem lies with other people (doesn't it always?) In case you haven't noticed, a lot, and I mean A LOT of people like to use part of YOUR lane when they make a turn. This is also what you'd be doing if you used the "Classic Racing Line." So now refer back to this picture and you will see the problem. Imagine you're following a late apex line just like this picture and someone is coming the other way using approximately half of your lane (I'm being generous as they usually use up about, oh say, 99% of your lane). What would you do? Where would you go. Chances are, right through their windshield! So now having debunked both of these lines as unsafe for the street what do we do?

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A Safe Street Line

Enter the "Safe Street Line®". The first thing you might notice is that it is exactly like the "Late Apex Line" except that it starts more to the middle of your lane. This is good because of all the things we mentioned before, namely someone coming around the turn in your lane. It has the added benefit of giving you less lane to turn in. How's that a benefit? All of the great racers brake, release brakes, initiate turn ins and exit a turn at exactly the same place time after time. Literally a spot about the size of a dime. Working with less road space forces you to be more precise and be more exact. On the fun side... working with less space means you will have to actually turn the bike quicker (another thing that separates the pros from the rank and file) and at greater lean angle. I think most of us can agree that lean angle is one of the more exhilarating aspects of our sport.

At the end of the day, there is always the possibility that you will do everything right and that someone will still come along and screw up your entire day. This is just life in general, so deal with it. All you can do is try to reduce, to nil if possible, the bad things that you do and hence reduce your odds of becoming a statistic. If you want to try a "Classic Racing Line" or a "Late Apexing Line," I suggest, as usual, that you get yourself to a racetrack or another completely closed course, or best of all a racing school. Michael C. Richards

Here's another good to discuss.

I am not a pro, but I have been riding a long time and I love to take them corners as fast as I can, so maybe I can help shed a little more light on the subject from my experience.

On a track the apex is the center of a turn. When you take a late apex, that means when you are the closest to the inside of the track edge, it is past the center of the turn. Many racers use this method on the track.

On the street you can not charge into a corner quite the same way, and stay alive for very long.
If the corner is open (can see the whole turn) and there is no other traffic you can charge a corner pretty good with a late apex with a fair amount of lean, just beware of loose gravel, sand, and other debris on the roadway. The only time I cross the center line is when I'm in a open left turn and there is no other traffic.

If it is a blind right corner (can not see the whole turn), I take a early apex and hug the inside of the turn till I can see the whole turn and the traffic that maybe approaching. That may not be the fastest way, it's the safest way. In a blind left turn don't take it to agressive. I take the left part of my lane, being careful not to cross the center line, cause you don't know who is coming around the corner toward you. If someone is coming across the center line in part of your lane. Hopefully he will see you in his face and try to get back in his lane. Plus brake, but not to hard, the bike will try to stand straight up if you brake to hard. Brake just enough to allow you to quickly reshape the turn to take the out side of the lane. This must become instinct almost like breathing.

Like I said, I'm not no pro, and I didn't read this in no book, I just ride to enjoy myself and stay alive to ride again.

Try doing agressive moves while you are by yourself, practice turning quick, braking hard, and balance. Remember that most of your stopping power is on your front brake, USE IT. Try pushing on the right handle bars to turn right, and left bars to turn left. Not to hard at first, see what happens. All of these things must become second nature.

Racing around a track and street riding really don't have much in common.

There is no need to cross the hazard (centre) line.

On country roads, I take a late apex. Here's my reason:
1- This allows me not just to see who's coming from the opposite way, but also be seen by the oncoming traffic and still make adjustment. Hugging the nearside on entry up to the apex will make you hard to be seen by oncoming traffic.
2 - This allows for a margin of error when the vanishing point suddenly disappear fast on the bend. If this happen, I can still lean further to make a tightening turn. If it suddenly tighten while you're hugging the nearside, you don't have a choice but to hit that brakes = bad idea. Also hugging the nearside make you exit wide.
3 - This will make the bike spend less time on full lean, thus you can get on the gas earlier on exit.

On city streets, lots of traffic, pedestrian and what not. I will ride on the centre on the road. I can't go fast anyway so maximum lean will never be achieve here unless you're a twat!

Every corner is different and if I have not been on that road before I take the corner very cautious. I have lived in a moutainous area for a while in Front Royal, Virginia. Many times the roads are very narrow with the inside of the corner is carved straight up from the mountain.
If you charge into one of these corners taking a late apex you may run into the grill of a truck. Believe me, trucks and cars take the whole corner.

Once I was following a car on a very sharp corner. The car disappeared around the blind corner where I could not see him for a few seconds. The cars rear end slide out and hit the inside of the mountain, then rolled to the center of the road. As I came around the corner I had to reshape my corner going around the car on the far left lane next to the cliff. Then I had to quickly slow and reshape back to the right because the man got thrown out of his moon roof and was laying in the road right in front of me.

Ditto on Botchix's advice. Another thing I can add is to look far ahead and adjust your corner speed based on the road you see around the corner. The more road you see, the faster you can go. If the road dissapears blindly around the corner, then slower you must go. As Rocky mentioned, there might be an unpleasant surprise waiting for you around the bend.

That's why you only ride 85-90% in the streets. One thing I've been trying on streets is the quick turn-in but with all the unknowns, dirt debri and stuff, I try to keep it to a minimum.