New York Motorcycle practice
New York Motorcycle: Turning & Cornering practice test
Countersteering, the slow-look-press-roll technique, and choosing the right line through a curve at motorcycle speeds.
Content reviewed against official driver handbooks · August 12, 2026
10 questions · pass with 8 correct. You get instant feedback and an explanation after every answer.
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10 sample Turning & Cornering questions with the correct answer, a short explanation, and the official handbook reference. Read through them, then take the quiz above.
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1. When is the best moment to change gears for a turn?
Correct answer: Before you enter it
Settle the gear on the approach so the corner itself can be spent on your line. If a mid-corner shift becomes unavoidable, make it as smooth as you possibly can, because an abrupt change in power at the rear wheel can break traction.
2. No other traffic is around as you come up on a curve. Which line through it opens up your view and eases the arc?
Correct answer: Begin at the outside, work toward the inside, then drift back out on the way out
Beginning wide stretches how far you can see into the bend and flattens the arc you have to steer. From there you move in toward the inside, then let the motorcycle run back out toward the far side as the corner releases you.
3. Why should you read the shape of a bend while you are still approaching it?
Correct answer: Because a bend may hold steady, open up, tighten, or run into several more turns
No two corners behave alike. Working out early whether the radius holds steady, opens up, closes in on you, or feeds straight into another bend tells you how much speed to shed and where to place the motorcycle.
4. What is a leading cause of crashes that involve the motorcycle alone and no other vehicle?
Correct answer: Riders running wide in a bend and hitting the roadway edge or a fixed object beside it
Taking a bend faster than skill or conditions allow puts single-vehicle crashes at the top of the list — the motorcycle drifts out of its lane and meets a guardrail, a pole or the shoulder. Staying inside your own limits and the posted speed is the cure.
5. As you ride through a curve, where should you be looking?
Correct answer: Through the curve toward where you want to go
Turn your head and look through the turn toward where you want to end up. Your motorcycle tends to go where you look, so keeping your eyes up and ahead helps you steer a smooth, controlled line.
6. What job do your knees have while the motorcycle is turning?
Correct answer: They should stay clamped to the fuel tank to steady your balance
Clamping the tank with your knees anchors your lower body, which frees your arms to steer instead of propping you up as the machine rolls into the corner.
7. The safest way to handle a curve on a motorcycle is to:
Correct answer: Reduce your speed before you enter the curve
Slow down before the curve so you can hold a steady or slightly increasing speed through it. Braking hard in mid-curve while leaned over reduces traction and can cause a skid. Slow, look, press, and roll.
8. How should your body be placed during a slow, tight turn such as a U-turn in a parking lot?
Correct answer: Hold your torso upright and let the motorcycle do the leaning
At crawling speed you counterbalance: the machine tips into the turn while your torso stays vertical. That is the reverse of a normal-speed turn, where rider and motorcycle lean as a single unit at one angle.
9. What happens to the lean a motorcycle needs as a turn becomes tighter or is taken faster?
Correct answer: It has to increase
More speed, or a sharper bend, means the machine has to lie over further to hold the line you want. Build that lean with steady, progressive pressure at the bars rather than a sudden jab.
10. To lean and turn quickly at normal riding speed, a motorcyclist presses on the handgrip:
Correct answer: On the side toward the direction you want to go — press left to go left
At speed you steer by pressing: press the left grip to lean and go left, and the right grip to go right ('press left, go left'). This countersteering is how a motorcycle starts a lean, and it is the key to quick, precise turns and swerves.
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Every New York question is written from the official New York driver handbook and checked against its current edition. DMV Test Free is a free, independent study resource — not affiliated with any DMV or government agency. About DMV Test Free