Body Weight on Cornering
- Thread starter Nipper
- Start date
Because of the extreme lean angles that can be reached with the modern tyre grip that is available, the tyre is at the extreme edge of the contact area and there is nothing left.
Therefore there is two main reasons to get off to one side of your bike.
When you apply more throttle whilst leaned fully over the bike will naturally try to lift.
Getting off the side of the bike and having more weight to one side means that more throttle can be applied and with a relatively higher corner speed and still keeping the bike stable in terms of lean angle change at the corner apex.
As you exit the corner if you keep your body weight far off the side you can lift the bike onto the fatter section of the tyres and open the throttle a lot earlier and harder than at full lean. If you are sitting upright on the seat the bike would tend to run wide due to understeer.
Body postion into and out of the corner is not only sideways, to get more front tyre grip you move as far forward as you can to weight up the front tyre.
There has recently been a dedicated section with the subject related to cornering. Maybe this post should be moved to that section
Therefore there is two main reasons to get off to one side of your bike.
When you apply more throttle whilst leaned fully over the bike will naturally try to lift.
Getting off the side of the bike and having more weight to one side means that more throttle can be applied and with a relatively higher corner speed and still keeping the bike stable in terms of lean angle change at the corner apex.
As you exit the corner if you keep your body weight far off the side you can lift the bike onto the fatter section of the tyres and open the throttle a lot earlier and harder than at full lean. If you are sitting upright on the seat the bike would tend to run wide due to understeer.
Body postion into and out of the corner is not only sideways, to get more front tyre grip you move as far forward as you can to weight up the front tyre.
There has recently been a dedicated section with the subject related to cornering. Maybe this post should be moved to that section
I was always told to "Keep leanin till yer lips are draggin"! Thus have been hanging off the bike like a monkey ever since. :happy5:
Only Lean as far as you are personally comfortable ....not as your ego or other peoples egos and skill level dictates ,if in doubt slow down and take it easy and always use a bit of negative steering,
Hanging right off, elbow dragging also moves the rider further from the 'high side' of things. I'd have a dozen low sides to one high side thank you very much.
Most of the top riders are generally small men and can crawl all over the bikes. Interestingly when it's wet, the knee sliders get a lot thicker/ longer.
Most of the top riders are generally small men and can crawl all over the bikes. Interestingly when it's wet, the knee sliders get a lot thicker/ longer.
Something that should be added to this discussion is the difference between road and race tracks.
While we can look at the need to move the weight to the inside of the corner for race track speeds, normally cornering on public roads never comes close. So while a knee down may be benifitial at over 300 kmh. It does not have any benefit at all at 100kmh. In fact, with around town and normal public road speeds it is often counter productive as for this sort of work, gymkhana skills can offer a distinct advantage and they work better if gripping the tank with a riders knees.
The common answer for the question "how do you get a knee down" was have you ever seen a UK Motorcycle Police rider trying to get his knee down? No, well try out running one of them.
While we can look at the need to move the weight to the inside of the corner for race track speeds, normally cornering on public roads never comes close. So while a knee down may be benifitial at over 300 kmh. It does not have any benefit at all at 100kmh. In fact, with around town and normal public road speeds it is often counter productive as for this sort of work, gymkhana skills can offer a distinct advantage and they work better if gripping the tank with a riders knees.
The common answer for the question "how do you get a knee down" was have you ever seen a UK Motorcycle Police rider trying to get his knee down? No, well try out running one of them.