Moving weight around bike to suit cornering?

[McDuck]

Yo. After seeing track guys shift their bum around on the seat before a corner i had a go this arvo and it felt good. Is there anything i should be doing or i should not be doing?

[James Deuce]

You really don;t need to do it on the road, because you just aren't going quick enough to get anything from it. There were a rash of tickets dished out in the early '90s for riders caught hanging off, though this seems to have stopped happening of late.

Seeing as how I'm not going to talk you out of it.

1. Look through the corner.
2. Relax.
3. Do not use the handle bars as gym equipment. They're for steering not hanging on to.
4. You only need to shift your butt a couple of inches to make a difference.
5. Wedge your outside (the uphill one, the one on the the highside of the bike) knee against the tank and weight the outside peg.
6. Don't hang off the handle bars, use your legs to move around.
7. If you MUST do it all the time, don't be sitting on the seat through a series of bends. Hover over it so that your weight shifts quickly and smoothly from one side to the other. Not up, out, back, plonk, up out back. The plonk into the seat will upset the bike.
8. You REALLY don;t need to do it on the road.
9. Don't hang off the handlebars.
10. You really don't need to do it on the road.

[EnzoYug]

Yo. After seeing track guys shift their bum around on the seat before a corner i had a go this arvo and it felt good. Is there anything i should be doing or i should not be doing?

unfortunately this does nothing for speed / cornering. it might feel good but it's just you - you're not performing any better.


The way I came to this dramatic conclusion was by reading a article written by a professional race trainer who decided that he needed to teach the kids at his school that it's counter/steering - not weight shifting - that moves the bike.

He welded a set of static bars above the normal ones on his zxr 750 (the bars didn't move but had secondary throttle controls on them) and got his classes to ride the bike and try turn / move corner etc.... with them. Nothing happened. Every one of his classes testified that hanging off / weight shifting didn't turn the bike... or do shit at all. The bike has too much momentum and inertia for a riders body weight to affect - especially at speed where bikes are like gyroscopes (they want to run true lines)

it's what your hands are doing that turns the bike. therefore hanging off might encourage you to push or pull a different way, but it's nothing you can't teach yourself to do with bum firmly in seat.


Anyway - this is all someones else's logic. and no i didn't bring names, dates or numbesr with me. so it's probably all shit. who cares, it's late.

[Mikkel]

Well, the only reason you'd ever want to hang off the bike is to be able to keep the bike more upright while cornering at a certain radius and speed.

The only time you need that is if you're cornering so fast and tightly that your pegs/fairing (whichever comes first) will touch the ground before you get the necessary leverage compared to your contact surface. ...or if you want to achieve that knee-down thing everyone are rambling about

As Jim said - you don't need it on the road. And I'll even add - if you're riding like that on the road, all the time, you're a dick and don't leave enough of a safety margin in your riding. It is however good to know how to do and if you ever underestimate a corner or need to turn quickly it can save your ass. Other than that I'd suggest saving it for the track.
Oh, and one thing Jim forgot - make sure you keep your weight forward (give your front wheel as much weight bias as possible)... try and kiss your wing mirrors as someone on here put it a while back.

[James Deuce]

Oh, and one thing Jim forgot - make sure you keep your weight forward (give your front wheel as much weight bias as possible)... try and kiss your wing mirrors as someone on here put it a while back.

That's shifting weight in two axes, something you should only do if you are confident at reading the amount of available front-end traction at any given time.

There's a lot going on when you start dragging your weight forward as well as from side to side.

Baby steps.

[Mikkel]

That's shifting weight in two axes, something you should only do if you are confident at reading the amount of available front-end traction at any given time.

There's a lot going on when you start dragging your weight forward as well as from side to side.

Baby steps.

True - it's a very complex mechanical (and by that I mean newtonian) system when it comes down to it. And grasping it analytically in it's full 3D glory is extremely difficult...

If you keep the throttle on throughout the corner though I'd say it'll be better to keep forwards than backwards weight wise. Whatever happens I guess that loosing the grip of the front wheel would be worse than having the rear let go.
But, on second thought, I think you covered it very nicely with your "Don't hang off the handlebars!" bit. If you're leaning out and want to retain the correct and relaxed angle in your elbows you'll need to lean forward slightly as well...

[ital916]

As Jim said - you don't need it on the road. And I'll even add - if you're riding like that on the road, all the time, you're a dick and don't leave enough of a safety margin in your riding. It is however good to know how to do and if you ever underestimate a corner or need to turn quickly it can save your ass. Other than that I'd suggest saving it for the track.
Oh, and one thing Jim forgot - make sure you keep your weight forward (give your front wheel as much weight bias as possible)... try and kiss your wing mirrors as someone on here put it a while back.

I'm learning to do it, on the road. I'm not a dick, and i leave plenty of safety margin, I've come across situation where there is a tight turn but i would like to keep my bike as upright as possible, shifting my weight allows me to do this, plus it's just good practice seeing as It will be a while before the track. It's not hurting anyone so don't speel about others being dicks when they do it, thanks for the tips though willbe noted and practised....on the road *and track when i get there*.lol

p.s i don't speed so im not a looney race track is the road rider

[imdying]

I do it on the road... I'm too tall for my RGV, so it's the easiest (only) way to get enough room for my foot to get back far enough on the peg to stop it dragging on the ground

[jrandom]

Try following a GSX-R1000 on the road while riding a GSX1400, and then come back and tell me that you don't need to shift your weight around.

Weight transfer manifestly does make any bike go around a corner better.

Riders who stay plopped in the middle of their seat and keep themselves in line with the bike's chassis run out of lean angle far sooner, and put themselves in danger of running wide on decreasing-radius corners when they get to the edge of their tyres and/or start dragging bits of the bike and find there's no more lean to be leaned.

On Betty, I tend to achieve the weight transfer by waving my torso about rather than shunting my bum off the seat. Easier to do it that way on a bike with low pegs.

But it has to be done. You can get away without significant weight transfer on a sportbike with shitloads of ground clearance (I think this is what Jim2 speaks of) but not everybody rides a sprotbike (yeah, Jim, don't be such an elitist) and when you're riding a bike that grinds the pegs at a moment's notice, moving your body around for corners is no longer optional if you want to travel at anything beyond "gentle pootling" pace.

[90s]

There is something else small you can try that helps cornering, is very simple and has immeadiate benefits: push down on the opposite peg to your cornering (called "weighting the pegs"). So if you are into a left-hander really push on the right peg. It helps if you are also transferring weight, getting off the bike etc, but even if you sit stock still in the saddle you will feel better cornering.

Try it. Not flash, simple, and easy to 'forget' to do. As effective at rolling speeds as it is a long sweepers.

[James Deuce]

I own a Katana like his. The pegs don't touch down until you've fallen off.

Why would you need to shift your weight on it on the road?

It has its place for sure, but until he starts riding the 650 it isn't going to be obvious.

[jrandom]

I own a Katana like his. The pegs don't touch down until you've fallen off.

Why would you need to shift your weight on it on the road?

Decreasing-radius corners. Because you Just Never Know (tm). I've had plenty of 'eek, tip it in, arrgh, hope I don't fall off' moments on various motorcycles that would never have happened if I'd been hanging off the bike a bit.

It sometimes seems as though when one's climbed off, one can tighten one's line almost arbitrarily by simply looking further through the corner. There's no feeling of "will I or will I not run out of lean angle here?"

It has its place for sure, but until he starts riding the 650 it isn't going to be obvious.

I don't really see why he shouldn't be doing it, though.

After all, a successfully hung-off-in corner makes you feel real cool!

And isn't that what it's all about, in the end?

[Bass]

But it has to be done. You can get away without significant weight transfer on a sportbike with shitloads of ground clearance (I think this is what Jim2 speaks of) but not everybody rides a sprotbike (yeah, Jim, don't be such an elitist) and when you're riding a bike that grinds the pegs at a moment's notice, moving your body around for corners is no longer optional if you want to travel at anything beyond "gentle pootling" pace.

1. Increase the preloads
2. Lose some weight
3. Tell it to Mike Hailwood (might need some medium weight help for this one)

[imdying]

After all, a successfully hung-off-in corner makes you feel real cool!

And isn't that what it's all about, in the end?

Word up nigga

Just do what makes you feel good, life is short.

[skelstar]

I remember when I tried hanging off (well not much) the Hyobag for the first time, I wondered why i hadn't done it sooner. I may not have been going through the corner any faster but it made me feel more confident for some reason. Maybe it just promoted a better line or something.