Standing up

[Woodman]

...

I have seen guys snag the toe of their boots and cause offs and worst an injury so I would encourage the higher the better to within reason.

A broken bone in my right foot can vouch for that

[Phreaky Phil]

My comment on loosing the front when standing up not only comes from personal experience but from Kiwi (turned Aussie)Legend Steffan Merriman. I was at an ISDE training school way back (97 i think) and Steffan was talking to us about the Pros and Cons of the different riding techniques, sitting verses standing. He was raised a Trials rider so stands ALL the time but said that you can loose the front and not be able to get a foot down in time to save it. He then went out onto the track (In the middle of Riverhead forest) and did some demo laps and embarrassingly had a getoff. Lost the front end on some slick stuff. Shaun Clarke also did some demo laps. He has a more sit down riding style. With a foot out you can slide the front. Steffan also mentioned that a lot of the Euro riders sat a lot and were incredibly fast. MX riders stand a lot but sit to turn the bike.
When the ground is rough its easier to go quick standing but its a lot more tiring to ride standing. Modern dirtbikes have there bars a lot further forward, and a lot flatter bend to make standing easier. The older 80's & 90's bikes were hard to stand on for a long time because of the reward rake of the bars.

[Peril]

I do the same thing,sit in the slippery stuff and stand when its rough.Countless times I've saved the front by being able slam a foot down when the front tucks under while sitting.

[bart]

In MX, sitting and sticking a foot out certainly helps when turning a hairpin. I haven't seen many gravel roads where this style is required (for me). Only when I get in the shit and start overshooting a corner.

I think for me, standing gives more control of both the front and back. Sliding the rear end is more controlled because you can move your weight, grip with knees, and get more leverage on the bars.

Don't get me wrong though, I've found times when I've had a new tyre on the back and the sit down foot sticky out method works better. Must be when the grippy back is causing the front to sledge.

[NordieBoy]

Sit down, foot out only works properly with good knobs as you're trying to dig for traction whilst leaned over.

Standing also let's you work around balder tyres...

[Phreaky Phil]

Getting that foot forward helps transfer weight to the front. Supermoto guys been doin it for years and MotoGP guys doin it now. Hard to do it on a Beemer tho. Cylinder's in the bloodt way !

[warewolf]

Is this purely a balance thing? In a way it is hard to have your head anywhere else as the fact that you are standing up reaching for the bars and your feet are slightly behind you, you are almost forced to lean forward anyway. Not completely true as in traffic I can stand straight up no dramas but when you get a bit of pace on you tend to lean forward.

You can easily move your head a helmet-width forward/back from the bars and not be in the right position. If standing forces a lean then you might need bar risers. As the speed comes up, or the terrain more technical, I find an MX "standing" attack position works so much better. It's a bit of a misnomer in that it is really a crouch with your back nearly horizontal - head over the bars though.

[warewolf]

A lot of my comments come from training with people like Greg Power (you may have heard of one of his other students, S.Merriman) and Nick Reader, among others. Greg doesn't have much MX background so prefers standing unless resting by sitting on the smooth stuff. Nick's got more MX experience so promotes MX-style seated cornering. IIRC foot-forward was not recommended.

Foot forward is fine for sumo or motogp guys, as they know with a high degree of certainty that this corner on the track will be as smooth as it was 90 seconds ago... For adventure riders, it's useful for smooth gravel hairpins you can see through but probably not warranted the rest of the time. Heck if you've got energy to burn holding your inside leg horizontal, and constantly swapping legs in the twisty stuff we seem to ride in, then you wouldn't be concerned about standing up being tiring in the slightest.

Insteps are fine and/or recommended, but so is keeping your toes up and in, so your feet don't get ripped off by rocks, ruts and tree stumps. It allows you to operate the foot levers, too.

[wysper]

hmm there is lots to consider there.
Looks like I might have to increase the distance between the pegs and the bars.
I like the idea of almost a metre difference. Mine is 90cm.

Means I don't feel completely comfortable standing up.

time to take some advice in person me thinks!!

[NordieBoy]

My bar to peg distance is about 940mm.

Once I lower the pegs a bit more it'll be closer to 1000mm.