Climb off or stay onboard?

[johan]

...

But I LOVE getting my knee down on the newer Ducatis

YMMV

hear hear! But i think this guy is overdoing it a little bit. (2.40 minutes in the video)

http://vimeo.com/1682207?pg=embed&sec=1682207

[OutForADuck]

I've been hanging off for so long it seems so unnatural not too. In a corner I want touch points (arm across tank, seat inside knee, all weight carried on inside peg etc) and damned if I know how you do this whilst just sitting. Plus the balance & feel just doesn't seem to be there.

[avgas]

stop drop and roll

[slofox]

Hugh Anderson, in his day, was one who had the reputation of "being at one" with his bike - ie he didn't climb all over the thing but stayed tucked in. He was great to watch - very much a part of the machine. Course he did most of his riding on smaller capacity bikes so may not have had the need to climb all over.

Hmmmmmm..........I have just found a photo of Hugh with his knee sticking out....but not climbing off the bike I might add....the dude following him, (Alan Shepherd), has the knee in......seems that Alan is the "tidy" one, not Hugh as i first stated......firkin memory is failin' like me knees...and me brain...and....never mind....

Personally I have no inclination to stick my knee out. This is because I would not want to land on one if I arsed off, being as how both my knees are knacked already....rather slide on me bum than the knee....

[McJim]

I'm a shit rider so don't take this a advice...it's just what I do. On left handers I sit in my seat and move my upper torso to the left as I corner (countersteering as required). On right handers I move my right arse cheek and upper torso to the right (but make no effort to stick my knee out) and I've become comfortable with the control this gives me in corners.

MSTRS can confirm what a slackarse I am in the twisties though so no heed should be paid to me.

[Qkchk:Me]

If you really want some useless information.........


I stick me knee out on the inside of a corner without moving my arse.

Ive thought about this a couple of times, one theory Ive come up with is that the knee acts as an 'airbrake' and so with air resistance on the inside makes the inside line of the bike move slower than the outside...(to the minimal degree) sounds silly but it works for me.

[MSTRS:Me]

MSTRS can confirm what a slackarse I am in the twisties though so no heed should be paid to me.

You did just fine, esp as you were on a strange bike.
Have you managed to relax the FrozenWithFearGrimace yet?

[mstriumph]

my riding is very ordinary, i'm not a poseur so flash don't interest me
and my bum is firmly planted on my fluffy seat cover with knees gripping the tank
[yeah - i too can remember when everyone used to ride that way ..... *sigh* time flies]

but i still enjoy the amount of influence you can have on the bike just dropping a shoulder or moving your ribcage sideways over your hips or shifting your weight from one footpeg to the other or similar .....

each to his or her own i guess .......

[imdying]

each to his or her own i guess .......

Definitely... only have to watch one motogp race to see that even at that level, there's no definitive way to ride

[slofox]

Interesting how close the poll is.......I expected many more to hang off than stay tight.....

[slopster]

Of course leaning off will lessen the tyre angle which is good but a lot of people over do it and if your not firm and stable on the bike it probably does more harm then good. Nothing funnier then seeing people hanging way off the side of the bike while not even leaned over very far.

[hospitalfood]

hanging off sucks when you hit a big northland pot hole ( range in size from 20 cm to half the road ) and you wish at that moment you were counter steering.
i find i will move my arse to the inside but still counter a lot of the time with the elbows well bent. ( this is possibly a fatal mistake and terrible style )
i find i need to remind myself to bend my elbows, and when i do it makes a massive improvement to my riding ( from shit to average ).

[speights_bud]

Sit yer arse down, until you run out of ground clearance, then hang it out there and fang-dangle it around, each bike has different clearances obviously, but i lean accordingly, be it due to clearance or other things such as wanting a bit more security with tyre contact over a surface change etc.
If in doubt try scrape everything you can just coz its krazy cool and grind that 'Q' off Quasi's awesome sliders

[Chrislost]

The modern superbikers all seem to climb way off the bike in the corners. This practice seemed to appear in the early seventies - maybe related to the advent of the then popular two-stroke race bikes, all of which produced tons more oomph than their British predecessors...like Norton's AJ's, Gold Stars etc etc.
I can see the point of hanging way out there at the speeds the modern day bikes achieve - the tyre angle is reduced etc etc. But I question the need for this degree of "overhang" unless you are on the track and pushing it hard.
Hugh Anderson, in his day, was one who had the reputation of "being at one" with his bike - ie he didn't climb all over the thing but stayed tucked in. He was great to watch - very much a part of the machine. Course he did most of his riding on smaller capacity bikes so may not have had the need to climb all over. That said, I personally like to stay tight with the bike most of the time, although if I do cock up and find myself in a corner too fast, then a little judicious overhang does do wonders......
What do others think? Anyone else like me - a throwback to the olden day tight style? Or am I just an anachronistic dinosaur, heading for extinction and the great race track in the sky?

i like to slide over so that only one cheek is on the seat.
I find that if i do this i dont need to even hold onto the handle bars for most corners(within the speed limit) and a little weight on the footpegs will make the bike stand up, or lie down if the corner tightens.




I dont ride fast, so if you do, ffs hold on to the bars.

[slofox]

I find that if i do this i dont need to even hold onto the handle bars for most corners

If I let go the handle bars the throttle shuts and the bike stops.......dammit...