1 - The neat, tidy, knees-to-tank, stretched-out style, eye to muscle memory, as the path of least resistance: the natural style of riding
2 - Knee comes off the tank credited to Mike Hailwood. Paul Smart
3 - Butt off the seat credited to Jarno Saarinen
4 - Knee-down, hang-off Kenny Roberts Sr. get the credit for this one
5 - Riders are low and on the inside of the motorcycle, in line with the motorcycle not twisted or rotated in the saddle
Keith Code has posted on forums.superbikeschool.com "Conceptually, hanging off couldn't be simpler. Lower the combined center of gravity of the bike/rider and you go through the same corner at the same speed, on the same line with less lean angle. It's a brilliantly utilitarian racer's tool with huge residual benefits, chief among them an accurate, on-board gauge for lean angle."
The last few words caught my eye, "on-board gauge for lean angle"; the knee touching down is a gauge for the lean angle.
Keith Code has been riding for many years. His racing career spanned from 1960's through 1990's. He is a writer and inventor and continues to fine tune his understanding of riding motorcycles. Keith passes along his wealth of knowledge on motorcycle riding through his books and the California Superbike School.
Comments
Like most riding problems, there are always more than one factor to consider and this one follows suit.
While you are right about it not being an absolute gauge of traction it does allow the rider to have an indicator of what chances he may be able to take.
For riders coming up, who don't have enormous confidence in traction, it actually can give them an idea of how much traction they have.
In other words, since side grip on all premium track performance rated tires these days is better than good. Once a rider can get a consistent feel for how much lean he is using, and he's not experiencing any side grip problems, those indicators are telling him he's not at any limit, there is still some room to play with.
Next time he's in that same corner and he feels more pressure on that knee slider and the tires are still sticking, he's got a new base line to reckon with.
Keith
Good to hear from you.
I think we will agree to disagree. :-)
To me & my style teaching precision racing techniques, the knee on the ground is too vague of an indicator. It is subject to too many variables. It doesn't relate directly to how much traction is available. As far as more pressure on the knee is concerned, I teach the students to keep their knee off the ground with maybe just a slight contact. Any weight on the knee will reduce weight on the tires and thus reduce the available traction and let the tire start to slide too easily. Besides by the time your knee is on the ground in the turn, it's too late to make any changes in your entry or corner speed. I'll agree that the knee on the ground may give a new rider a sense of confidence but, as far as useful accurate information it gives back, it is lacking.
Oh well.. to each their own!
Good debating with ya.
Ed Bargy
If you look at the knee pucks on some pro racers they are sometimes very lightly scuffed, other times they are worn down after a single race.
I find personally as soon as the knee touches the ground I know how much more lean angle I have and as I push the bike away to pull out of the bend and get on the gas early the knee helps that process.
I would love to see your version Ed.
Regards.
RSS feed for comments to this post