Leaning your bike

[gruntygiggles]

+1 to YC.....but don't try and do it all at once...lol. You don't need to lean off like that unless you are a riding god...lol. But take what you see them do and find a way of gradually working it into your riding???

[yorkie_chris]

You don't need to but it is fun to play around. Worst will happen is a little crash... only little one :)

[gruntygiggles]

You don't need to but it is fun to play around. Worst will happen is a little crash... only little one :)

Fun? FUN? It's blinking AMAZING!!!! My leathers arrive today, I got knee sliders yesterday, now I just need my bike on the road. Lad in shop thought I was getting knee sliders for my boyfriend. I asked, "how hard/soft are they, they might be going down a lot and there's a track day coming up"?
Salesman said, "Tell your bloke that they'll last a long time on the road and if he's a good enough rider, they'll last a full weekend of being on the track". I said they were for me and he laughed...actually laughed in my face and said, you'll be fine love...with a wink!

I'm going back in there in a couple of weeks, on the bike and see what he says then.

Me? Want to prove someone wrong? Never ;-)

[AndyBrad]

50p she falls off or ends up taking an angle grinder to them :)

[flymo]

Fun? FUN? It's blinking AMAZING!!!! My leathers arrive today, I got knee sliders yesterday, now I just need my bike on the road. Lad in shop thought I was getting knee sliders for my boyfriend. I asked, "how hard/soft are they, they might be going down a lot and there's a track day coming up"?
Salesman said, "Tell your bloke that they'll last a long time on the road and if he's a good enough rider, they'll last a full weekend of being on the track". I said they were for me and he laughed...actually laughed in my face and said, you'll be fine love...with a wink!

I'm going back in there in a couple of weeks, on the bike and see what he says then.

Me? Want to prove someone wrong? Never ;-)

lol, you could test 'em out on the kitchen tiles....

[gruntygiggles]

50p she falls off or ends up taking an angle grinder to them :)

lol, you could test 'em out on the kitchen tiles....

Tell ya what....I'll get it recorded...lol ;-)

Right....to be serious, no, I'm not going to go out and try to get my knee down.....I didn't try and get my toe or peg down...just happened. I do however want to use my body in a better position to allow for me not to have to lean the bike as far. I can't see myself ride....but everyone I've ridden with in the last 3 weeks has told me.....get them, you're knee would be down if you stuck it out. I'm not going to risk damaging my textiles!

I don't care about straight line speeds....I'd rather learn the skill of cornering and I want to get on track. Problem is though...like the constant radius last Sunday, Beenz said that my lean angle and position meant that if i just took my knee away from the tank, it would have been on the floor the whole way around. Not for bragging rights (although it would be very cool...lol) but to keep as much rubber on the road as possible.

[Ed]

Thanks Ed. Been hearing these sorts of answers on here a lot recently. Why don't we simply tell everybody to go and buy a Haynes manual and be done with it for all the technical advice?

I'm being facetious I know, but there are plenty of experienced people on this forum that can offer advice, some better than others at various subjects. That's the purpose of a forum such as this in my view, there is something to be said for the wisdom of a crowd, hopefully the crap is balanced out by the good.


The bloke I was replying to has read the thread and is totally confused. He doesn't have the experience to weed out the wheat from the chaff. If you reread the thread, who wouldn't be confused - so many different subjects discussed and with no clear link between most of them.

So what's wrong with telling him to go buy Roadcraft, which explains it clearly?

[yorkie_chris]

So what's wrong with telling him to go buy Roadcraft, which explains it clearly?

I don't remember seeing weight transfer in there?

[Ed]

Job oppo for Chris there;)

[flymo]

The bloke I was replying to has read the thread and is totally confused. He doesn't have the experience to weed out the wheat from the chaff. If you reread the thread, who wouldn't be confused - so many different subjects discussed and with no clear link between most of them.

So what's wrong with telling him to go buy Roadcraft, which explains it clearly?

I suppose my gripe is that the way you made the recommendation made it sound like "ignore all the crap on here and get some proper advice"

[Philbo]

I'm nowhere near getting my down round corners, but often wondered, what do you do with your knee when it makes contact? Do you keep it rigid to transfer some weight to the road? Do you keep it as relaxed as possible, and just let it kind of drag along the road surface?

Also, if you've got your knee down, what does this mean for the bike? Is it a sign that you're about to run of tyre edge? Does it really indicate anything other than bragging rights at the boozer!:cool:

Same question again please for peg scrapping, and toe slidders!

Edit -
I did manage to get my knee, toe, and pegs down once, but that was in the process of crashing the bike! If i'd had sliders on the contact patch on my knee would have been perfect!

[Berlin]

As soon as your knee hits the tarmac it stabilizes the bike. A tripod is the most stable design and all that.

Personally, I use my knee to steady the bike and its got light pressure on the road. Just enough to maintain contact. If you add more pressure than this, guess what? The bike lifts up, so when you come to gthe end of the corner you can use your knee to lift the bike.

Its also a great way of saving the bike should it start to slide. if you start to feel the front end going, you push down to get it back. I saved a cracking two wheel slide at Croft last time I was there like this :P

The choice of slider makes a difference though. I've just changed to Motrax racing sliders (harder than the road ones, so last longer) and I don't like them as much as the Dianese ones I've been using. They are so hard they give less feel of whats going on. Might just be a getting used to thing but I definitely prefer the Dianese ones at the moment.

C

[Berlin]

Go watch some racing, lean same way as they do. Simples :)

Thats actually a really good statement Chris. I thought I was but on looking at Trackday photos realised I looked nothing like Lorenzo or Rossi. I was sitting upright in the corners.

I've now changed that and I don't take my chin off the tank at all now. I basically slide my chest back and forth across the tank and it's made so much difference. It really loads the front tyre in the corners and takes the weight off the rear. This really increases feel and allows a lot of control of the rear tyre coming out of the corners. I feel like I'm much lower to the track and when hanging off the bike in a fast bend my helmet is down below the screen, looking under it. Knocked 2 seconds a lap off at East Fortune!

Now I just have to knock off another 8 and I'll be in the lead :D


C

[sauluk]

When I got my CBR600RR a few months ago it had massive strips on the back and literally a few inches on the front!

I obviously had to see to this now that the bike was mine, and have successfully got rid of the strips on the rear (now come back because of commuting!). But the ones on the front tyre haven't budged much. They're still impressive, is that down to the suspension set up?? All dampers are on stock settings, nothing has been tweaked, and the tyres are the OEM Bridgestone Battlax's (BT016?).

[flymo]

I'm nowhere near getting my down round corners, but often wondered, what do you do with your knee when it makes contact? Do you keep it rigid to transfer some weight to the road? Do you keep it as relaxed as possible, and just let it kind of drag along the road surface?

Also, if you've got your knee down, what does this mean for the bike? Is it a sign that you're about to run of tyre edge? Does it really indicate anything other than bragging rights at the boozer!:cool:

Same question again please for peg scrapping, and toe slidders!

Edit -
I did manage to get my knee, toe, and pegs down once, but that was in the process of crashing the bike! If i'd had sliders on the contact patch on my knee would have been perfect!

You dont actually 'need' to get your knee down at all, on some corners I choose to and on others I actually lift it higher to avoid touching it down.

I guess the reason for this is not about knee down two wheel slide heroics but more that I use it as a guide when I need to. Your knee can give you an accurate feel for where the ground is when leant over, I guess I choose to slide a knee on the ground on high lean corners. On the very fast sweepers I tend to lift it up and tuck in, which in a funny way requires more confidence in the bike than putting it down.

You dont really want to be doing anything to fight the bike, when and if your knee slides then its a gentle thing, if you are having to push hard then either something has gone wrong or you just like replacing sliders. At one stage I was going through sliders every couple of race meets which was just getting daft, more recently I skim the ground lightly and they last ages.

Personally I dont buy the whole tripod stability thing, most of the bikes stability comes from the gyroscopic effect of the wheels and the bikes momentum, if its going to crash in a corner its usually because you've lost too much grip or something solid has touched down and unloaded one of the tyres. (assuming you dont grab a fistfull of brake or throttle)