Quote:
Originally posted by dickieducati
as an additonal tip which helps me massively: if you are trying to speed up your turns and you usually get your knee down |
Knee down? Nah...you're 'avin a larf mate!
My avatar is about as close as I get to getting my knee down.
The problem is not the lean angle, I actually want as little of that as possible for a given corner speed so that I can use more lean to go faster. So I try to hang off the bike to use as little lean as possible although there are some nice grazes on both pegs (and not through binning it) that show that I'm very occasionally spending my full tenner on lean.
The problem is in the hanging off bit. At 5' 9" I've only got a 29" inside leg. The distance between the seat and the peg on an ST is quite large, so for me to brace my outside leg properly against the tank, I'm on the tip of my toe already. In order to hang off any further than you see in my avatar I would have to lift my foot off the outside peg (I know, I've tried it on the centre stand with someone holding the bike). I've tried doing this on track and just holding on by hooking my leg across the saddle.
This does a few things that all feel wrong. First, it twists my pelvis around the tank and it feels weird not being aligned in the same direction the bike wants to go. Second, I feel perilously like I'm just going to fall off the bike, not through binning it, but simply dropping off, so I end up supporting all my weight on my inside leg which then has to tense up instead of being nice and relaxed. Thirdly, it really upsets the stability of the bike because I'm not comfortable doing it and lastly it makes it a bugger to use my legs to climb back on the bike on the exit and I end up using my arms. All of this is not good, it feels unstable, so I don't do it.
I've had my knee down (genuinely, without it being followed by my arse) three times on the track. Twice at Netties Nook at Rockingham (which is also, strangely enough, a bogie 'lowside' corner for me - although I think I've cracked it now) and once round Chris Curve at Cadwell. I'm not overly fussed about the knee down thing because to borrow a phrase from my mate KeefyB "I don't get my knee down much, but I go round the outside of a lot of people that do"