At my last trackday, I was moving my but off the seat and getting my knee out in the turns, but my upper body stayed over the tank. I was trying to work on that yesterday at Gingerman. I caught myself doing it again a few times, but I think I'm starting to get it right. How does my body position look? Also, should I move my foot up on the peg more? http://youtu.be/m8Wur4oIijw
Hard to tell a lot from that angle looks decent though. You can still bring your chest down on the tank a bit more for sure. Cant tell if you have one cheek off or 1.5 but looks like you could get upper body over another inch or two and should be aligned with the bike more! When you do these two things your inside elbow should bend a good bit more.
You're doing well so far. Try two things: 1) Titty on the tank 2) Shoulder behind your ear on the inside This will put your upper body lower, and rotate your shoulders and torso into the corner. The bike will follow. Plus that, since your head will be lower, you'll need less lean angle for a given corner speed.
Tit tank, shoulder ear. I'll have to remember that. I know at ACC they walked me through proper body position, but after a month of street riding without track, I guess I forgot and fell into old habits. I went for a quick ride on some freeway ramps, and it felt pretty natural. I can't wait to try it for real at the track. Thanks for the tips.
What Chris said. Also, remember to ride at a pace a little below your normal speed while you're trying out new things. It frees up a percentage of your concentration so you can focus more on the feel and mechanics of the new positions. Hanging off is important to reduce lean angle, but there is one time when it's very important. That's from the apex to the exit point. The more you can drop your head and upper body, the sooner you can start to reduce lean angle and then start applying throttle to drive out of the corner. Reducing lean angle sooner, get you on the meat of the tire sooner so it can handle the torque. Body position takes a while to perfect, but once you get it, it will help your riding a great deal. Just keep at it and don't get frustrated. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I know you didn't ask but after watching the video I suggest squeezing the brake more and "grabbing" it less. It will be more of a problem on faster tracks with higher speeds. Others with more experience than me may want to watch and chime in...
I appreciate any advice I can get, but not sure exactly what you mean. Brake smoother, like more gradually?
I just watched a brief bit of the video, not all I it yet. I think what he's saying is when you're going to brake, you want to first apply just enough brake to cause drag and put a load on the front tire BEFORE you apply heavier braking. This increases the size of your tire's contact patch before you ask the tire to work in slowing you down. This doesn't mean it has to take a long time, just a bit of loading, then gradually increase braking pressure to slow the bike to where you're comfortable with your entry speed. The same goes for releasing the brakes. Do just pop off the brakes. Slowly release the pressure on the lever as you're turning in. This will eventually become trail braking, but work on the above first. If you release the brakes quickly, it cause the front suspension to unload quickly. The reduces your contact patch at the very moment you're about to ask the front tire to work in turning the bike. If extreme, it can cause you to lose the front on turn-in. If in person, I could show this to you in the pits in about 5-10 minutes. Trying to type it out sucks. Next time you're at the track, ask a CR to show you progressive braking and slow release. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think I know what you're talking about. Coming off the brakes I could feel the front pop up sometimes, so I would try to be smooth to avoid that. Wasn't paying as much attention going on the brakes. I guess I got something else to work on at my next track day.
Start out by braking sooner, but brake a bit lighter. Once you get the feel of that, start trying to hold a "SLIGHT" pressure on the brakes as you turn in. Just enough to create drag, then as your aiming for your apex, smoothly release. That's trail braking, but on a very light scale. As you get more experience, you can use more pressure to help steer the bike, but too much and it could overload the front. It's all about practice and seat time. When you're working on this stuff, always slow you pace a bit so it gives you time to think about what you're doing. It also allows you to concentrate more on how the bike is feeling and reacting to your inputs. Remember - baby steps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I just bought a weekend at ACC 8/4-8/5, so I should have plenty of track time to work on this. Thanks for all the useful advice.
Good luck to ya! :thumb: The doctor won't let me ride for another six weeks, or so, otherwise I'd offer to help show you what I'm talking about. Just ease into it, and you'll do fine.
body position is pretty important, but there are so many "right" ways to do it & a few wrong ways, some ppl ride on the bike & some ppl ride off the bike, neither is wrong & both work, but overall its what is comfortable for you. i'll be at the ACC event so if you want a few pointers let me know, i'd be more than willing to take 5 mins to show ya a few things
Case in point. Watch the next AMA superbike race and watch how diff Josh Hayes and Josh Herrin look when leaned. I paused them in a corner last week and could not even see Herrin when he was right on the tail of Hayes.
Yeah I'd say you need to work on your right hand more so than body position at this point, you are very grabby with the brake and throttle. You need to smooth all of that out, I spend far more time transitioning between the two than I do using them. Here's what's going on, you are grabbing the front brake and whoaing the bike down until your happy with your speed, then just releasing the lever completely all at once, turn the bike while coasting through, then whacking the throttle open once you have the bike stood up again on the exit. Spend much more time on those transitions, you should be on the brakes hard going into the corner (then as you approach tip in you should be SLOWLY releasing the brake lever as you increase your lean angle, down near the apex you should be completely off the brake and just starting to sneak the throttle open, just enough so that you are not accellerating or decellerating, and then as you take away lean angle SLOWLY add throttle, the less lean angle you have, the more throttle you can have. I have a video that doesn't quite show the brake lever and throttle hand but it shows enough where you can see what i'm talking about. Also listen to the engine on the exits to see how slow I roll onto the gas but how early I start that process. You can also see the point where I transition from the brake to the gas because I adjust my hand position, I'm on the brakes all the way down until apex in most corners. https://vimeo.com/41656153
Even us mortals can do that too. Look at the lead riders left side and you can see another rider mirroring him.
nice. you are good at blipping while holding steady on the brakes. I found that as I increased my entrance speeds and braked later, I was causing the bike to porpoise by releasing the brake a bit as I blipped. I worked on it a lot (R Atl coming in to 10a, for example), and finally got it. it's very important to be able to hold steady on the brakes while blipping/downshifting. I only use my index finger to brake, so I ended up blipping with my thumb and the skin between thumb/index. certainly, the position of your brake lever is also important. good thread.