Hi! I'm just a bit confused. From what I've been told, you get better traction AND a sharper turn by offsetting your lean and keeping the bike more upright. But how do you get a sharper turn by reducing the lean, when how much you lean the bike dictates the radius the tires create for your turn. Am I understanding this incorrectly? Cause leaning the bike less and getting lower while still being able to turn just as sharp doesn't make sense to me. And why is it that I can't get the same amount of traction with the same angle but staying upright? How does this actually make a difference? Thanks for any clarification!
It's all about center of gravity. Hypothetically, if you had a heavy pole long enough to offset enough weight, and were able to manage getting to a curve with it mounted to the bike, you could go around a curve with the bike straight up and down. Offsetting your body weight means the bike leans less, which means less chance of dragging hard parts on the bike, and maintains the maximum contact patch of the tires to the track surface. Do some research on the topic, I'm sure there are a million Youtube vids that can explain it better than I can. Also, in my experience, offsetting your body weight kind of separates you from your bike where both you and the bike can move more individually. This allows you to tighten up your line through a curve easier if you run up on a decreasing radius in the turn, or run up on a rider, debris, etc, and need to adjust your line.