Hanging-off & Weight Distribution

[kedo]

I have been watching/studying dvd's of the GP and AMA seasons and have noticed that many of the pro's don't have their outside leg pinned into the fuel tank while they're "hanging-off". Why is this? How can they be "light on the bars" if they are not supporting themselves elsewhere on the motorcycle? Can their body positioning relative to the lean angle of the bike allow them to do this? I am very interested in your feedback here.

[Keith Code]

I have been watching/studying dvd's of the GP and AMA seasons and have noticed that many of the pro's don't have their outside leg pinned into the fuel tank while they're "hanging-off". Why is this? How can they be "light on the bars" if they are not supporting themselves elsewhere on the motorcycle? Can their body positioning relative to the lean angle of the bike allow them to do this? I am very interested in your feedback here.

 

Kedo,

 

Good question:

 

(1) half the answer is in how much time top riders spend working out.

(2) Another part of the answer is how well the bikes are adjusted to the individual rider.

(3) Another is in the parts that are used.

(4) One more part is: There is more than one way to sit on a bike and still be able to be attached to it without stranging it and adding unwanted inputs into it.

 

In #1, using the back and abs can keep you off the bars.

In #2, getting just the right seat and seat height, peg position, bar position, in other words fitting the rider perfectly to the bike is a huge help. A small change in the bike's ergonomics gives big rewards.

In #3, using good footpegs alone gives huge stability to the riders lower half, allowing the upper half to be more relaxed, so do non slippery seats help keep the rider fixed and off the bars.

In #4, some riders use the tank to help and clamp onto it with their inner thighs and sometimes the arm, the seat can be used for this as well. Some use more inside leg, holding themselves up. Often it is a combination of all of them.

 

When you look at the engineering of the bike and a rider's body you can come up with a theoretical "best" way of sitting on the bike for the purpose of being loose on the bars. Will eveyone like it? Probably not. Would it work for everyone? Functionally yes, but personal prefernce and feel can sometimes overshadow what works the best.

 

The actual mechanics of how riders sit on bikes wasn't much of a subject before 1993. No one had looked at it from a technical viewpoint. Now we know more and can make the rider's job a lot easier based on solid principals.

 

Keith