Body Postion And Riding Style

[rchase]

Nate Kern posted this video on Facebook and I wanted to share because it shows some interesting style characteristics of his riding. Nate for years raced boxers which had design related ground clearance issues so he uses a lot of body off the bike. What's interesting is how he prepositions mid corner in some cases for the next corner. It's filmed in 4K and was filmed at a COTA track day. Figured it might spark an interesting conversation.

 

[khp]

rchase, did you post a link to the wrong video?

All I saw was a 9 second clip and where you don't see him move his body over one side to the other.

What was it I was supposed to notice?

[rchase]

That's kind of interesting 13 seconds and indeed he does not even move.

 

Here's the correct video.

 

[YellowDuck]

COTA is awesome. Can't wait for this weekend...

 

Honestly, I don't find his body position particularly extreme. Probably a full cheek off the seat, which is kind of a lot but not unusual. Outside elbow still has lots of bend, sternum maybe 6" inside of the steering head.... It's always hard to get a good perspective on body position from a rear mount camera, but from what I'm seeing this is pretty standard.

[rchase]

That's certainly a valid perspective. Do you have any examples you could share of "really" extreme body position that's on a standard production bike? Would be interesting to see and compare.

 

What's interesting about this video is it's a 360 view video and you can "move" the point of view around a bit. It's quite interesting to play with that for a better look.

[rchase]

Ok. It's actually REALLY interesting when you play with the camera position in the video. If you point the camera straight down you can see the black mark he leaves on the track when he gets on the rear brake.

[Spaghetti]

The general feeling I get is that he anticipates throttle opening and body position movement compared to what I would normally do.

Then there is the impressive braking at the end of straight. I think I hear the tire scratching just a bit.

[rchase]

The general feeling I get is that he anticipates throttle opening and body position movement compared to what I would normally do.

Then there is the impressive braking at the end of straight. I think I hear the tire scratching just a bit.

 

That's a unique part of Nate's style. He often describes it in his riders meeting as "my head is attached to my wrist". As he rolls on he counteracts the bikes natural tendency to go wide with the hook turn technique. It makes sense as well because the head is the heaviest part of the body. He's even "tricked" me into doing it myself at the wrong moment sending my bike headed straight for the apex at low speed. When you mention almost running over the apex afterwards he comments back "it's really nice to know you can make the bike turn whenever you want it to isn't it." That "head attached to wrist" style comes from him racing heavy bikes not really meant for what he was using them for.

 

I'm not sure what was up with the screeching myself. Nate often "backs it in" but perhaps he changed his mind at the last moment or had the ABS switched off.

 

The purpose of me sharing this was just to show a style. I'm really hoping that others will share similar videos. It's always beneficial for us to see those unique quirks of other riders so we can perhaps try them for ourselves and see if they work for us. You know you all want to share some cool videos! And of course I need more interesting things to try so I can figure out what works for me.