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pleman

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Everything posted by pleman

  1. Well it's comforting to know I'm not the only one with this issue. Just been out for the first time this year and things have moved on a little. I now catch my feet on the ground! Currently experimenting with lifting my foot on top of the peg with the sole rotated flat to the bike. This does make rotation of the hip outward easier - and stops my toe sliders catching. Good luck with your endeavours. Incidentally, i do seem to follow other riders into corners who have their knees on the ground and catch them up by the exit. So it's not the key to quicker cornering.
  2. Yes indeed - please see attached a well known "born again biker" who is likely to get his elbow down before his knee these days ?
  3. Thanks Hotfoot - I think you've hit the nail on the head.
  4. I don't have any problems with specs other than the limitation in dropping my head - so hook turns are out and tucking right down in the straights is out. As regards the knee down thing I've seen plenty of riders knee down with their heads up so I'm not really concerned about this. For specs to work with an oblique view (ie head fully down looking through the very top of the visor) they need lifted up about an inch - I'm looking into modifying frames to do this.
  5. I too use contact lenses but they cause issues - for example standing in a pit lane garage with a gale blowing through it dries your eyes out. Then out on track the stinging and sandpapering in the eyes starts and that's a real distraction. Magnification is also different and thus changes the perception of distances and speeds. Save to say I function best with glasses. I've been trying to find some "Dennis Taylor" style snooker glasses but my prescription is too awkward for the size of the frames and then there's the issue of them fitting inside the helmet. I'm working on this one.
  6. I agree with you on the vision stuff but I have some unusual vision issues far to complex for this thread. Save to say that I wear spectacles while riding and thus if I drop my head too much I end up looking over the top of them which is useless. I basically think that I'm going too slow on any given corner so with less hanging off I have more lean angle and knee off the ground and with more hanging off I have less lean angle so knee still off the ground. Lots of different views on all this. I definitely think I need to move back more in the seat and lock in better then go faster and build up the lean again.
  7. Rossi looks better locked into the bike than me (he is just a tad better than me of course). This suggests to me that he's probably further back in the seat than I am. Moving further back looks like the key to improvement.
  8. Thanks for the replies: I'll try to go through each one. XPyron: Agree I should have more upper body forwards and to the inside - more like me in first picture (please excuse girly high viz). Id does seem to me though that if more weight is to the inside then for the same speed and corner lean angle will be less and my knee will be further away from the ground. As in rchase photo. Also I've had knee pads on previous bikes and they can make you life easier. I'm a bit reluctant to spoil my Ducatis with them. As a topic for another occasion - I always used to wear contact lenses on track (S1000RR pic attached) but more recently have gone back to spectacles so I can't really drop my head and use an oblique view - I have to hold my head up to see through the specs. So if I lean forwards and hold my head up too often I end up with a stiff neck, then get tense on the bars and it all turns to rats. I'm working on this one. T-McKeen: Looks good. Keeping back off the tank might just be the key. Quite easy on the S1000RR but in Particular the Panigale its not so easy. I'm hauled right over the screen to keep her stable when accelerating down the straights then on the brakes getting a grip on the narrower tank and trying to keep my weight off the bars while moving back isn't the easiest. But you might well have something here. As for sticking my knee out more I'll persevere but I like to stay relaxed if I can. And yes I've been using GP shift on all bikes for about the last 10 years and don't really understand why all bikes don't come this way as standard. rchase: Ah yes the paper trick. OK then, try it on my S1000RR picture and then on the other attached photo of a certain skinflint who can't afford to paint his bike properly and it would appear I'm hanging off more than him !
  9. Interesting idea with the paper. I guess what I conclude from this so far is to hang off more aggressively. Although the school would suggest half a bum cheek is all you need. There's also the issue of using the gear lever. In corners like Woodcote at Silverstone you go in in second gear and the top boys come out in 6th at a mental pace (they aren't human of course). It's destabilising enough shifting leant over but once I hang off more not only does it become more difficult gripping the tank as the leg over the seat ends up more across the back of the tank, but the outside foot points more outwards and thus reaching the gear lever becomes more of a challenge. I guess my overall aim in all of this is I want to remain as stable as possible for that confidence feeling, but at the same time I want as much information coming to me from the front wheel, back wheel and knee gauge as I can get so I'm consistent. Without the knee gauge I don't have a physical reference point each time I enter the same turn to help get that consistency Silverstone is quite a difficult circuit (mostly designed for Formula 1 cars) as it is very wide and about 3.7 miles long. Speed perception is difficult because everything is so far away there's little sensation of movement so I find entry speed to corners hence lean angle etc. quite variable resulting in lap times varying by as much as 10 seconds. If my knee hit the ground this time around but not the next time around I'd realise my entry had slowed down. The idea is to achieve this before I come off the rims of course! Thanks for the replies anyway. I guess I'm going to have to work on more aggressively moving about.
  10. I've tried to attach 3 photos to help in identification of my issue. The first rather arty black and white was taken last Tuesday I believe at the loop at Silverstone. Bike is quite a long way over and knee is a mile off the ground. The second was shot on an old 749R just before hitting the apex of the Melbourne Loop at Donington Park and I reckon about 45 degrees but knee nowhere near the floor. Don't remember where the third shot was taken but it's the only one I have looking straight on, and we can see about 45 degrees, body centreline shifted to the side (not a huge amount) and knee again absolutely nowhere near. So am I just not hanging off far enough? Seems to me if I hang off more then at the same speed my lean angle will reduce and the knee still won't get any nearer. So am I going too slow or what?
  11. Flexibility wise I'm not too bad. If I place the soles of my feet together I can drop my knees apart to about 120 degrees and I can certainly sit with one leg straight out in front with the other foot pulled into the groin and lean my knee out flat to the floor (on the bent leg). I've actually tried deliberately pushing my knee further out but I'd rather try to stay relaxed on the bike. I also see guys slung way off the side of the bike most artificially with their knee down and the bike at maybe 25 degrees and I really don't see the point of going down that road to just end up with less control and feel for the bike.
  12. I'm just under 6'1" tall but most of that is legs. Inside leg is 34" but my femur measures 2' (hip to knee). This does have its issues riding motorcycles and bicycles and I've got a taller seat coming for the 1299 to stop my leathers cutting off the blood supply behind my knees. The thing is with a long thigh and shorter knee to ankle my knees tend to point more downwards on most bikes. This does sometimes have issues in gripping the tank but I would have thought my knee would touch the ground earlier rather than later (in terms of lean).
  13. I've done all 4 of the school levels and been out on track with a couple of well known racers as well. My body position is as taught - one cheek off the seat, hips square to the bike, one leg locked into the tank, the other knee out. I've had no complaints from school instructors and even had compliments from the racers so I assumed my body position was OK and I must be riding around like a pussy cat and not leaning over enough, since my knee was never on the ground. So for the past couple of years I've been leaning over more and more having no clue as to the angle but believing that one day my knee would touch down and then I'd better not lean any more. Tuesday proved to be interesting at Silverstone on a 1299 S where I have a lean angle gauge and lap data storage so I switched this on to see how I was doing. Max lean angle 53 degrees and regularly 45 degrees. My tyres are also scrubbed to the edge. At this rate I'll be off the rims before my knee gauge tells me where I am. So what's wrong?
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