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Knee Down....a Bad Thing ?


boredcol

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Posted

hi All

 

A little statement type questiony thing !!

 

How come getting your down isn't a bad thing ??

By this I mean, if your knee touchs the floor, then surely it is taking a small percentage of weight . If leant over, surely the last thing you would want to do is this, as would that not be lifting the rear wheel a tiny amount??

 

Am I missing something blindingly obvious, or has it been too long since physics at school :D

 

Look forward to enlightenment

 

Colin

Posted

hi All

 

A little statement type questiony thing !!

 

How come getting your down isn't a bad thing ??

By this I mean, if your knee touchs the floor, then surely it is taking a small percentage of weight . If leant over, surely the last thing you would want to do is this, as would that not be lifting the rear wheel a tiny amount??

 

Am I missing something blindingly obvious, or has it been too long since physics at school :D

 

Look forward to enlightenment

 

Colin

 

Yeah, but it LOOKS COOL, and aren't there plenty of other things we do just for that reason? :)

 

Really, your point is valid, you don't want to put weight down on the knee, it creates drag and if you actually pushed on the ground it could upset the bike or push it upwards. The idea is just to touch your knee lightly, using it as a lean angle gauge so you know where you're at, how far you are leaned over and how much available lean angle you have left.

 

Also it is fun. :)

Posted

How much drag your knee slider produces is a product of how hard you drive it into the tarmac and what the puck is made of.

A leather puck can produce a huge amount of grip so its best to just brush the tarmac with it until you really need it to grip like when the front is folding (above my pay grade!)

Some plastic pucks provide almost no grip at all and you can drive them into the surface really hard. If you are locked into the bike with your outside leg like the CSS teach you and you are pushing through that outside peg then pushing the puck into the tarmac lifts the bike which can be helpful if you are running out of ground clearance.

 

Mostly dragging a knee is a way of gauging just how far you've got your bike leaned over.

If you haven't done it then you will most likely be going through the phase of leaning over in a turn further and further and thinking that you have the bike really leaned over but the only way of telling how far is by looking at pictures later! Once your knee brushes tarmac for the first time the feeling of security you get from knowing how far the bike is leant over will increase your enjoyment and reduce your stress and survival reaction trigger levels by a huge amount.

Posted

They guys are right of course. If you're struggling with that first knee-down moment, try also hanging your toes out a bit, they may well touch down first. A lot of people have a little panic when they feel something touch down mid-corner the first few times. If your toes touch down but you knee is miles away then you're probably not hanging off enough.

Posted

My thighs are short and my calves comparably very long. Even with my feet on the rear pegs, my thigh is virtually horizontal and unless I could lean over 60 degrees, I cannot see my knee go down - no matter how hard I hang off. I'm not grear at splaying my legs, either, which obviously won't help. Then again, Kevin Schwantz used to have his leg squeezed between the tarmac and the fairing, so maybe it's just me not leaning over more than 10 degrees :lol:

Posted

Eirik,

 

Can have a lot to do with how you are positioned on the bike...we'd have to see you on the bike to tell for sure.

 

Just to remind all, there is a whole chapter on this in Twist 1!

 

Best,

CF

Posted

Hi, Cobie,

 

these are probably the most describing pictures I have on the most sporty bike I've owned re riding position - but not sure if they show what you're looking for? Not pretty in any case :D

 

GSX600igodfart.jpg

GSX600isvingfravenstre.jpg

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

It's a reasonable lean angle but you'll need to get off the middle of the seat if you knee's going to go down. Look at the pic where you're coming towards us, you really need to slide over so your knee can get lower. Working against you, the bike will have a fairly upright riding position and low pegs so not so easy as a GSXR.

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