boredcol Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Hi all I recently did a track day at Donington and here are a couple of pics of me. Any pointers/help/ on my body positioning would be greatly appreciated. I have done levels 1 & 2 but have got to still keep practising, especially the wide view i struggle with. I have another track day looming and want to improve, Cheers Colin ps excuse the luggage rack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash106 Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Great pictures, but you do realize that whatever you had on that rack fell off on turn one. Right? From the pictures it looks like your arms are bent and your eyes are up. Both good. On the other hand, it doesn't look like you are leaned over enough to run out of ground clearance. For me, I figure if I'm not running out of ground clearance or grip, I tend to worry less about my body position, and focus more on keeping a good eye on where I'm going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyrod Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 Looks good to my untrained eyes, you haven't got your ass out of the seat much. I found that takes some getting used to so you get it by degrees, not just straight from sitting on it to being a spider-monkey. Your head's up and you're leading with your shoulder so it's a good start. Why are you asking though? Is there some part of your riding that feels like you're not doing it right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boredcol Posted August 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 Cheers Crash n J Rod, thanks for your comments, its all sinking in slowly. Yea, it just feels like I cannot get my ass out the seat, even though I feel like I am. In my head it feels like my arse cheek is hanging off, but when I look at the pics its like ' thats pathetic'. Do it by degrees is good, if its a good starting position, then thats good, i've just gotta try creeping me bum off bit by bit. I have been told to try and exaggerate my bum movement as what I think is 6 inches is really 6/10ths. So exaggerate.. Does anyone agree with this ? Could this work? Thanks Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyrod Posted September 9, 2011 Report Share Posted September 9, 2011 Yep it always feels like more than it is. If you've got a favourite long bend, or a couple of bends close to each other (e.g. two lefts) then you can adjust your position as you're going along, gives you a bit more thinking time than piling into a single/short bend on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boredcol Posted October 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2011 Here is another pic from my latest track day, Am slowly improving. Still struggle to run at 80% though, always seem to be at 98%. Find it hard to slow down that bit so i can improve my techniques. Thought my head was scrapping the tarmac till i saw the pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boredcol Posted October 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2011 And another Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slobdog Posted October 10, 2011 Report Share Posted October 10, 2011 And another Cool pic :oD Whilst I'm no expert, it looks like you have pretty well maxed out the bikes lean and although your body is more off than it was....there is definately scope for more. At least it looks to me like that's your foot is pretty well scraping the floor, whereas your knee slider is not quite on the deck. With a 'better' (more hang off) body position your knee would hit the deck earlier and your foot pegs would have more clearance, hence the bike would be carrying less lean and you wouldn't be running at 98% so much ;oD Whilst this probably goes without saying, you would benefit a tremendous amount from level 3, where the focus is all on body position. When I did level 3, I had the opposite problem to you, I was hanging off too much, which as well as being crossed up, in chicanes it was making me inadvertantly use the bars to heave myself up and over (definately don't try that it doesn't end well!). Level 3 will teach you to use your outside knee to take your weight and give you confidence to hang off without weighting the bars In the interim before L3, another thing to bear in mind is that your head is a considerably heavy part of your body and should join your body in hanging off. Your head should definately not remain over the tank whilst the rest of your body is hung off, this is called being crossed up. If you use your body and head to transer weight to the inside of the turn, you don't actually need to hang off to the extremes that you might initially think are required. One butt cheek out the seat is all it takes to realise some real benefits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ells Posted October 10, 2011 Report Share Posted October 10, 2011 Two things stick out to me. 1. In the last pic your foot is close to tarmac. I can tell from here for certain but would suggest that you need to move your foot back on the footpeg. If you touch your foot down you will know about it. Have a look at photos from different angles to check this. 2. I would be looking to move more body weight over onto the inside of the corner. Drop the inside shoulder and aim to move the head more in line with your mirror. I also struggle with body position It take me a lot of concentration to get a small improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boredcol Posted October 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2011 Cheers slobdog. Your spot on with that. I was pretty maxed out as on that bend I was scrapping my footpeg pretty much every time. Which was really annoying as I was doing the bleedin splits on the bike (so it felt) and was really striving to make contact with my knee before the footpeg but never quite made it. So yea, will try hanging off even more. I am aware of my head position, but when I am on the bike it really does feel like I am over the 'mirror' but the photos tell another story. I have been contemplating Level 3, looks like you might have convinced me, although I was seriously considering the 2 day camp thingymebob, I best get saving and plucking up courage/strategy to tell the wife Cheers for that input, much appreciated, every bit of advice is slowly seeping through to my brain, i'm not a natural, thats for sure Col Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slobdog Posted October 11, 2011 Report Share Posted October 11, 2011 I was scrapping my footpeg pretty much every time. Which was really annoying Yup, figures. Something to bear in mind.... This guy I know had an off at about 70mph due to a toot peg scraping incident. He had his body position all wrong and his pegs were often scraping. This was fine until the camber of the track changed. The footpeg dug in and literally caused the bike to rotate around it. Made a right mess of his bike and helmet. Probaly his underpants too. He was fine though and learnt a valuable BP lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boredcol Posted October 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2011 2. I would be looking to move more body weight over onto the inside of the corner. Drop the inside shoulder and aim to move the head more in line with your mirror. I also struggle with body position It take me a lot of concentration to get a small improvement. Yep, am fully aware of it, just can't seem to program my head to get lower, when I am riding i am convinced i'm hanging off head/ shoulders/bum, the lot, but when i see the pics its like, that can't be me surely. They've taken pictures of the wrong bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobie Fair Posted October 11, 2011 Report Share Posted October 11, 2011 Quite a few have had problems, until we adjusted the helmet, really has been working well lately with guys simply having problems seeing. Might try some foam up in the top! Best, CF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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