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Dropping Your Chin On Exit


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Another rider I know, who is as enthusiastic about teaching riders as I am, teaches riders to drop their chin on exit. I've never heard of this and can't, for the life of me, think of how it could benefit a rider who needs to have his eyes up to see where he's going. Has anyone heard of dropping your chin on exit as a way to get the bike to pick itself back up on acceleration? Or for any reason, for that matter?

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Is he asking the riders just to lower the chin/head, or could it be that he's trying to get the riders to do a "hook" by lowering the entire upper body?

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Indeed I have heard the chin drop tip as well as "dropping your shoulder" farther down. The reasons I attest that some riders give out the tip could be;

 

They are riding crossed up

Trying to show a more aggressive body position

Hook turn

Pick up

So they can relax the arm on the tank

 

The real question is... Is it any good and why? :)

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I realize pro racers are not always the best examples to emulate but I quickly scanned some World Superbike videos and saw nothing resembling a dropping of the chin on corner exits, so... I'd be very interested to see your friend give a demonstration and hear the full explanation because I can't visualize a benefit to the action tucking the chin by itself. If tucking the chin helped guide you into a tucked position behind the windscreen for a high-speed straight or something, then I might see that as possibly useful.

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No shoulder or anything, and not to keep them from getting crossed up. Oddly enough, his argument is that dropping your chin on exit helps get the bike picked up. I'm glad it's not just me.

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I have been working with a rider for about 3yrs now. I have tried everything I know to get him to get his head lower. Finally, I threatened to tie fishing line to his head nut and the zipper of his suit, only then did he start to "get it" and a few hot pits to zip back up. :) Sometimes one might have to use verbiage "outside of the norm" to help your eager listener understand as not everyone learns the same.

 

Also, to many riders the pick up on corner exit is a very subtle and vague thing, almost like it's automatic or something. So let's challenge your friend a bit. Ask him this... What causes the bike to pick up to straighten the line on corner exit?

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Something like this?

 

If you keep your head down, you bring the CoG lower and further forward, allowing harder acceleration before you start to wheelie. If you keep your head low and to the inside, you can keep the bike more upright in a corner, getting onto the the fat part of the tyre sooner, allowing the rider to accelerate harder sooner.

 

Or so I'm told - with my lack of skill all this is purely academic anyway :D

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No shoulder or anything, and not to keep them from getting crossed up. Oddly enough, his argument is that dropping your chin on exit helps get the bike picked up. I'm glad it's not just me.

 

Ask your friend to explain the technology behind that technique to you. WHY does that work? See if he can.

 

Benny

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I have been working with a rider for about 3yrs now. I have tried everything I know to get him to get his head lower.

I personally was never willing to get my head down low until I took CSS level 2 and learned good visual skills. Reference points especially. You might want to ask some questions to dig into WHY that rider doesn't want to put his head down - he may be keeping his head up in an attempt to solve some other (and to him, more important) problem - like a body position weakness or a desire to see farther ahead.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Dropping the chin seems like a way to remind someone to stay hung off while picking up the bike at the exit.

 

What you are describing is what I would identify with the Pick Up Drill at the end of Level 2.

 

We don't couch it in those terms because that piece of advice could be misapplied and is better put in other words. This is my opinion based on training students on this technique.

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