Body position in a corner

dog, is your sig at Willow? btw it looks like your are doing the opposite of leaning w/the bike

Mika said:

dog, is your sig at Willow? btw it looks like your are doing the opposite of leaning w/the bike

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yes it's willow, but his asscheek is off the seat.

he COULD lean further off the bike and get the bike more upright for more ground clearance, but if you've ever ridden with nick you'd know he's plenty fast with his current style.

You want body position? How about the guy that popularized the current styles? And his progeny...
http://www.speedzilla.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29523

King Kenny (along with Gary Nixon was always one of my heroes back in the 60s). Yes, I was riding then. Just not like that.

The October issue of the Sport Rider has pictures of AMA Pros Duhamel, Mladin, Spies. Duhamel has his upper body over the center of the bike with the lower body hung off the seat. Mladin has his upper and lower body off to the inside but parallel to the axis of the bike. Spies is so far off and so with elbows out, he has a picture which has him almost dragging knees and elbows. [thumbsup]

riffraff said:

I noticed that too. Isn't that, literally, "ass backwards" of how one is supposed to lean ?

WTF ?

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derby said:

hmm...

seems to work well for these two guys, too:

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hmm...

I don't think any of the above pics are comparable, as the majority of the riders' torsos are on the inside of the centerline. The pic in Speedog's sig is obviously not. Look at the arm and elbow extensions.

Whatever. It looks goofy to me :

Whenever there is talk of body position or ride techinque/style/preference, I am constantly reminded by what Colin Edwards said a few years back:

"There is no one way, just ride the s%!^ out of it!".

Personally, I like Noriyuki Haga's body positioning. It is aggressive and his head/spine are well inboard of the bike but it is not exagerrated like Ben Spies. Ditto Eric Bostrom during his years on the Kawasaki.

I try to emulate this body positioning on the track but emulate is one thing. Being as fast is another league altogether.

Rick T. said:

I generally try to get my head/torso over the side of the tank and use the inner thigh of my outside leg to grip. Also, try to unweight your foot on the outside peg.

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i agree with colin edwards but that ^^ is "textbook" correct. getting your shoulders going side-to-side is the hard one and one that helps a hell of a lot. 'course when i get freaked out that's the first thing i don't do. :

Maybe if you yell, "Banzai!" as you set up for each corner will help you attain a Haga-esque position on the bike.

Or maybe not... ???

and make sure you can race 6 inches from the guy in front of you for many laps...

...and occasionally take out another rider or two. Up to and including your best friend. (Season Opener 2006, Haga collects Kagayama when he lost the front in a desperate banzai pass attempt).

Tam 212 said:

...and occasionally take out another rider or two. Up to and including your best friend. (Season Opener 2006, Haga collects Kagayama when he lost the front in a desperate banzai pass attempt).

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that wasn't desperate, haga always looks like that. ;D

Chapter 12 of the Lee Parks book, Total Control, deals with body positioning. He points out in detail why having your rear off the seat but your head and shoulders over the centerline or beyond is bad. He also includes photos of three riders on superbikes. Noriyuki Haga shows perfect form, Colin Edwards displays good form, and Larry Pegram "looks like he's riding a dirt tracker more than a road racer".

Parks stresses moving the body in a natural manner and avoiding excessive muscle force. I found a lot of good tips in that book.

I've been trying out a different technique for myself and it feels better to what I've been doing up to this point. I'll need to do more testing but I'm liking it so far. Basically, I'm actually turning my whole body to face the exit of the corner as opposed to just my head. It certainly feels better in tight corners but I'm not really sure how it'll work out in the long run. It's fun to play around though.