Re: weight on outside peg?? (JamesP)
Okay, guys...
First of all, we
are talking about street/road course bikes, right? This has as much in common with trials riding as football does with ballet dancing. And MX is also completely different (with a few minor similarities). And even in MX, they're only standing on the pegs when they're straight up and down. As soon as they rail into a turn, they're on top of the seat/tank.
Anyway...
On a road bike, use the seat for what it is, a seat. Watch Valentino Rossi as he approaches a corner. Remember the famous pass at Jerez this year? When everyone made a big deal about his inside foot being off the peg? Did it look like he had a lot of weight on it?
And watch dirt trackers go around the track, left foot always out. That foot is
not supporting their weight, just skimming the ground. And believe me, these guys aren't supporting the rest of their weight with their outside foot! Think about it: How many one-legged deep knee bends do you think you could do in a row?
Here's the deal. When you're going around a track, or down a twisty road, you do indeed want to stay "loose" on the bike (you're correct that you don't want "dead weight" on the seat, but that doesn't mean you stand up on the foot pegs). The more parts of your body that are in contact with the bike, the more you can feel what it's doing. You don't want a concentration of weight on any one part. Rather, you want it spread out evenly. But
most of the weight will, in fact, be on the seat, because that's where your center of mass is located.
Approaching a turn, you want to set up your body position
before you even start braking. On the straight leading toward the turn, gently slide your butt to the side while you're still tucked in. This requires un-weighting the seat
just a bit. But it's not a drastic move, it's very subtle.
Then, as you begin braking, you come up out of your tuck and swing your knee outward. You are now in your "hang-off" position, and you haven't upset the bike at all because everything was done smoothly
before the turn.
As you lean into the turn, your feet will be busy downshifting and/or braking, so you don't want any more weight on them than you need to have. Your butt and thigh will be supporting your body weight, and if you're cornering hard enough you'll actually feel your weight being "sucked" into the seat pad as the g-forces increase.
Use your outside foot and knee as "anchors" (as stated above) so that you can feel what the bike is doing under you. If the bike starts to slide, your legs will be the first indication, and you want just enough weight on them so they can extend with the bike, but they are not acting as the bike's suspension. That's what your forks and shock are for!
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Quote, originally posted by JamesP »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...Many a track day instructor has said that you should have sore thighs at the end of the day as your legs should be supporting most of your weight. </TD></TR></TABLE>
This part is true! But that's because you are using your legs to move your body from the left side hang-off position to the right side, and back again, lap after lap.
If you're making the transition from a left-hander to a right-hander, you have to be able to slide your butt across the seat. Since there's some friction there, you have to un-weight your body momentarily. This takes some leg strength, because you're doing it several times per lap.
