I need tips for the 1 thing I need to work on

[ctk62]

My body position is awful (see attached)

Anyways, I am going for a full weekend in April.... 3 things I need to work on:

• Tucking in
• Gripping the tank with my knees
• Avoiding "duck feet"

I had to quit this TD early as my legs were fried from trying to squeeze the rearsets with my feet. It was all bad. I will bring a 360 camera to get more footage of BP and maybe even correct session to session

I think I have the lines and braking points down. It's just the BP

Any other tips are welcome

 

[bmart]

Knowing is half of the problem, right?

I can relate to the sore leg syndrome personally, having felt it for years, and I've seen a LOT of riders give up early due to it. Here's my $.02, certainly worth less.

• Get some feedback and write it down.
• Make a plan for how you want to address the list of deficiencies...and track your progress by getting feedback.
• Don't work on everything at once. Pick one item every session or two and try to make the right way YOUR way and your muscle memory. That'll free brain cells to work on the next thing.
• Easy things to identify and track progress on are contact points with the bike and vision, or what Kappy clearly calls site picture.

There are a lot of good sources for training and coaching. Take advantage of them. Coaches will spread themselves out all weekend to help as many riders as they are able, and we love seeing riders take the feedback and implement.

Here's an old post that is somewhat related:

New to this site and need advice

What’s up fellow track day and racers! Started track day riding at palm beach international raceway this February and have had the bug since. Every month I’m going to the track and have been learning tons. I’m currently back of the pack at A group (just jumped up from B this past weekend) want...

forum.n2td.org

I have a lot of muscle/skeletal stuff to work around, so I tend to find ways that are easiest on my body. Some foundational things that helped me the most:

• Looking far enough ahead and doing that with the my head leading my torso. If you can see the dash in a turn...you're doing it wrong. There's nothing right in front of your bike at speed that you're going to do anything about. Get your plan running for what is coming up and you won't be surprised.
• Being cognizant of hard/arm/shoulder muscles/pressure. Hands that grip tight create all kinds of problems for your body and how the bike behaves. The same for stiff arms hanging on the outside bar or pushing on the inside bar. The worse it feels, the tighter people hold on. You see the circle...
• I do not use a lot of peg pressure with my legs. I do scootch back on the seat slightly (a fist worth, is what people seem to call it), pivot to the inside and use my upper outside leg against grip tape of some sort to do most of the work. It uses almost no muscle and gives you a firm spot on the bike from which to work. It also makes moving from side to side easy and low effort.

I hope that this gives you a good start. Come say hi if we're at the same track days!

 

[MK3Brent]

Any other tips are welcome

Purchase your pictures from our vendors.

 

[ctk62]

Purchase your pictures from our vendors.

I did! I got the link to my purchases photos. See, no watermark! Look at that awful BP.



@bmart thanks, that is all super helpful. I think a big part of it is thousands of miles of muscle memory from riding on the road. I will put a plan together and execute. And I will def reach out to control riders for some pointers and follow laps.

 

[MK3Brent]

I did! I got the link to my purchases photos. See, no watermark! Look at that awful BP.

View attachment 10518

@bmart thanks, that is all super helpful. I think a big part of it is thousands of miles of muscle memory from riding on the road. I will put a plan together and execute. And I will def reach out to control riders for some pointers and follow laps.

Right on!
Body position is one of those topics that come up a lot early on. It’s definitely a part of the whole package, but many others are more important first. We use our body to offset the amount of lean angle of the motorcycle. Lean = risk. In your photos, you are more or less upright, and therefore not much lean to offset.
If you’d like, practice on the bike while on your paddock stands. Review some of the various YCRS body position video available online. They also offer an online class that is very good. Check out Champ U.

 

[DZ_714]

My body position is awful (see attached)

Anyways, I am going for a full weekend in April.... 3 things I need to work on:

• Tucking in
• Gripping the tank with my knees
• Avoiding "duck feet"

I had to quit this TD early as my legs were fried from trying to squeeze the rearsets with my feet. It was all bad. I will bring a 360 camera to get more footage of BP and maybe even correct session to session

I think I have the lines and braking points down. It's just the BP

Any other tips are welcome

When you get to the track, grab a coach and show him this.

We can solve this. Easiest thing to do here is to start working on it while the bike is up on stands. I mean you're literally sitting in the middle of the seat. Not moving at all.

We could show you where to put your feet, how to set up your butt going into corner, how to use your outside leg against the tank to hang off, how to grab the handles, how to drop your elbow and upper body into the corner and where to look, all while going 0 mph.

Then follow you and implement these 1 or 2 at a time.

We can fix this over the course of 1 weekend.

Good luck.

 

[NothingClever]

@ctk62

Let's start by not beating ourselves up.

Proficiency on the track isn't automatic and it takes diligence to transition from street riding to track riding.

There's not much to add to what @bmart and @DZ_714 said. If I did, it would just be amplifying detail and simpler is better when starting to bite into the elephant.

I will give some advice on how to best leverage our great CRs.

Link up with them right after the Rider's Meeting and the Novice Group Meeting and tell them you want help. Don't leave it to chance that one of the CRs will decide you're his student rider for the day. Make sure to trade bike numbers and color of leathers with them so you can easily identify each other once booted and suited on the grid.

To echo what @MK3Brent shared, the small access fee to ChampU will provide you game changing instruction. Rather than spending mental energy comparing your body position to others, ChampU will smoothly introduce you to principles, skills and training objectives that will focus your mental energy in productive ways. Knock out ChampU before you go to your next track day and you'll feel more confident about your learning trajectory.

Track riding is a journey and a social one at that. Enjoy the journey!

 

[ctk62]

I have been practicing with the bike on stands so I have a sense of how things feel. But yea hopefully I can learn a lot next time I go. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

[Motofun352]

Your feet are your foundation. Just like your house will fall down if its foundations fails.....well, you get the picture. My analogy that I tell folks is to picture picking up a golf ball with your bare feet. You know, that hollow spot just behind your toes? You want to feel the very end of your foot peg in that hollow spot. Softer boot soles like Alpinstars can help with this. Next, point you inside foot to the ground as best you can. As you do this you will see that your inside leg must open up as well. With your butt half off the seat this will allow room for your torso to "lie down" parallel to the tank. There's much more to it than just this but it's a start to fixing foot position problems. Your toe sliders on your boots should never come in contact with the ground.

 

[mdhokie]

Yes to all the things already said. My personal experience was that even knowing all the right things to do, I still had issues with leg fatigue and getting off the bike while in novice group. If you're going at street speeds through the corners, honestly it's awkward using the correct body position and you would nearly need the bike straight up and down or even tilted the other way to balance your body being that far off the bike, so you wear out your legs fighting yourself from falling off the inside of the bike. Once you start picking up speed and are at an intermediate pace, you'll start having enough corner speed that you can hang off the bike and hold your position with your outside leg on the tank with your arms relaxed, and not that much force on your inside leg once you get tipped in.

So, go faster! Then the body position becomes both natural and necessary.

 

[The B Team]

Lots of good info in this thread. Worth mentioning that your bp is appropriate for your speed and lean angle as shown in photos above. Ken Hill ranks BP as 6 of 6 in order of importance. Get on the apex and go faster, bp will follow. Working with the CRs, ATP, 2 day ATP, working with @adotjdot or YCRS are all great ways to shorten the learning curve. Also if you get to summit or pitt. @Lenny ZX9R does a great static bp demo in the classroom.

 

[mikeinatlanta]

Agree with the feet comment. While hanging off on the street is somewhat questionable, good foot position is a full time thing. I'd suggest having it be second nature by the time you are back at the track, then at the track the rest will come easier. Practice correcting this every time you ride.