The Art of Hanging Off Your Bike by Nick Ienatsch

[adotjdot]

Here's a rear cam GoPro Session. I can see I'm not getting my upper over enough.

Hey Matrix22, thanks for the video upload. A couple of majors things that I would address first before I would have you work on anything else.

Priority 1 - Never look behind you! The video clearly shows you looking to your left and right over your shoulder as you are approaching a lot of apexes on the track. This takes your focus off of where it is supposed to be which is in front of you. If you are running the proper line on the track, it is always up to the passing rider to adjust their line to get by you. Even though you are on an R3, the line is still yours if you are leading the pack.

Priority 2 - When do we sit in the middle of the seat? Never! Be sure to always have your butt off to the side of the upcoming corner well before the brake zone. Example, NCBike, the last turn is a right turn, then turn 1 is a right. Your lower body should be set on the right side of the bike all the way down the front straight. We cover this in the Novice riders meeting at lunch time. The reason we do this is because we want to minimize the number of things that we are doing, and minimize the input to the chassis upon corner entry. Think efficiency of movement.

So next time out you are going to fix those two things first, right? Ok good! ;-) On to your upper body. In order to get to good upper body, we need to have the lower body set. This is our foundation. It starts with proper foot placement because we need to be able to support our weight when we move to the inside of the bike. I would need to follow you for a couple of corners or see some video of you being followed to be able to see your foot placement better but based on just the 2 pics you posted earlier, it looks like you need to rotate your foot a bit more so that you can focus that weight transfer onto the ball of your foot. (Think of a ballerina when they stand on their toes.) Your inside foot looks a little flat which doesn't allow you to put much weight on it. This means when you go to hang off the bike, you end up using too much upper body to "hold on" to the bike and end up getting twisted up. You look like you are back off the tank enough and your butt placement is good so I wouldn't change how much you are getting your butt off.

Grab a CR next time you are out and work on this in the pits or come to one of the lunch meetings and we will review BP. And great job on working through these things. It's always tough to make adjustments like this. You can see how much the pics and video can help though.

And oh yeah, NONE of us are Lorenzo, and we are ALL working on these same skills ;-)

 

[Matrix22]

Thank you AJ! Yes, this was a video of my 2nd out and I got the talk back in the pits by the CR about looking back, DON'T! You're very observant. Yes, my foot placement was not optimal. I found out in later outs that's what the HEEL plate was for, it's not an ankle plate and without the toe pointed, my hips can't follow parallel to the bike, instead it was a rotation and not a full off. And since I wasn't resting my outside arm on the tank, my foot placement not optimal, I knew I was heavy on the bars. Amazing, my toe held up my form, well my leg and butt form. I did work on off the seat in brake zone for turn 1 in my last 2 runs, street habit of staying center hugging tank with legs. The early off seat kinda messed up my downshift foot feel in the brake zone, learning. I also was lifting off the seat in transitions, it was suggested to me before a turn or transition, to not lift butt, push off with outside leg and slide off the seat to the inside corner. I tried that in my later outs and found that the rear was less humpty dumpty wavy. I used lift off the seat to get into an off position and the suspension would waver under me. Was that solid advice or...? Thank you again for the critique and suggestions, It will be my Mantra from now until Sept 3 2016 @ CMP

 

[adotjdot]

Thank you AJ! Yes, this was a video of my 2nd out and I got the talk back in the pits by the CR about looking back, DON'T! You're very observant. Yes, my foot placement was not optimal. I found out in later outs that's what the HEEL plate was for, it's not an ankle plate and without the toe pointed, my hips can't follow parallel to the bike, instead it was a rotation and not a full off. And since I wasn't resting my outside arm on the tank, my foot placement not optimal, I knew I was heavy on the bars. Amazing, my toe held up my form, well my leg and butt form. I did work on off the seat in brake zone for turn 1 in my last 2 runs, street habit of staying center hugging tank with legs. The early off seat kinda messed up my downshift foot feel in the brake zone, learning. I also was lifting off the seat in transitions, it was suggested to me before a turn or transition, to not lift butt, push off with outside leg and slide off the seat to the inside corner. I tried that in my later outs and found that the rear was less humpty dumpty wavy. I used lift off the seat to get into an off position and the suspension would waver under me. Was that solid advice or...? Thank you again for the critique and suggestions, It will be my Mantra from now until Sept 3 2016 @ CMP

Awesome! Glad to hear you were getting some great guidance and had the chance to work on these things. Make a plan for each session you go out to ride. Focus on one thing at a time or one aspect of your riding during that session. Once you get the change down, make it muscle memory so that you can move on to the next thing.

 

[Matrix22]

HA ! open throttle like holding a screwdriver not opening a jar of strawberry jam! got it. sitting on bike today, how do i open throttle with just my wrist? throttle Nirvana.

 

[Matrix22]

CMP Sept 3 2016. Novice group. 2nd time at the track and I can say I learned a lot from my last outing. I got myself lower and square with the bike than ever before. I don't want to make excuses but have have a short inseam and I see that my thighs are not as parallel with the tank as I thought. My legs are extended down to the stock positions of the pegs. I feel it's prohibiting me from getting over knee to knee smoothly and efficiently. I did remove the peg warning scrapers and started scraping my toe sliders. I will go out 1 more time with the stock peg position and if i feel I'm still having trouble reaching/operating the foot controls and placement, there are riser plates to bring stock pegs up and back in many configurations. I'm working on me before buying stuff. It's true to over exaggerate your position.

 

[HondaGalToo]

Upper body looks good. You don't want your thighs parallel with the tank. Put your foot at the edge of the peg, at a 45 degree angle. That will also put your thighs at a 45 degree angle. Point your foot down. That will allow you to open your hips and create the "triangle of light" between your legs and the bike. It will also allow you to get your head lower. Then you'll touch your knee and not the pegs. Ask a CR to show you foot position at your next day.

 

[Dave561]

So here's a rider that has paid attention to body position. Notice he stays off the bike when the next corner is in the same direction. He doesn't waste all that energy. Additionally by hanging off till he completes the corner he is keeping center of gravity low, while adding throttle. Too many folks think that because they are exiting and decreasing lean they need to re-center their body. You want to give away lean angle grip for acceleration grip so hanging off longer is better

 

[Matrix22]

HondaGal, my last run at the end of the day , I was working on the peg end because I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get my ankle turned out when I was IN on the peg instead of OUT. scraped more toe than peg. I will be working on foot placement next time. So far I got screwdriver throttle twist, set up body early, now feet and knee point. Thank you for your feedback. All comments here, I am putting to use. Dave561, yes, I want to be smooth like that within the next 5 track days. Or next 100 laps. This track riding stuff is not easy for someone with years of BAD habits. Thank you.

 

[Dave561]

We all got bad habits. I still don't hang off as well as I could, especially as fatigue sets in.

 

[Matrix22]

My last laps, I came in early. I was tired and I missed shift coming in to Turn 1. I said ok, I'm done for the day.

 

[Matrix22]

getting better at it