Leaning versus Knee Down
 

I saw two examples of riding today. While riding some twisty roads, I saw a Harley tourer coming toward me that seemed like it was going too fast to make a turn. I slowed down expecting him to crash or run off the road. Then I saw something that was pretty rare. He leaned waaaayyyyy off the bike. And made the corner without scraping anything. He was barrel-chested, so he was putting a lot of weight to the inside of that curve. He had no helmet or leathers on, and was grinning from ear to ear as he accelerated by me. He must have had lessons.

While I was walking the dog this evening, a scooter rider came around a corner with his knee way out and almost hitting the ground. Except his scooter was weaving and scraping. I thought he had a flat tire. Then I looked up from his scooter and saw that his body was leaning the opposite way. His upper body was exactly perpendicular to the ground. Luckily for him there were no parked cars as he swung way out or he would have hit them. He needed lessons.

interesting, the second scenario sounds like 50ccs of mayhem....

I noticed a very similar thing today too. I went riding with my brother today, he has been "learning" from some folks he met at school. They have his upper body leaned way over while his ass doesn't move at all, he sort of bends over the top of his bike. Now I also know that my leaning position sucks, I slide my ass over to the side that I'm turning and my upper body only moves a few inches. Last time I did a track day the biggest piece of advice was to move my upper body over more (there were many more but I wont talk about them here).


My brothers body position (not actually him)
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pjnuske...MikeDoohan.jpg


My body position (also not actually me)
http://digilander.libero.it/tortugam...are-doohan.jpg

Mick Doohan is on of the exceptions.

The textbook body position is to lead with the upper body, like in the first shot.

Look at pics of Ben Spies. Except for his famous "Elbowz", he has near perfect body position.

I think I may have to dissagree with you, I have been tought that the ideal body position is to shift your weight to the side while keeping your spine in line with the centerline of the bike

http://www.bikesportnews.com/artimg/212-art.jpg

but this pic is showing a rider with BOTH his lower and upper body off the bike, like shmike was saying



agreed

I think the "right" body position varies a lot from person to person, however there are definitely more wrong positions than right ones.

The body position I was trying to describe for my bro was with his ass centered on the seat and his upper body hanging off

There is no ideal body position. The bottom line is you do what gets results in any given situation. There is no single magic pose that's the "right" way to ride a bike. The fact that guys like Doohan and Bayliss do what they do should end any debating.

Don't forget Mamola,yeesh talk about crazy body positioning.