Knee Down

[webster]

Been watching the TT every night this week, and noticed something, the riders very rarely get their knee down, and if they do it just brushes the tarmac briefly.

Now i imagine these guys know a thing or two about going quickly on a bike on public roads, so why is there this obsession amongst the general sportsbike riding populous of getting your knee on the deck, when it's clearly not needed while going at speeds attainable by mere mortals?

Just some out loud pondering, i've never managed to get mine down, maybe if i had i'd understand, i don't know.

[thelastsuperpower]

Because its fun!


Its not about making you go faster, it can serve the purpose of gauging how far youre leant over etc. but for the vast majority of us mere mortal road riders its just a damn good feeling when youve got the bike on its side and your knees dragging on the floor

As i found out recently at llandow, when youre that far leant over and youre hanging off the bike my knee just sort of instinctively sticks out and ends up touching without ny conscious effort.

[Cheese Monkey]

Fun!

[mattr6]

Bragging rights!!!

I used to be determind to do.

Finally did it and found it extremely uncomfy hanging off like a monkey. Don't bother about it now!

[deej]

what you'll find is

that you start going quicker round bends and then your knee goes down or you try to get your knee down

once youve mastered the dark art of knee down you then actually start going faster without getting your knee down

with the TT its different to normal roads as they have the width of both carriageways to flick across so have more room and space than us mere mortals have. the same principles apply from above,they'll get the knee down and the slower corners where its needed to keep it upright and also on the flat out ones to judge how much tyre they have left


as for doing it on the road its just for fun and pub/forum bragging rights

[layne]

I'm saying nothing

[r1dave]

I think its just bolllocks

[Milky]

its fun m8

[deej]

I think its just bolllocks

your just jealous

[r1dave]

I think its just bolllocks

your just jealous

Trust you true

[Blimey]

Agree with most of the above.

You need to be going pretty quick and know the road very well and in an extreme corner to need Knee down to benefit from it on the public highway else it will just slow you down.

Its fun and a nice show off thing you can do without killing yourself unlike when i pull wheelies

But on the track its normaly needed to help limit your lean angle as well as helping to lower the centre of gravity i feel, and can push harder and faster through the corner when hanging off.

Talking b*llocks as always but it sounds good

[Milky]

i no sum1 whos sellin minimoto's for £25 if your struggling to get it down..

[badgerKDD]

Just been watching the Moto GP qualifying, it seems the 'Leg Out-Foot Down' is now where it's at .

[Cheese Monkey]

I'm selling some well used sliders if anyone is desperate

[Daresay]

Correct me if i'm wrong but...

I always thought the idea of hanging off the bike was to enable the rider to corner quicker as the bike will go around the corner without needing to lean over so far.If they went around the corner at the speeds they do without hanging off they would run out of tyre & lowside. When leant off of the bike your inside leg sticks out & would scuff your leathers,hence the invention of knee sliders & the introduction of the phrase "getting your knee down".

Perhaps the reason the riders don't get their knee down so much at the TT is the simple fact that the road surface isn't half as good as a track surface.( not only in structure but also smoothness ).
Perhaps there's something to be learned from that.

But then again "when i were a lad" it was all about getting your pegs / stand / anything metal down.I was even trying to do it on my DT250MX trail bike until mates told me to back off. If you survive you'll have good memories to look back on.(Flippin' eck thats enough of that it's making me feel old). Wouldn't attempt it now though,too much bike to lose.

Here's a theory i have...if you have a fast ,well handling bike you will need to go faster & ride to more extremes to get your frills,(something you can't always do on our ever congested roads) where as if you have a slower bike with not so good handling you'll still get your frills riding at its extreme(or not),but at a safer speed.
My point being,you don't have to have a super fast sportsbike to have fun......you can have a Tiger 1050 like mine.


Jez