I've been getting more and more comfortable in the twisties and have really been grinding my foot pegs down lately. Often when I'm not really focusing on taking hard turns I'll still grind my left boot if its in the upshift position.

My stance into turns is pretty balanced. I keep my outside thigh pressed tight to the tank while hanging off a little bit with my inside knee slightly extended. I'm sure I dont look like a Hayden ripping in to a tight-radius turn but I think I have decent posture.

I'd like to start dragging knees but am somewhat aprehensive about sticking them all the way out. I'm going to get knee pads because my double front carharts will probably not suffice.

The question is that if I'm dragging pegs on turns I'm over enough to get a knee down, right???

 

If your dragging pegs, probably, but you shouldn't be draggin pegs or knees on the street anyways. If your body position was good and you were doing it right, you will probably decrease your lean angle, and stop dragging hard parts. Dragging knee shouldn't be a goal. Cornering correctly and safely should be. You want to perserve your lean angle by shift your weight. If you want to drag stuff just lean it over, but that isn't the best idea.

Take it to a track. Dragging knee will happen as you get faster. Nothing like knee down at 120mph. Then again, my roommate bettered me this weekend and dragged elbow.

 

I knewd i'd get a response related to keeping it off the street. Just to clarify I ride mountain gaps and notch roads that close in september due to snow fall. While cars are allowed I rarely see them.

What do you mean about actually decreasing lean angles? I always assumed that the fastest path through a turn was acheived by the tightest lean angle. Sounds like that may not be the case. Can you give me a physics lesson on "doing it right"

 

my pegs are a tad bit longer than stock and they havnt dragged at all, and i havent even dragged my toe slider either. hahah even tho i try

 

What he means is that the purpose of getting off the bike (moving your *** off the seat) is to be able to move the center of gravity off the bike some, which will allow you to carry the same speed through a corner using LESS lean. This results in more clearance, which in turn allows you to carry more speed without dragging hard parts.

Dragging pegs is a bad habit to get into since other hard parts are close to follow and THAT will lever your bike off the ground in a hurry.

In other words, get off the seat more with your *** as well as moving your upper body out towards the inside mirror. This will help carry more speed with more clearance. Do everything right and it becomes second nature.

So far as dragging a knee, it will happen, but if you try to force it then you will end up with a screwed up body positioning. Best way to set up is to get the toes up on the pegs and angle them to where your toes are pointing down. This also angles your knee out properly. The rest is up to corner speed really. You think your body positioning is good? Get someone behind you with a video camera and see how you REALLY look. You will probably be suprized at what you see.

I teach advance riding and I thought MY positioning was good, and to be fair, I am reaching around a video camera on the tank, but I am still not getting my upper body off enough. This video is one my buddy put together from the last track day using footage from both of our bikes. Ignore my positioning on the lefts though. I got a seriously ****ed up knee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QezelMvFzhw

 

Oh yeah......... Think seriously about getting some rearsets soon for more clearance too............

 

Great advise meanstrk- I'll definitely follow it. The center of mass thing makes sense now that I think about it. I'd really love to get some track days in to help me advance and get better. The closest one to me is Loudon Motor Speedway in NH. I've heard its like 400 bucks a pop though... rough.

That video was really nice. You guys ride well. What do you have for camara setups?

 

Jay uses aset up on his Ducati that has a tube came mounted in the nose where a headlight would normaly be and it connects to a camera hidden under the tail section. I was using a tank mount set up at this track day with a Samsung camera that records directly to flash cards. This set up worked really well and I also have another camera set up that shoots to the rear that I will be using a couple weeks at CMP, so I'll get front and rear footage at once. If you want, I can take some pics of the total set up some time.

I would look into the Loudon deal a bit more since I know others that do track days there and don't pay that much.