Do you “Hang Off” your FJR ??????

I’m a relative Noobie to this magnificent machine. I have about 1500 miles on my ‘06 AE mostly in the North Georgia Mountains where we have some great Twisties and then a few trips to the “Tail of the Dragon” in Tennessee. See Avatar. As I discover and appreciate the nuances of this bike from spirited riding, I also supplement my learning curve by studying appropriate motorcycle books. Reg Pridmore, Lee Parks etc. These experts all discuss and advocate the importance of rider position when cornering and I have been trying to really work on my “body steering“ when I ride.

So, I wondered how aggressive are you with your body position? Do you really “hang off” the seat in corners or do you find a fairly upright position with moderate body lean to be sufficient? I watch a lot of MotoGP and I’m sure I’ll never hang off and drag a knee like Valantino Rossi or Casey Stoner, but the times I have really exaggerated my body lean have been very rewarding and I would like to explore that side of my riding style even more.

Any thoughts, observations, pictures, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks

The more aggressive (sporty/fast) riders do. Some of us have (Yes, it's fun!). Many have learned it's a bit "edgy" for some of the roadways they ride in so tend to control those urges (For instance, there are many closing radius blind turns in the Sierra foothills...not a place to play "Ricky Racer".).

It's your party so make your own rules for the roads you ride. It's also your ticket, your penalty (plastic is expensive but not compared to life-flight helicopter rides).

WFO...Park City, UT...Haulin Ashe drivin & FJRchick in the back seat...that would be a "Hell Yes"...um, guess ya had to be there.

Could have just said yes but it would not have been near as much fun.

madmike2 said:

(plastic is expensive but not compared to life-flight helicopter rides).

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Life flight rides suck! Especially when you can't remember the flight :dribble:

I've never seen the need to hang off on the street. Way to much crap on the roads and idiots crossing the DY's to ride that close to the limit.

I'm kind of an old guy, and that hanging off in the corners is a bit physical for me. I like to keep my weight on the seat, the way God designed it. (He did that, right?) It's like how some of the advanced courses teach you to keep much of your weight on the pegs, making every ride like one long squat-thrust. Forget that. I ride for pleasure, not to cut tenths of seconds off my time.

That being said, when you hang inside on a tight turn, it lets you keep away from the "edge," not push closer to it. With your weight inside, the bike doesn't have to lean as far, since the center of gravity is moved over and down and the bike itself can go through the turn more upright. With the bike leaning less, your pegs are farther from scraping, you're farther away from low-siding. Overall, it just seems safer to me. More difficult, more physical effort required of the rider, but at the same speed through a turn, bike is leaning less, and you're farther from trouble.

So I do it sometimes when I want to push a bit, but usually not. I'm more recreational in my riding at this stage of my life.

SacramentoMike said:

I'm kind of an old guy, and that hanging off in the corners is a bit physical for me. I like to keep my weight on the seat, the way God designed it. (He did that, right?) It's like how some of the advanced courses teach you to keep much of your weight on the pegs, making every ride like one long squat-thrust. Forget that. I ride for pleasure, not to cut tenths of seconds off my time.
That being said, when you hang inside on a tight turn, it lets you keep away from the "edge," not push closer to it. With your weight inside, the bike doesn't have to lean as far, since the center of gravity is moved over and down and the bike itself can go through the turn more upright. With the bike leaning less, your pegs are farther from scraping, you're farther away from low-siding. Overall, it just seems safer to me. More difficult, more physical effort required of the rider, but at the same speed through a turn, bike is leaning less, and you're farther from trouble.

So I do it sometimes when I want to push a bit, but usually not. I'm more recreational in my riding at this stage of my life.

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Good answer! :clapping: +1

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attantion whores. You can shift weight inside to assist turns without sliding around.

Steve

There are times when the conditions are right that I reposition my body weight toward the inside of the turn. I don't "hang off", but I will slide over to the side and let my knee rest on the tip out body panel. My posture matches the circumstances, I am leaning forward and into the turn. My elbows are bent to where I can flap them like chicken wings. I try to be light on the seat with my weight on my foot pegs. My anchor points are the balls of my feet and my inner thighs and 1 knee/shin on the body work - Not my butt. I am way forward on the seat up against the tank. Timing is important, finish repositioning yourself before you counter steer into the turn. I shift my torso around I do it with just my leg muscles, and leave my grip loose on the handle bars. The last thing I want to do is induce unwanted and unexpected steering inputs by my arms.

Give it a try, but go easy at first. Don't push it until much later when you figured out the logistics.

Most importantly...

Have Fun!!!
:yahoo:
Brodie

Steve G. said:

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attention whores. You can shift weight inside to assist turns without sliding around. Steve

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+1 You can move your torso and weight the foot pegs without having to get all squidly.

Also, you can't really slide around much on a Russell Daylong saddle. But you can weight the the inside "wing" with your thigh, which has some of the same effect.

There is a relationship to leaning (that is; body weighting/positioning) and countersteering.

I would recommend that you explore this relationship until it's totally understood and natural for you.

Here's some examples of what I mean;

As far as what I normally do in the tight stuff, I shift my weight from one butt cheek to the other while my upper body shifts as if I am trying to "kiss the mirrors".

I rarely "hang off" racing style.

In the tight stuff it's fairly easy to drag your toes on the FJR so it's important to get in the habit of having your feet positioned with the "balls" not the "arches" on the pegs.

To be smooth is the key to riding well. Body position shifts left in advance of a sharp left. This keeps the bike from having to lean as much for a stable carve.

As you finish your weight shifts back to the right which keeps the bike leaning left a little bit longer and also sets up for the next sharp right......................

If you have a throttle lock, you can practice this; Use a road without other traffic with easy turns that can be handled at a light speed.

Keep your hands right over the grips but try not to touch them (unless it becomes needed-then they're right there).

So in effect you're riding with no hands.

You will be able to steer the bike through the turns by just shifting your weight.

Then grip the bars normally, practice countersteering with your body totally upright, in relation to the bike. Push left-turn left. Push right-turn right.

Now practice extreme leaning........knee down or not but really get the weight to the left for a left.

Try that with your throttle lock and no hands and what will happen? Your left turn would be more extreme than the line needed to get through the turn.

In order to keep the bike on course (without changing your body position)you will have to apply counter steer pushing right to move the bike to the right even though you are going around a left turn.

From this, you can see that too much body lean is not only not required (in most situations) but actually creates a need to "anti-countersteer" to keep the bike on its proper course.

So ideally, I think I could say, the perfect amount of body lean at a given time will minimize the required handlebar inputs needed and maximize your tires' traction.

That said, it depends on what you want to do. On milder roads, you may actually want to lean the "wrong way" just to get the bike to lean over farther for a less boring ride. Doing this in some degree actually has a practical advantage of increasing your visual horizon around a blind spot................but that's another topic.

I do it sometimes, just to keep the butt from gettin numb on long rides. Looks a little dorky at legal speeds.

Yes. comes natural from all the sport biking from a past life. I don't lean enough to drag knee or get close to it but hit the pegs plenty. What is really cool is when the pillion rider is doing it too. :yahoo:

Steve G. said:

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attantion whores. You can shift weight inside to assist turns without sliding around. Steve

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I agree. I road raced bikes in the early 80s and wasn't bad. I shifted my weight some, but didn't hang off. I have a very good friend who was one of the top amateur roadracers in the country for many years up until he retired three years ago. When he quit, he was riding a CBR1000RR in endurance races and a 999S in sprint races. He never hung off and was still competitive - capable of still winning on any given day.

On the race track, where a few tenths of a second is a lot, hanging off may have merit on todays bikes. But on the street I see no reason for it. In fact, I believe there may be some downsides as it may not be as safe where you might encounter unknown "issues" around any given corner. I'd rather be sitting in a position that makes me more comfortable to react rather than just trying to maximize my speed in the corner.

Steve G. said:

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attantion whores. You can shift weight inside to assist turns without sliding around. Steve

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Maybe “hang off’ was a bad choice of words. I am interested in developing more control, fun and confidence through turns with “body steering” and learning how much weight distribution is needed to affect this particular bike during cornering. I’m 50ish, so it’s not about excessive speed and looking cool and dragging my knee. I just want to learn as much as I can about this bike to make my rides more enjoyable, safer and become a better rider.

Thank you so much for your responses and advice. Keep em coming.

SacramentoMike said:

That being said, when you hang inside on a tight turn, it lets you keep away from the "edge," not push closer to it. With your weight inside, the bike doesn't have to lean as far, since the center of gravity is moved over and down and the bike itself can go through the turn more upright.

Click to expand...

I shift my weight slightly off the seat and do lean to the inside of the turn just for this reason. More upright bike means more traction and contact with the tires to the road. And if I lean and keep the bike upright through a turn, and the turn starts to decrease radius, I have left a bit of a cushion to work with as I can lean the bike towards me as well which will naturally make the turn tighter. If you go into a turn with the bike leaning very far and not much room for your body to lean off, when the turn tightens, you don't have a margin of error to work with as you can't lean further without hitting the road. Does this mean I ride slower through curves than someone leaning both bike and body? Yes. Does it mean I'm not having as much fun? No. And I feel safer knowing I can react because I haven't FULLY committed.

Alexi

SebringSilver said:

I’m a relative Noobie to this magnificent machine. I have about 1500 miles on my ‘06 AE mostly in the North Georgia Mountains where we have some great Twisties and then a few trips to the “Tail of the Dragon” in Tennessee. See Avatar. As I discover and appreciate the nuances of this bike from spirited riding, I also supplement my learning curve by studying appropriate motorcycle books. Reg Pridmore, Lee Parks etc. These experts all discuss and advocate the importance of rider position when cornering and I have been trying to really work on my “body steering“ when I ride.
So, I wondered how aggressive are you with your body position? Do you really “hang off” the seat in corners or do you find a fairly upright position with moderate body lean to be sufficient? I watch a lot of MotoGP and I’m sure I’ll never hang off and drag a knee like Valantino Rossi or Casey Stoner, but the times I have really exaggerated my body lean have been very rewarding and I would like to explore that side of my riding style even more.

Any thoughts, observations, pictures, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks

Click to expand...

I think a lot of people like to say they do and a lot of people think they do. I am not sure how many actually do. I don't as a practical matter, and I try not to but I think I may have once or twice a little bit. It seems to work however as I am a rider and not a racer, I am not sure I see the point.

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attantion whores.

Click to expand...

Just sitting there is for lazy lumps who don't want any exercise and like to hear hard parts scrape.

Hell yeah! and I get my butt up off the seat a bit, to ease the burden on my suspension, which really smooths the bumps and helps the tires carve. It's much less expensive than a thousand dollar-plus suspension upgrade. Not to mention maximizing ground clearance and saving some for "traction credit". I didn't ride 400 miles and pay $300.00 to take Lee Parks' clinic and not practice the skills!

After 140 miles of Hwy 36 last week, my legs were wooden toast....

Steve G. said:

Hanging your ass off the seat whilst turning a bike on the street, is for squids and attantion whores. You can shift weight inside to assist turns without sliding around. Steve

Click to expand...

That's a pretty strongly opinionated statement there, bub.

I'll just say I disagree and leave it at that.

Depends on what my hemorrhoids are telling me...

:jester: