Hey everyone, I recently did my first track day at Road Atlanta and have some questions about body positioning. Here is a pretty good example of a moderate-lean turn: https://imgur.com/a/b7oIV. I tend to scrape the very middle of my toe sliders before I'm getting my knee down. Like just behind the front screw of the toe-slider in the pic. I do try and keep the balls of my feet on the pegs to where I'm almost curling my toes around the footpegs. I'm just short of having my crack on the edge of the seat. Does this mean I need to be: a) Hanging off more? b) Pushing my knee out farther? c) Looking at some aftermarket rearsets to move my feet up and back? Any other advice? I'm getting tired of scraping toes
A) yes, in your photo, you could scoot off the seat a bit more and drop your inside elbow. Thus will bring your chest, and more importantly, your head down. This will shift alot of weight and alow the bike to remain more upright. B) dont have to do that, but i use it a a guide, for feel. C) rearsets may help, but at novice pace i doubt that is the issue. Excessive lean angle for the corner/speed is more likely Other thoughts) double check your foot positioning. Maybe you are on the ball of your foot with the big toe being at the end of the peg. That leaves about 2 or 3 inches of boot off the end of the ped, reducing ground clearance. See if you can adjust your foot position some more. Also see if the stock rearsets can be adjusted, most can to some extent.
Keep in mind, BAD habits die real hard for some (ME) and knowing what to do isn't the same as DOING IT. Your left arm isn't on the tank, because your chest and head isn't over enough. That would get your right arm bent more. I would put the getting the knee down on the back burner, it's great for pictures and will come as your speed and correct BP comes in. On your foot, I can't see the pegs. With my big feet they show when i'm more on the balls and have my heal turned towards the bike, which will also get your knee out. Might also have your hips turned to the right which helps with the leg. Since coaching isn't my thing, I'm repeating what I have been told and am still working on it. Stick with it, practice makes perfect. Or in my case a small improvement every track day.
Thanks for the helpful tips! Sounds like I need to work on getting my upper body off more (and lower). I'll play around with foot positioning at the next track day in a couple of weeks.
Ok. I'm going to break it down a bit more. 1) I'm willing to bet your shoulder blades, triceps, and forearms were tired at the end of the day. This is because you're allowing your arms to hold your body up and not lying on the tank. Understandably, you're a big guy so it can be hard to get "comfy" on a bike. For once this is where my shortness has come into help me out. If you can swing it rearsets may help this issue by allowing your feet to move further back, thus allowing your hips to as well. You can then lie on the tank more. 2) Utilize your legs to hold yourself. You essentially want to do a keggle on the tank. It'll definitely be tiring at first, but over time you'll build up the muscle. You're then taking a heavy body part, your upper body, and spreading it out amongst several big muscle groups; legs, and mid-lower back. Once you can do this you can relax your shoulder blades. This will allow your upper body to lie on the tank, which conserves energy and decreases air resistance. 3) Relax! This is by far the most important part. You can have amazing BP, but if you're stressed out to a point where you can't think clearly or physically finish the day then what's the point? I firmly believe your session is almost completely determined in the pits. If you're having a bad day mentally your body will follow. Studying what you've done, others do, and what can be done gives you a piece of mind which will carry over into your riding. I find this video useful as to why you need proper BP. Also note, some of the guys on the MotoAmerica circuit don't have the quintessential perfect BP. Some are almost completely inline on the gas tank. They are however loose and relaxed. This allows the machine to do its job and you to twist the throttle.
Great info, OBcbr! I don't recall much upper-body soreness after the trackday, but lots of soreness in my legs. I find that I can usually take my hands off the handlebars and hold myself up with my legs when hanging-off. The pic I posted doesn't show me leaning off as much as I typically do (I think this pic was as I was standing the bike up?). On another note, I decided to find an empty cul-de-sac and do 20 mph circles until I could get my knee down without scraping my toes (I know, I know). Turns out I have not been hanging off nearly enough! I ended up having to get my outside arm touching the top of the tank to get my knee down. I tried to focus on keeping my knee at the same angle to make sure I wasn't just overextending my knee to touch it down. Now that I know what that feels like, I think I can try and replicate that sort of hanging-off at speed on the track and I shouldn't be scraping toes before knee anymore
Here are some shots from my 2nd track day at Barber, how's my progress looking? I've been working on getting my outside arm stretched across the tank and did not have any issues with scraping toes on left turns. I still scrape toes on right turns though. Do I need to stick my knee out more or something? https://imgur.com/a/iwPCO
Imo, you look tense in some of the pictures and looks like you are far back on the seat. It looks like your arms are stretched too far, and maybe bring you toes further back on the pegs, and your upper body needs to be further off. If you are loose on the bike, you won't have to fight it so much, took me along time to learn that, if you are tense, it will wear you out fighting the bike. I like to be more forward on the bike, basically when I'm off the bike, my head and shoulders are basically above the side fairing and toward the wind screen. My bp isn't perfect by any means but it works for me. If you want to see good bp, look at some of the women out there on the track, the ones that learned bp right from the start and not on their own like I did from many years of riding like an idiot in the mountains. Once I got on the track and saw correct bp, I was way off.
Best advice...go here https://rideuniversity.com/online-courses/ Sign up Do online courses Learn from a master It'll change your WOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRLLLLLLLLD!