Knee down antics!

I've been really trying for about 2 months now to get my knee down. (without
sliders) - I KNOW!

It took me two weeks to manage it! In about the last 6 weeks I've been
scuffing up my leathers more and more in doing so. The roundabouts are being
made dizzy by me going round them!

Today my Teardrop Sparkies sliders arrived and guess what! I've been sliding
all day! Every roundabout I came to go a dose of my and my SV650s!

This is just a message to see who else down there is a knee-down-nutter? And
how the bloody hell am I supposed to get my left down?

Dean

 

That's the funnest part of riding is getting my knee down, feeling the road
knowing you are at maximum lean. Only .5% of street riders (1 in 200) can do
this.

 

I used to get RIGHT off the bike and push me knee to the road, now I've even
got the footpegs scraping - which can mean only one thing!

MAXIMUM LEAN!

 

My front end gets shakey long before I ever get to the point of dragging hard
parts. At least with the roads around here. They're full of bumps, covered
with tar strips, plastered with asphalt patches, filled with holes or worn
glossy smooth by a combination of age, salt/sand abrasion and repeated
freeze/thaw cycles in the winter. The most likely occurence is some
combination of several of the above. I've felt my front wheel slide a bit a
couple times in the last few weeks at speeds I thought were quite reasonable
for the conditions. I'm paranoid as a result.

-Chris-

 

Mmmmmmm, get-off will follow soon ( make sure you do it on a track ) - on
the plus side, a low-side at full lean means you dont fall very far

Incidentally, how does any one let foot rests hinge up when they are hanging
of the bike ? I never can....

Steve

 

By putting your weight on the outside peg. Takes a good amount of leg
strength and/or conditioning.

-Chris-

 

Dont think my knees bend that far, I used to try to do that and fail.
If I get my bike rebuilt from the last off, I will go for rear-sets that
dont touch down.
I notice that all the decently prepared track bikes dont touch pegs down,
older jap road bikes like mine have
quite low standard pegs.

 

Back in the late 80's when I was riding a fabulous Honda NS400R, knee
sliders were just coming onto the market, naturally I attached some to
my one-piece and then thought about getting a kee down. I didn't start
with a roundabout first off but went along to a dual carraigeway where
I went quite fast anyway. I took a right hander at 90mph and touched
down (for the first time). Getting a left knee down was slightly more
evasive but I would take the first exit from a roundabout, entering at
about 60mph, worked well. Then of course the tyres were more likely to
be a crossply derivative, not the super bendy radials of today.

 

You can keep most of your weight on the seat and press your outside
leg against the side of the bike. That will lock you in position well
enough so that you can lift your inside foot off the peg if you like.
Might want to try that. It beats getting your leg trapped under the
bike when you low side. Just be aware that there are often solid
parts that touch down soon after the pegs. Hitting those will take
weight off the tires causing them to slide. When you've dragged the
pegs a few times they wear down, so the don't push up so far before
the hard parts hit. If parts do hit down hard, pushing down hard on
the outside peg while letting you butt slide to the inside will stand
the bike up. Get your upper body into the act too. Pushing the top
of your body to the inside helps stand the bike up. Just be ready to
catch a high side if the bike slid far before you rocked it back onto
the tires.

BTW, if you want to play around with this, do yourself a favor and
take it to a track.

Bruce

 

I always used to do track days rather than try to find roundabouts to
practice on.
I physically cant allow the footrest to fold when hanging off, I'm just not
flexible enough, I have tried believe me.
I wore a large amount of the standard pegs away at track days.
I've also touched down the crank case once through bad throttle control, but
luckily Metlzer Rennsports came
to the rescue and held it all together.
I much prefer the rear-sets solution - if you look at pictures of any of the
decent race bikes, the
rear-sets wont get near the ground.

Steve