Which foot to lean on?

And I can kick a hole through a wall with my right leg while standing on my left. But that doesn't mean I put any of my weight on the wall with my right leg; all my weight's on the left.

 

I didnt kick the peg, I weighted it.

 

You absolutely can. You're thinking statically. Think of the dyamics of the turn. You're being being pulled to the inside of the turn by the bike. Your CG vector isn't just being reacted straight down, it's being reacted laterally by the bike. And if you're pushing, if there's force on the bottom of your foot, that force is supporting your weight, it has to come from somewhere.
I can move my inside foot around on the peg mid turn. With my elbows loose, that means the weight is on the outside leg. Either the foot on the peg or the leg on the seat, but it's a little bit of both.

 

I dont know about CG vectors, but I know from experience that you can weight the outside peg.

 

OK, I can push against a wall with one foot while all my weight is on the other foot. Better analogy?

 

No. Do the free body diagram.

If you put 2 pieces of paper on the floor, one under each foot, and then picked up a foot and pushed against the wall, you couldn't tear the piece of paper under the foot that was still on the floor if you didn't have weight on it.

He said he broke the outside guard, not the inside one. In your analogy, the foot on the floor is analogous to the one that broke the heel guard. It's weighted.

 

I'm pretty sure weight vector always points towards the center of the earth no matter what, whether sitting in a chair or railing around a track. I have no doubt that you push on the outside peg, but I just don't think your "weight" is on it. Being able to move your inside foot and hands mid-corner doesn't prove weight is on the outside peg. You still have weight on the seat and probably against the side of the tank with your outside leg (and maybe your outside arm). Hey, I'm cool with whatever works for ya--the "weight the outside peg" description just never made any sense to me

 

No, because the wall is straight up and down. If you put the wall on a 45 degree angle (the position of my heel gaurd while turning) and pushed on it, some of your weight would be on that foot.

 

Outside peg because years ago Twist of the wrist II told me to.

I have tried both but like the stabilty of the outside. .02

 

Yes it does, but it's not always only reacted straight down. Think about the guys that ride their motorcycles inside those steel spheres at the carnivals. When they're upside-down, you could argue that their weight vector is down, but they will tell you their putting their weight on both legs. In terms of cornerning, racers will (if I'm considered a racer) put a good portion of their weight on the outside leg. I try to do about 50%.

 

Not only the guys at carnivals, but also the banking at Daytona. On the banking, your bike is tilted at 30 some degrees, and the g forces are going straight through the pegs. It becomes hard to even lift your foot off of the peg.

 

maybe u have amazing lower body strength... sasquatch cant do things like that... im happy u can, and i dont reccomend taking any feet of off any pegs at any time...

 

My outside heal guard has been bent into my swingarm, so I dont doubt him.

I hook my heal on the outside, and rotate my knee into the tank, hooking into the outside of the bike. I could probably lift my inside foot off the peg if I wanted to, but it would be difficult. I think wight is on both pegs, but I am hooked in with the outside.

You can see here why my heel guard gets bent...

 

I dont know about all this. The vector thing makes since though because when you exert any force down you are actually supporting your weight and if you exert any force up you are actually forced to lift that weight up and also support that weight by pushing down. Think about doing standing curls. When you lift a 50 pound bar up you exert a lifting force up and also you are supporting the extra 50 pounds by exerting a supporting force through your feet.

I just cant seem to balance well with throwing wieght on the outside peg with my ass over the inside peg.

 

its like squating on the ground and trying to lift either foot. You cant do it when you position yourself over the foot you are trying to lift so you must be exerting a lot of force on the tank and seat as a crutch to be able to lift your inside foot off the peg.

 

Inside peg to initiate turn. Outside peg to get the most traction once you start applying the throttle.

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/122_0610_20_pro_motorcycle_roadracing_tips/index.html

 

I push on the peg when entering the turn to help get the bike into the corner. Up through the apex I can easily move my outside foot around at will. Once it is time to roll on the throttle for the exit then I shift my weight to the outside peg.

My assumption is that this is like the argument between standard shift and GP shift, both work so it is really down to what works for you. As for the argument that weighting the inside peg is the wrong thing to do, take a look at Colin or Nicky's near crashes last month. Both of them tucked the front and started to low side. Had they been applying more weight (or even equal weight) to the outside peg then that foot shouldn't have been the one to fly off the peg as the bike started to tuck. What did happen, in both cases, is that the outside foot slipped off the peg because it didn't have much weight on it, while the inside foot remained firmly planted on the peg since it was doing most of the work at that time.

 

Most deffinately the case, at least for me. Most of the contact with my bike from me mid corner is in my knee and outside heel/calf area, with some weight on my ass as well.

I was actually just showing it to my dad the other day. Bike sitting on padock stands. We were talking about keeping minimal pressure on the bars and he didnt understnad, as he though I was hanging on to the bars hanging off the inside of the bike. So I got on the bike and got in full tuck without my hands on the bars, and similated transitioning to hang off, then a full hangoff without touching the bars, just to show him where the pressures are on the bike....... not the bars.

I do use inside to help countersteer to initiate a turn though, and outside also to help counter steer out of a corner

 

Imagine you’re on your bike in the pits, it’s on a pit stand, you’re practicing body position. You’re leaning to the right. 80% of your weight is on the right peg, you lean more, 90%, more 100%, now your left toe is barely skimming the left peg, you could pick up your left foot into the air if you wanted. Basically all your weight is on the right peg, neglecting some stabilization from your hands and thighs. You lean further and the bike almost tips over right off the stand to the right but you reach out and brace yourself with your right hand by pushing against your teammates bike that was sitting next to you and it holds you up.

Now, take this situation and put your bike on its stand inside the back of a van with the bike pointing forward. Lean to the right until it’s about to tip over again just as before. All of your weight still on your right foot. Tell the driver of the van to go to the next expressway interchange and run the cloverleaf as fast as he can. You don’t have the bike tied down with straps. Which way do you think the bike will want to tip this time? Which wall of the van do you think you will push on to keep the bike from tipping? Will you reach out in the same direction that you did in the pits? Which of your feet will have most of your weight (without adjusting where your CG is, you are still leaned to the right as you were in the pits) just before the bike tips over while the van is tearing through the ramps?

On track, I'm not fast enough to say that biasing the inside or outside is definietly right or wrong. I'm saying it's definetly possible to use the outside leg and it doesn't take any extra superhuman lower body strength. The cornering force allows you to balance the weight to the outside.

 

+1

Somewhere around here I have a couple of pix someone took and you can actually see that my outside foot isn't even on the peg if you look close.

Road racing and dirt racing are two very different styles of riding. I raced motocross and harescrambles _long_ before ever riding on a race track, or even riding a sportbike. When I first started trying to ride on the road I damn near killed myself until I figured out that you can't lean outwards/weight the outside peg the way you do on a dirt bike. It's just two very different riding styles.

Having said that though, it's definitely an advantage to know how to do both.