Deleted account 211025001
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- Feb 3, 2005
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Well now ...
I have now seen the video, and I've got to say ... I am quite surprised too! I was sort of expecting lairy speeds and lairy lean angles and it's all pretty sensible! So I can understand your head scratching.
Personally, I think he pushes his front first. We can all see his back coming round, but I think it's his front that goes first - just by the tiniest amount, and it all goes wrong from there.
I don't want to come across as one of these wankers that tells you how to go round a corner .... but ...![]()
What I would say is that 'Steve' looks a pretty big guy and sits very still on his bike, he also looks like he rides on his insteps? (Hard to tell exactly..). So when you're a big, still sack of spuds, on insteps, there's very little input from you in terms of moving your body about and using your weight. You really are the ultimate passenger along for the ride and the bike is going to be the boss. Being 'still' is not such a bad thing - the ultimate swan on the water style is 'quietly efficient' (Page one, paragraph one ..!) but there's a balance to be had between being so still on your bike that you give it no input what so ever, and of course being lairy and hanging off and all that shit that we're most definitely not talking about.
The perfect balance in my very humble opinion, is a very active torso, very very relaxed elbows, definitely riding on the balls of your feet and a head that sort of leads the way into corners (Think chin towards the leading mirror).
What caused Steves tyres to let go? (Front I think) I've absolutely no idea?! (We could talk for hours on 'easy in, hard out', 'tyre grip trade off', acceleration sense etc etc), but (heres the wanker advice bit .. !) by being so still and 'unanimated' if you like, once that front had a little tiny slip, there was no loose rider input to be able to catch it and recover, there was no body weight to move about and be 'active' and 'involved' in the bikes steering and manourvering. What does your head weigh ? six or seven kilos? What about your upper body and head 35 / 40 kilos? That is a lot of weight! Thats an olympic bar and two 20k plates! Now imagine putting that on a waiters tray and getting him to hold it balanced with one hand. You'd only have to move that weight about a 1cm for the tray to collapse in the shift of weight. So what you do with your body weight or ... what you don't do with it, plays a huuuuge bearing on how your bike behaves, how it's balanced, and how that weight can affect grip.
Because Steve looks like he's along for the ride if you like (bit harsh .. sorry Steve .. but you get my drift) the momentum of the bike and it's little initial slide in the corner takes over, and once it's going .... it's going! Would a more 'active', 'involved' 'looser torso' 'just move that body weight about a tad' rider have either reacted more quickly to the front slipping or better still, prevented the front from slipping altogether ?? Who knows, but for my money, if Steve is scratching his head and is thinking 'are there any lessons to be learned from that', I'd say yes .... be a tiny bit more physical with your weight on the bike and move it about just a little bit.
(NB ... This is why off roading is so good for your skills!!)
I've looked through Youtube trying to find some examples of non lairy body movement and can't really find anything that appropriate, but this link is a reasonable example of upper body involvement (notice how he sits still in the saddle so no hanging off and knee out) and how he is using his arms and body weight to his advantage.
<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXWVYtsf43Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Interesting.
I still think Wapping had it nailed with the giant bat though
Andres
PS Why do twats quote entire long posts? It really makes my boil piss.

