Hanging off

[spamanglenn]

Now before i start this is only what i have observed through riding and doing the superbike schools and reading the twist of the wrist series.My background is in mechanical engineering and i always want to know why is it so.What is the benefit of hanging off a bike,purely from a weight balance point of view.Here goes.When you turn left you first turn the bars right to tip the bike over to the left(countersteering).As the bike starts to lean you then gradually (sometimes unknowingly) turn the bars left to the point that maintains the angle of lean.The bike is in equilibrium for that angle of lean and you can actually take your hands off the bars when the speed is high enough.To turn tighter you would have to be turning the bars more to the left,but for the given lean angle and weight distribution you will just stand the bike up.So you would have to turn right a bit to increase the lean angle before you turn more left to maintain centrifugal weight balance for the new sharper radius.This is because your body weight is fairly high on the bike so you need alot of lean angle to stop it standing the bike up.When you're over the side of the bike and lower down on the inside of the turn,the bikes centre of gravity is dramatically different.Say for a given lean angle of 40degrees and a front wheel angle of 5 degrees into the turn at 80km/hr sitting upright on the bike.If you were to hang off and low,that corner could be taken at say 35 degrees at say 6 degrees front wheel angle at 80km/hr.Even though the bike is more upright with more turning angle on the front wheel because your weight is low and on the side your turning into,the bike won,t stand up.This in turn allows greater corner speed to be acheived at the previous 40 degree lean angle with more front wheel angle because of the new weight disribution,or more ground clearance for the bike at a given speed that this becomes an issue.Staying off the bike coming out of corners also allows you to get on the centre of the tyre sooner and gas out of the corner sooner and harder.My last track day i was a little rusty but going real loose on the inside elbow and digging that ouside knee into the tank forced my body to allow the bike to take its natural(much tighter) turning radius for my body position and given speed.So if you want a busa to turn, get off it,dig the outside knee in and go slack on the inside elbow and it almost turns like a motorbike. Glenn the Spa Man<i></i>