do kneedowns actually make you quicker?

[damz]

everyone seems to talk about getting kneedowns as if its loosing your virginity but so far on the roads iv'e found very little purpose for it, i can lean stupid ammounts and get around corners very fast without my knee's even touching the ground.

the only time iv'e bothered to do kneedowns were on roundabouts to scrub in new tyres as i felt it would be better to do it at low more controlled speeds than loosing it on a fast bend.

anyway does doing a kneedown actually make your corner faster on public roads?
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[The Artist]

Kneedown is just a term for a degree that you are leaning.

So in essence, kneedown is your leaning limit, leaning more means you can go faster around corners.

Not necessary on the roads really.

[chris-red]

[johnsmith222]

I have seen some really quick riders who don't really lean off their bike.

It put the whole kneedown thing into perspective for me.

you were pretty quick round bends anyway when I was out with you so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Fancy a run on Wednesday afternoon?

[damz]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Depends on why you have you knee down.

Those who are hanging off like a monkey just to get their knee down are probably going a lot slower than they could.

Those leaning over hard and just hanging off a bit are getting their knee down due to their speed.

All the best

Keith
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Probably not, but the process of learning to get your knee down improves your confidence vastly.
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[supZ]

[Bofh5]

Do a track day and you'll find out why using your knee helps.

When i started i was decking the pegs after a lap once the tyres were warm and the bike started to feel really unstable like it was on the limit but i was still going wide !

After a few more sessions i relaxed and just started sliding of the seat looking where i wanted to go and found my turning was a lot better with the difference in weight balance.

As a by-product so to speak i started scraping my knees on the corners and the confidence boost was incredible.

Remember the greater the lean angle the less tyre is in contact with the road / track so less grip.
If you can keep a greater contact patch by using your body to increase the turn in then all the better plus you can get on the throttle faster.

Sorry this isn't the best way to explain but hopefully you catch my drift
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[Tome]

[Luke_Retrofly]

Knee down in essence has nothing to do with speed. Its a process of judging how far you are leant over. Everyones styles different, so how much you GYKD differs from person to person. But its a good judge of how far your leaning/pushing the bike.

Weight distribution, ie moving your weight towards the inside of the corner does let go quicker, it allows the bike to go around the corner quicker without increasing lean angle, there is a maximum lean angle of a bike, after which you will lose grip, shifting your weight to the inside allows you to be on this limit but going faster around the corner than if you were sat upright on your bike, one of the ways of doing this is sticking your body/head/elbow/knee out, which eventually hit the floor

On track with decent tryes and grip levels bikes lean so far that the distance between the bike and ground is so small you can't stick anything out, yet your bum, head and elbow will be still offset to the inside.

As you can see Rossi's whole body is offset to the right of the bike, this I think it most important factor when leaning for extra speed, not just sticking your knee out.
https://www.humanartifact.com/image/proracing/20090429_67degreeLeanRossiChinaFP.png

Note heads/bodies and elbows all leaning into the corner, also note No#26 bike, his knee is sandwiched between the road and bike
https://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/2007/mgp/mugello/1/9.jpg

Obviously these are extreme examples, but the principles are the same, these techniques are best practiced on race tracks

[Cptn. Awesome]