Putting your knee down

[GearboxGeezer]

Hi,

On Sunday I was trying to put my knee down at this pretty well surfaced roundabout, its quite, and pretty big as well as having alot of "run off" for if I did crash..

Thing is I dont think I even got close to doing it, I tried getting my arse on the inside of the seat and sticking my knee out, but it feels like my bikes just going to break away. Its an RS 125 with pretty good tyres on ( there 150/80, so there pretty wide for a 125, is wide tyres a good thing for getting knees down? )

Just wondering how I should build myself up to getting my knee down? Should I just lean the bike over like fuck and just hope for the best? or is there more of a nack to it?

I know the best place to be trying this sort of thing ( and I surpose the only place you should be doing this sort of thing ) is on a track day but thats pretty much out the question at this moment in time.

Any tips more than welcome.

[NSR Mick]

the road conditions arent too favourable at the moment, but you probably just need to lean over further. Also how big is the roundabout as it can be harder on smaller ones.
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[SoND]

If it feels like the bike is about to break away then it probably is.

Remember to do a few laps to get your tyres warmed up, gradually leaning further each time.
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[GearboxGeezer]

The roundabouts pretty big, its the one at Stockley park, can rember the road that its under but it leads to some motorway, m4 I think..... maybe m25..

It was a good day when I was trying it, ok it was still a bit cold which isnt good but still.

I think the feeling of the bike breaking away was just my confidence.

Should I concentrate on things like countersteering?

[A J]

When i was first learning how to do it i had my bro behind me to give me points etc, i found this very helpful.

Get your arse off the seat almost the whole thing when you are learning and push your knee towards the back of the bike, and counter steer on the way in to the roundabout.

There is a post somwhere taken from the CBR forum thats really helpfull on body position, look at your chicken strips you should have very small ones like a 2 ml as that is about the lean at where you can touch down, so if they are bigger then you need to lean it over more.

Oh n make sure your tyres are at full tmp, good luck.

A J


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[JeffT]

and that your tyres are the correct pressure too

[steveh]

not sure if this will help, but heres a pic of me so you get the idea, make sure your tires are warm and the road is smooth with no shit on it, tyre presures and the right speed is also a key factor.


Steve.
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[UrbanRacer]

wait till the summer when the roads actually have some heat in them too, this will help get the tyres up to tempreture quickly.

[Dom_]

Your are probably no where near the limits of traction imo, the barrier for leaning you have is a mental one. When i first learnt to knee down i too thought the bike would just slide away, but it doesn't. You get really tense when you lean further than you have before, but once your used to the angle then it seems like your hardly leaning at all (if that makes sense.)

As long as you do a few laps to warm the tyres up i don't see there being a problem this time of year, aslong as the roundabout isn't covered in salt.

You will have warning before the bike breaks traction, either the back end will wobble a bit or the front will feel light. Just don't go throwing it around and build the speed up gradually.

[Simple]

as posted above, I'd wait for warmer road temperatures,

you also need to increase the angle of your lean gradually, as the edge of your tyre is virgin rubber, just like when you had the tyres on new, so you will want to eat into thei virgin area steadily heating it up also.

My knee sliders kept falling off so I gave up with them for the time being, will adon them again once the sun shines and they become useful. not trying it in these cold temperatures on salty roads
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[Gazdaman]

When I started trying to get my knee down, I was like this.

https://www.gaz-racing.co.uk/images/XJ/Full/Toe-down.jpg

Which you'll notice is almost certainly leaning far enough over to GMKD. Just the body position is all wrong.

Now I can do it and hardly lean the bike, it's /all/ about hanging off.

https://www.gaz-racing.co.uk/images/Lydden/Full/NOV_7966.JPG - Click on the link to see the after pic, Maurice moaned that I [IMG]'d it.


Gaz

[cunni]

I leant to GMKD on an RS125, so I understand exactly where you are coming from.

they feel really bizare when you lean them loads, sort of a vague feeling. I alwaysthought mine was on the limit and wondered why I couldn't get my knee down, but it was a while before I got it sorted.

Basicaly, relax. when you are hanging off, I bet you (without realiseing it or not) that you are tense on the bars, either with fear or simply holding on becauseyour off the seat. You need to relax this grip and grip with your arse and legs, especially the thigh.

Tensing on the bars causes real problems with counter steering, ie, you can't turn the bars as you are too tense! You need to positively think about counter steering, but realise that this only gets you in/out of a turn, once the turn is at constant radius, the wheel will be pointing into the turn just as you would have thought before you found out about counter steering!

Don't hang off like a chimp, just half an ass cheeck. Don't point your leg at the floor, just let it swing out to where ever is comfortable. Once you get thelean angle sorted, it will touch down naturally, but you don't want to be sacrificing concentration from the road onto your leg positions!

Another problem with learning to hang off is that it feels like you are leaning more than you normally do, when you are probably mostly upright. first time I tried to hang off I couldn't even get the bike to turn, as I was still completely vertical! lol

You would be better off waiting until the roads are warmer, as in cold weather, grease is pushed up from the crevices in the road and this ain't good for riding on!

Also, bare this in mind: The RS125 is one of the hardest bikes to learn to get your knee down on. If you can do it, your a god dam hero, or at least you will feel this way! lol On any other sports ike it is much easier. I did it without thinking when I switched to a TL1000R after the RS125. The 125is built for corner speed and therefore you have loads of ground clearance to overcome. Just take it a bit at a time, but at the end of the day, massive gonads of steel are required on the RS in my opinion!
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[GearboxGeezer]

Cool, cheers for help guys, Ill give it a go as soon as it starts getting warm!

[numark1]

extend the knee and lean.

https://www.mark-tate.co.uk/Bikes/slides/Bikes%20(77).html