kneedown problem!

[RooRoo]

I managed to get really low on my CG the other day on a roundabout, apparently too low as the bottom of my bike hit the ground and I nearly lost it, but not sure what it was, possibly the center stand at the bottom...guess getting knee down on a cg is impossible :/

[Gazdaman]

Jeez, I wouldn't like to get my knee down on a cg, I'd be waiting for the bike to start sliding. Could be the centre stand, surely it's easy enough to work out what it was by looking at the bike.

Talking of impossible though, there is a pic on bikepics.com (if you browse by manufacturor) there's a pic of someone with their knee down on a cg, so it is possible, you might just need to hang off the bike a bit more.


Gaz

[Ste]

Hang off the bike, hang until your knee is down on the ground. You can kneedown on pretty much any bike, on some it is just a matter of hanging off lots. When learning it is fairly common to have your pegs (or centre stand if you have one) touch down and you're then unsure what to do as you can't lean the bike anymore, but aren't hanging off it.

[stinkwheel]

Not a problem. You get a really cool shower of sparks off the centrestand when you ground it out in the dark. Don't do it too much though or you won't be able to park it
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[RooRoo]

im a bit worried about getting too low and just binning it, I dont remember where I was exactly when I hit the ground, just remember a big vibration that shot the bike in the air very quickly, so I left the roundabout and headed back, laughing at myself...I'll try hanging off a bit more.

[Andy99]

Have a little look round the bike until you find something with a scuff.If it's the centrestand,which is most likely check the spring,if it's too loose the stand might be hanging lower than it should causing early touchdown.I had a similar problem with an RD350,i just removed the centrestand
____________________
Nothing gets the point across quite like a raised middle digit.

Just call me General Crazypaws.

[stinkwheel]

[RooRoo]

[stryker]

What is the drive to make people get their knee down? You will only be banking into a sharpish corner like that if your doing like 70mph+ last time I checked we didn't have very many near 90 deg bends on our motorways.

[TheShaggyDA]

[G]

On the cg the rubber coated pegs make for an interesting peg down sensation.
Shouldn't be a problem getting your knee down though, the trick is to hang off like a monkey.

<Insert elbow down pic here>

Hang off as much as possible and you can probably almost get your knee down with an upright bike on a cg.


Another reason for knee down is that it gives you the confidence to lean further and a better feel for how far over your bike is leant and can be leant.
I reckon I also saved a potential crash thanks to it (though a little different as somone ran over my rear wheel on track.)

[RealNinja]

[jay12329]

I was thinking the same thing when i dragged both pegs along the groud, can i get my KD with standard rearsets on a hornet. Next track day i was hanging off a bit more and my knee went down. Just get used to sticking you knee out so far it streatches your leathers. Photos help too, Kron showed me a pic with my knee almost down i ajusted my position slightly and it touched down.
J

[AcIdBuRnZ]

I feel safer taking a corner at speed when hanging off the bike as it lets me know how much the bike is leaning and how much more it can go. Plus, with your weight off the bike it's easier to tip it in further, should you need to. I get scared of running wide when just leaning the bike without moving my body weight. It's hard to explain.

So basically as G said
____________________
Past: Honda NSR125R >> Kawasaki ER-5a2 >> Kawasaki ZZR-600e1 >> Suzuki GSXR-750Y >> Honda VTR 1000 Firestorm
"Chickity China the Chinese Chicken..."

[stryker]

Ah, thanks. I've recently found the bike feels safer in corners if I lean a little extra off to the inside of a turn, also moving forward so I'm kind of holding the bike down as opposed to holding the handlebar forward..... erm, if you get my drift.

[cliff]

If I can do it on a Honda H100 (almost exactly the same as cg), you can do it! As G said, hang off as much as you can and take a nice line!
____________________
Sweet reggae music.

[G]

Much as you don't see the need stryker, if you've got leathers with sliders, go to a roundabout and practice doing it.

You'll probably find you get a better 'feel' for the bike and it may save you if some time later you need to suddenly turn qucikly to avoid something. Your mind will already be happy with more lean, so won't instinctively associate it with crashing.

[BLOFLY 636]

I recently seen my AUGUST ISSUE copy of "Performance Bikes" and noticed an article titled "From Novice To Kneedown In A Day" I read through it and seen that the 6 main points to getting your Knee Down is....... "RELAX"...... Too tense and you'll grip the controls too tightly and feel awkward. Breathe and take your time......."DON'T HANG OFF TOO FAR"......Sticking both arse cheeks off the seat points your knee back at the bike and lack of weight on the bike makes it handle like a space hopper......."DROP YOUR INSIDE SHOULDER".......Sit quite well back in the seat, as it helps you look through the corner as far as you can and your knee naturally sticks out......"BUILD UP SPEED GENTLY"......If you go in too fast, resist the temptation to grab the front brake mid-corner, if you've got enough grip to brake, then you can make the turn......."PRETEND YOUR ROSSI!".......Mimic him and remember, you are a GP god!......."NEVER LOOK AT YOUR KNEE!!!"........NEVER EVER NO! ...However when I try to get my knee down by following everybodies advice from here and by what I just read in that magazine by sitting back in the seat I feel too high up and like I have far far more distance between my knee and the ground rather than when I just sit closer to the tank. I feel I can reach the ground a little easier with my knee not that I have scraped it with my slider yet but I just FEEL closer by sitting near the tank I think my main problem is I am not going fast enough to get my knee down because the bars feel like they want to turn in to the turn but when I see most pictures of people getting their knee down I notice the bars are quite straight or counter steering to the turn which indicates they are travelling at a speed greater than mine
____________________
Those bloody footpegs......they ought to do away with em!

[Ste]

You don't need to think about counter steering you do it automatically anyway and the more you think about it the less you'll be doing it I'd expect. You do not need to be going fast to get your knee down just hang off the bike and then once you've found that it is actually possible you can lean the bikemore, the bike can be leant as far as it will go which for the majority of bikes is limited by the foot pegs going down so until then it can be leant over further.

Remember knee down other than the showing off aspect off it is used to give you a guide as to how leant over you are and how much more you can lean over without having to keep going until your pegs grind.

[G]

[Orion]

[Ste]

[stinkwheel]

When I could be bothered with stuff like worrying about if I could get my knee down, we tried an exercise. I got two mates to support my GPZ500 between them whilst I sat on it, we tipped it over 'till the hero-blob touched down then I tried to hang off and touch the road with my knee.....conclusion: not possible by reason of long shins. It was probably possible on my powervalve but that had an insane amount of ground clearance anyway, more than you would ever use on the road and be confident of completing your journey outside of an ambulance.

Noone I know bothers trying to do it, I have been on some pretty high speed runs with bike clubs and I have never seen anyone putting their knee down on the road, come to think of it, I don't think I know anyone with kneesliders on their leathers.

The concept is sound in that you shift your weight to go round corners, I tend to hang an arse cheek off (or sometimes even rest my thigh accross the saddle) but I don't stick my leg out. Knee down is more so you can feel how far over you are leaning the bike as I understand it, GP racers will lean on their knee, shifting weight off the bike in a corner to stop it sliding but I refuse to believe anyone rides like that on the road...it would just take one tiny bit of debris to have you off if you were pushing the tyres that hard.

I can feel how far over I am with my toes, toe touches down=just about far enough since I already have as much weight hanging off the bike as i am comfortable with (when you are leaning your outside forearm against the tank to steady the bars, you are hanging off enough in my book). Before I get comments on being 'duck footed' you need to tell that to my mate Jim Snaith who finished 16th in the Manx classic this year on a CB250K3 lapping at around 90mph, he rides like that all the time.

But of course, now I ride a supermoto so it is feet and sticky-out elbows all the way
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[G]

[roozor]

bloody hell, respect for evening thinking of a knee down on a cg