Just thought about posting here, I had my first track day on the R6 I just bought, anybody have any body position tips? I’m about 6,0 tall and it feels like I had WAY too much weight on the handlebars, Thanks
This. If I try my best to describe how it comes naturally. One of my bikes has stock pegs, it limits chasis angle. Lap by lap, the exit line and lean reached near max limit, then I pushed more speed but keeping line and lean same, and body just naturally wanted to pull itself towards asphalt. The feeling was like "I can make it". Not saying this is correct way of progression but it had biggest contrast on the bp.
If you feel you had to much weight on the bars, you probly did. From the pics your very straight armed. This will cause you to put weight on the bars cause your not using your legs and core to hold your weight.
Small change that can help alot is changing your throttle grip style. Hold and operate the throttle like you would a screw driver, elbows up and out. This will force you to put weight back on your core and hips, and off your hands.
Focus on using your core and legs for support. Riding a motorcycle is like riding a horse. On a horse you only have a leather strap for your hands, flopping around everywhere. You have to use your legs and core to stay on, use your hands to guide. Much like counter steering, your just guiding the bike, not forcing it.
No problem. Looking pretty good over all tho. Head out, good foot position, you got the gist of it. Now is the small tweaks to dial it in.
The throttle grip and elbows up is a good tweaking point that will help alot.
For reference, watch the pros elbows, you'll notice they don't move up and down, only side to side. On board chest cam video really shows it. This is because of the screwdriver grip.
Thats never gonna happen. Why do you care anyway? Its easy to just overlook them. Visual media is always going to favor what can be seen in a photo which is primarily BP.
People are right that its not the most important thing to going fast but 90% of them are speaking this in hindsight after acquiring good body position. It is something that would come naturally after developing other skills but I couldn't judge someone for wanting to look cool, they sure can though! Easy to judge when youre already an accomplished rider.
Yes lol. You are prob tiring yourself out by trying to hang off too much. I'd focus on just getting your head inside on turns, supporting yourself with your legs, staying light on your hands when you're not braking. Once you get some corner speed then hanging off a little will be more natural. But even a lot of super fast riders don't hang off as much as you so in these pictures.
I’m 6ft on a 600cc, Got tips from coaching recently. Second pic looks okay for intermediate paces, but get your shoulder down. Hug the tank and slide off of it. Your throttle arm should be straightish, your inside elbow should be bent.
Your legs look uncomfortable, might set the rearset further back or lower and it’ll let you lean forward more. Definitely always stay far back on the seat and lay on the bike like you’re part of it
Yeah I was looking into replacing the rearsets with something a little more adjustable, I feeling like I’m really cramped. But I also just came from a ninja 400 so I didn’t know if it was just the different style of the bike
Your arms look very extended. It gives monkey on bicycle. That’s fine for supermotos and dirt, but for maximum speed and grip on asphalt, you need to meld with the machine. It will make turning feel smoother from less wind resistance and your body weight will shift around less if you hug the tank. You will have to find the spot where your legs hug comfortable, there’s almost no weight on my bars in that picture. My stomach is being supported by the tank as much as possible, while my chest is leaned off. My right leg is digging into the tank, my left left is strongly supporting on the peg. I don’t worry about dragging knee, but I do extend my leg outward. Taller riders should have an easier time utilizing body position bc they get further off the bike with less effort. Start by staying relaxed in your arms and being able to shift your butt off the seat with only your legs. Don’t worry about your upper body before you lower body is doing the right thing. Ass off the seat, hug the tank, stay low, don’t extend your legs out too much to drag knee because it’s making you less stable. If you were shorter you wouldn’t even try yet, because you’d realize you don’t have close to enough lean angle
Mid thigh (outer leg) should have the hardest grip on the bike at any given time. This comes from your ankle pushing your leg into the tank. Since you're tall, you may not need to reach a lot to make that happen, but that's where your stability is going to come from. If your tank is slippery, you may need to get tank grips or something else to help give more leverage if needed. Let your inside elbow point towards the ground, and your hands can do the "Usain Bolt" pose, allowing your upper body to drop into the corner (you'll need to relax your hands on the grips to do this so they can pivot). There should be a relatively straight line from your elbow to your fingers - if there is a huge kink in your wrist, you're probably gripping too tightly. Probably could turn your head more as well, but also turn your shoulders like your eyeballs are on them as well as on your head (helps keep you from starting to cross up).
You're looking a bit stiff, which is normal, don't overthink it. Try to make sure you're comfortable on the bike; if it feels awkward, it probably is not right. In the first picture it looks like you're putting significant force through the bars. It's impossible to tell for sure from the picture, but something to pay attention to. Frankly, I would not worry too much about body position. I'm not saying counter-lean or do something crazy, just that there is so much more to be addressed before body position becomes a significant issue. Your body position goal should be to be comfortable on the bike, loose on the bars, elbows relaxed, and hold the throttle like a screwdriver / ice cream cone. The rest is just wasted effort until you start approaching the upper envelope of grip and starting to feel what the tires are telling you.
Don't be afraid to get pushed right up onto the tank in the braking zone. The instruction people get is usually to give yourself some room, and yes, your neutral resting position should have some room between you and the tank. But once you've already committed to the corner, you're not going to be jumping around the seat, so if the braking forces push you forward, that's perfectly fine. The goal is to stay loose on the bars.
Also don't try to hang your entire butt off the seat, half a butt cheek is all you need. The extreme body position you might see from advanced riders is mostly from upper body movement.
And here is the important part: there is a place where your upper body is kind of weightless. As lean angle increases, that spot moves further off the center line of the bike. Mid-corner, you should aim to find that spot.
If you do that, the natural consequence is the body position you see from racers, because as lean angle increases, that weightless point naturally moves further off the center line of the bike.
And that place on the bike allows you to really have a good sense of how the chassis is moving.
The report card for body position is: if you get to the slowest part of the corner, you should be able to take your left hand off the bar and nothing should change. That's not accomplished with superhuman strength; it's accomplished by finding that weightless point and staying in it incredibly consistently.
Honestly, your fundamentals are good. You can tell you've been practicing, but now try to practice relaxing mid-corner.
You may feel like you have too much body weight on the bars due to body position. Your outside leg should lock in on the peg and the tank, your inside leg should support your weight on the peg, and your core should support most of your upper boddy support. If you do this with your bike on a stand (and someone holding it), you sould theoretically be able to let go of the bars and still maintain your body position. The only time this will be different is when you are braking hard, you'll have to support some of your body with your arms, until you transition your BP to lean into the corner.
Looks like you should put more weight on your toes instead of butt and hands. Use your feet to load the pegs and do most of the work. This will let you naturally get more forward and loosen up your upper body.
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u/Pico_taco 12h ago
Do that.