How To Drag Your Knee (Formerly: Great Article)

[Instance]

I thought this was VERY interesting, especially the part about the side stand. Great for those wanting to learn twisties.

http://www.bikenet-magazine.com/sections/road/default.asp?section=skills



Be Safe

[Port4mance]

I can't wait to get home and go hang of my bike, I'm thinking I might end up on a heap on the ground.:twofinger Besides the leg lock I think my riding position is inline with the article. Think I could velcro some kneesliders on my jeans until I get some full leathers?

[JackTheTripper]

Originally posted by Port4mance
Think I could velcro some kneesliders on my jeans until I get some full leathers? Forget that. I'm goin' to Home Depot and buying some of those knee pads for carpenders.:twofinger

Really, very good article. Thanx!:D

[theSteveCo]

Talk about dismissing myths... I always thought the point of dragging your knee was to slow down!

[Instance]

Originally posted by theSteveCo
Talk about dismissing myths... I always thought the point of dragging your knee was to slow down!


REALLY??? I've never heard that one. Hmmmmm......that could be your third brake. :D :D

[Wolf]

Originally posted by Port4mance
Think I could velcro some kneesliders on my jeans until I get some full leathers?

Ooh! That's right. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to try dragging a knee in jeans. :eek Guess I should hold off on it too then.

[cr-619]

Originally posted by Instance
REALLY??? I've never heard that one. Hmmmmm......that could be your third brake. :D :D

oh, ok...so your knee is not like an outrigger

[Dark Angel]

Originally posted by theSteveCo
Talk about dismissing myths... I always thought the point of dragging your knee was to slow down!

Is that what you were trying to do when you were dragging your knee, elbow, back, helmet and fairing??? :D

[theSteveCo]

Originally posted by Dark Angel


Is that what you were trying to do when you were dragging your knee, elbow, back, helmet and fairing??? :D

Hahaha! I think my technique needs some work, I didn't scrub much speed off before impact!

[Dark Angel]

Originally posted by theSteveCo
Talk about dismissing myths... I always thought the point of dragging your knee was to slow down!

Is that what you were trying to do when you were dragging your knee, elbow, back, helmet and fairing??? :D

[Witchkiller]

:smoking that was a cool site :smoking

and i thought you had to hang both
cheeks off the side.. lol j/k








disappers back in to the shadows........ :sniper

[alang]

Hey Instance now you can show me how it's done.:-D

Thanks for posting the site.

[SlayAnt]

heh.. been scraping my foot and peg for the longest time! :rolleyes Well now i know what i'm doing wrong :-D

[daduck748]

Good article. One thing that they forgot to mention is that you only have 45 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires (vs. 50 degrees with SLICKS). That's why excessive can only hurt you. You can 'unsafely' push 50 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires, but your changes of kissing the tarmac are pretty high. Don't ask me how I know this. :D

[Hooli]

Originally posted by daduck748
You can 'unsafely' push 50 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires, but your changes of kissing the tarmac are pretty high. Don't ask me how I know this. :D

How do you know this? :twofinger

[theSteveCo]

Originally posted by daduck748
Good article. One thing that they forgot to mention is that you only have 45 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires (vs. 50 degrees with SLICKS). That's why excessive can only hurt you. You can 'unsafely' push 50 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires, but your changes of kissing the tarmac are pretty high. Don't ask me how I know this. :D


HOORAH! DaDuck is online and posting! I hope it becomes a regular event... you've much to teach us, sensei! :D

[MrCrash]

Originally posted by daduck748
Good article. One thing that they forgot to mention is that you only have 45 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires (vs. 50 degrees with SLICKS). That's why excessive can only hurt you. You can 'unsafely' push 50 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires, but your changes of kissing the tarmac are pretty high. Don't ask me how I know this. :D

I find that hard to agree with, as new DOT racing tires are essentially slicks on the edges, and seem to have profiles as aggressive as those found on slicks, typically.

I'm curious as to where you got your numbers from?

- Mike

[Chuci]

all around tire-wise... Dunlop D207GP's! You can still get them from the UK and even less than 208's stateside.... :D

maybe I can hang onto the road and go up and down the curvy twisty turns like my bro Strawberry and make sparky with my kneepucks with quarters taped to them.....:chuci:chuci

[JnglstTICAL]

hey, that was a good article, alot of good info. thanks for sharing it!

[mrtnz]

Thanks for letting us know about this article. I checked around the website. It has other awesome articles as well! You should place this link/website on the BARF Links section.

[R6CHIC]

nice article!!!! very helpful...i was doing it all wrong! now lemme go outside and practice hanging off my bike :cool

[Qoqoboi]

Thank yoU! finally a good article i enjoyed reading..... as soon as i change out my front tire, i am gonna attempt to drag a knee.

[JnglstTICAL]

Be careful bro, when you 1st try it, dont be soooo focussed on getting your knee to touch ground, rather, the point is getting around the corner, as quikly as possible, hwy 9 is a great place for those type of turns.....good luck.

[jj2f1]

Thanks for the article, time to go practice.

[Chuci]

Originally posted by JnglstTICAL
Be careful bro, when you 1st try it, dont be soooo focussed on getting your knee to touch ground, rather, the point is getting around the corner, as quikly as possible, hwy 9 is a great place for those type of turns.....good luck.

noooooooooo.... the TRACK is a great place to practice this. 99% of the time, no one is or should be going fast enough to drag knee on 9 - although 'Berry can do it at 45mph... bastige. :twofinger:chuci:teeth

[Robert R1]

Originally posted by daduck748
Good article. One thing that they forgot to mention is that you only have 45 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires (vs. 50 degrees with SLICKS). That's why excessive can only hurt you. You can 'unsafely' push 50 degrees of lean angle on DOT tires, but your changes of kissing the tarmac are pretty high. Don't ask me how I know this. :D

With DOT race such as Supercorsa'/GP/Rennsports, you will run out of ground clearence with the bike (stock bikes)before you run out of tire clearence. You can grind with pegs of a Stock R1 with just Street 207's on. Ask me how I know :)

[Tangun]

Originally posted by Robert R1


With DOT race such as Supercorsa'/GP/Rennsports, you will run out of ground clearence with the bike (stock bikes)before you run out of tire clearence. You can grind with pegs of a Stock R1 with just Street 207's on. Ask me how I know :)

this is true. I know how you know. :teeth

[JoshH]

that was a good article, I know now that I have been hanging off to much, so much that's it's pushing my knee back up into the tank like that article said. I'm gonna go practice on the onramp right now!:cool

[Igor]

Yeah I have been practicing this for a while, and when you get good at it (I am about half way there) it is hard not to do it since you do get a much better handling bike in the turn when using this technique.

I really need to get some pants with sliders , since I don't think it will feel pleasant touching the asphalt with my knee with out one, I came close a few times too.

[MackeyStingray]

don't know if i'm close or not but i don't make it my focus when riding. used to but i crashed cause i was trying too hard to do it. that and my technique was way off (hanging off too much).

now it's all about trying to be smooth, loose and getting good lines.

though i do wonder why i'm not draggin knee even though i'm on the edge of the tires...:rolleyes i'm sure there's more to go but when i see the edges of my H2s all feathered, i think there isn't anymore lean angle to go.

[theSteveCo]

Yet another brilliant piece (http://www.trackjunkie.com/features/articles/2002/0602/0602_001.htm) on riding posture (including knee dragging), by resident Lance Keigwin, and hosted at not-yet-signed-up friend's site http://www.trackjunkie.com

[EastBayDave]

Originally posted by theSteveCo
Yet another brilliant piece (http://www.trackjunkie.com/features/articles/2002/0602/0602_001.htm) on riding posture (including knee dragging), by resident Lance Keigwin, and hosted at not-yet-signed-up friend's site http://www.trackjunkie.com

Keigwin's piece is brilliant. Read it closely... :D While we are at it, I felt like adding my 2 cents. I wrote this up about 20 years ago, copied from my old BBS discussion on Sears Point, & dragging the knee in various places; especially on top of the SP turn 4 berm…continuing:

"Yeah, I used to use the berm on the inside of turn 4 too. It's just the right height with a flat top so you can just put it there right on top! That way your wheels are in the right place just outside the berm. Cool Mon!

I liked using the knee mostly in the slower corners; where you can feel safer about "planting it," where your sliding both ends & the front doesn’t feel “safe.” That way you can use it as an “outrigger” controlling the front-end slide with it. Front end starts to tuck? Just put some more pressure on the knee-& bingo, it comes back, saved a bail. Later when you get good at it, it becomes instinctive.

You see the center of gravity moves back toward the middle of bike & your knee instead of on the front tire edge. Effectively you are saving a bail if you’re doing it right. When you get good at this (dozens of races/years?), you can end consciously planning it, & planting the knee becomes instinctive. Like countersteering... All of a sudden your lap times drop another second or two. I think it was 1.5 seconds for me average. But the BIG bonus was a “safer feeling” while sliding the front.

Combining this with rear end slide, you can “square” the corners, making a safer line entry and a safer line at the apex, allowing earlier throttle application for a faster exit. Again this is not applicable to street riding, as you don’t have the longer TIME in the corners- corners are too quick/short on the street for experimentation. On the track however, you’re in big corners longer, so you have TIME & room to experiment."

Try it, you’ll like it!

Dave

[Chuci]

AWESOME article Lance! The message from higher level riders is always consistent that body position is key, the knee will touch when everything is where it should be and should always be the last component.
Dave, gotta say that those $.02 are worth a lot more. What is the point of gettin the knee down? Your quick thought puts it all in place. Thanks for even more insight guys! http://www.uniquehardware.co.uk/server-smilies/otn/wink/thumb.gifhttp://www.uniquehardware.co.uk/server-smilies/otn/wink/thumb.gif

[VTRweasel]

bump,

why the heck isn't this stickyfied ?

[gixxer squid]

I want to read this and can't seem to download it or t he page is moved, if anyone has the article I would aprreciate you e-mailing it to me.

james

[VTRweasel]

Originally posted by VTRweasel
bump,

why the heck isn't this stickyfied ?

still???

[JnglstTICAL]

I think the took the article off the page, its been on there for months now...