Moderator Cynic Posted March 29, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 29, 2012 Ok i thought most of the stuff about loading the footpegs in corners was hype. Unless your taking cadwells mountain or going for megga lean angles its irrelevant to most of us. Well last Tuesday i badly cut and bruised the back of my heel, including bruising my achilees (not reccomended) well i used the car for a couple of days. (difficult to kick the bike over with a gammy right leg, not to mention my boots). Well i was back on the bike yesterday and could i turn right, could i buggery, wobbled round corners like a piss head. Wandering to the left etc. Its better today as is my foot. I know the TDR is more sensitive to fine inputs than a lot of other bikes but it really did surprise me. To the point today on the trip home i was actually leaning hard on the footpegs and you really can steer in the very real sense of the word with your feet. If you use the pegs and the bars its like the bike falls over. You turn so sharp its like your in a tron movie. All these years i must have been doing it subconciously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttaskmaster Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I've heard about this before... and I'm gonna heartily disagree (what a surprise, Tasky!). I reckon it's still just counter-steering. I love counter-steering. I think it's a great concept. I also love proving it to people that know better than me and swear blind that such a thing doesn't exist. Get them riding straight and upright along a nice 40 or 60mph road, have them push the right bar (ie turn the bars toward the left) just a *touch* and promise them the bike will lean right. Then ride behind and watch them doing this time and time again in disbelief!! Anyway... When I was first riding, doing DAS on a variety of more uprighty street bikes, I was trying to lean and do the footpeggy thing. Then I realised that in order to transfer your weight, you push off on the opposite peg and go to lean. The first thing to move in a lean is actually your shoulders, which affects your arms, especially if they're straight. So the first thing you change on the bike is the handlebars and you are thus into counter-steering. It only feels like you're steering with your feet because your weight then has to lean in and follow the line of downward force to avoid falling off and thus presses down into the inside peg. It's more noticable on the sensitive bikes, but even going from the 125 Drag to the 650, the shallower rake angle meant tipping into corners faster than I was used to. I now consciously counter-steer and flip the bike left to right to left as fast as a hulking beast like that is able, which ain't very fast, but I'd probably be dead amazing on a 'Blade.... or amazingly dead! Sometimes it still feels like I'm loading the pegs and my knee goes out when I'm cornering, even though knee-down on a Drag means you're already off the bike and sliding... Now I could be wrong (yes, I really did say that) on all this sciencey stuff but I'm in a chatty mood and I'd love to open this debate up, so please - tell me stuff. You think that's right? Have I missed the mark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Cynic Posted March 29, 2012 Author Moderator Share Posted March 29, 2012 Got to be honest I would have agreed it was a byproduct of other things. But my ankle is still best part useless. I can start the bike but not a lot else. I'm still limping and it still hurts like a bastard. Its stopping my foot moving naturally so my right foot was just 'on the peg' and i was just pushing the bars to steer. Never gave it a thought, till i rode out the village and made a proper cock up of the first corner, a right hander funnily enough. To add to the training/riding point i have done several police public training courses (highly reccomended), and their sit in the seat upright style is far more effective than you might think. All the hero's knee out crawling all over the bike, waste of energy unless your going for the WSB title. Thats why i was so surprised, to the point i took 2 left handers with my hands just off the bars, (right still hurts too much) no problems save for slowing down, they were proper turns too. Not alpine hairpins i'll grant you but as i wasn't actually holding the bars there must be something in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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