[Tooch]

Originally Posted by adouglas

ALL? That's a pretty absolute statement. I don't see it that way. It's not a binary thing, where one part exists in isolation. It's all connected... because your body is connected.

I do agree that the lower body movement is the foundation of good body position... but "stability all comes from lower body positioning" can be a bit misleading. Stability of the bike comes from not poking it unnecessarily... putting in unwanted inputs for whatever reason. Those unwanted inputs can have a variety of sources, such as too much tension.

If your lower body is properly positioned but you're so bound up and crossed up that you're wrestling the bars, then you're making steering inputs that you shouldn't. Fair? If you agree with this, then the rest of the body must matter too.

Let's build the case from the ground up to see why things like placement of your head and how you hold the grips do in fact matter. I'd never say the lower body doesn't matter. It's part of the picture too. But only part.

Let's take it as a given that we start with the lower body. I agree with you, as far as your statement goes.

So, premise: The reason why we hang off is to shift the center of gravity of the bike-plus-rider system to the inside of the turn. Agreed?

The effect of this is to allow the bike to be more vertical for a given corner radius at a given speed.

The question to answer: What's an efficient way to achieve this center of gravity shift? Lower body, yes, but....

Consider this: The human head weighs about as much as a bowling ball. Add a couple of pounds for the helmet.

Ask yourself: If you were to take a bowling ball and hold it a couple of feet to one side of the bike's centerline, do you think that would have a significant effect on the placement of the bike-plus-rider center of gravity? I sure do.

Therefore position of the head matters. And by extension, so does position of the torso.

Next question: What do we do on the bike to allow us to shift all that meat, bone and fat over to one side? We reorient our body to allow us to move. Agreed?

Yes, it does start with the lower body. Moving your butt over does two things. First, it moves the mass of your a$$ to the inside, so you're partway there already. But keep going. It also sets you up to move the body above the waist to one side.

So what else besides moving in the seat? Well, if you keep both legs clamped to the bike once you move your butt, you'll find that it's really difficult to move your torso to one side. Swinging your leg out and rotating your foot opens up your pelvis and makes it a lot easier. So that matters.

Okay, so what about the grip? Once you move your torso over, the angle of your wrist starts to get pretty severe. Tension builds up in your forearm and that leads to unwanted inputs. To relieve this, you can straighten the wrist joint by using the screwdriver grip. So grip matters too.

Very good breakdown. Can you like posts on this forum? Lol