Return-Path: Posted-Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 12:30:44 GMT Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles Path: taco!gatech!emory!wupost!darwin.sura.net!uvaarpa!murdoch!dayhoff.med.Virginia.EDU!cdw2t From: cdw2t@dayhoff.med.Virginia.EDU (Clifford David Weston) Subject: Re: 65+ mph turns Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Organization: University of Virginia References: <1992Dec4.174809.4631@mfltd.co.uk> <1992Dec7.220149.29269@paramount.nikhefk.nikhef.nl> <1992Dec8.002236.26263@sequent.com> Distribution: usa Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 12:30:44 GMT Lines: 34 Apparently-To: sasmjw@unx.sas.com In article <1992Dec8.002236.26263@sequent.com> dickwin@sequent.com (Dick Winningstad) writes: >I have been led to believe that hanging off allowed the bike to be >more vertical than when the rider stayed on the seat. This allowed >the tire contact patch to be closer to the center where the fattest >contact patch is. So that at any given speed in a corner, the bike is >not leaned over as far if the rider is hanging off to the inside. >I would imagine this has a bigger effect/benifit for riders that >operate at the edges of the tires (max lean angle) and the edge of >traction (max speed through the corner). Also the benifits probably >are more apparent with a lighter bike than a heavier one since rider >weight shifting would have less of an effect on a heavier bike. Forgive my simplemindedness, but I thought the advantage of hanging off was that you bought extra ground clearnace by moving the center of gravity. Like if, say, Steve Anderson and Jonathan Polito are racing toward and then into a curve in a Carolina country road and realize they're traveling at what could be classified as ludicrous speed, which is somewhat faster than the curve will allow them to. As the bikes reach their heeled-over limits, initiate scrapage, and begin heading for the outside, the lead rider (in my scenario, that would be Steve) could hang his butt inside the turn, keep the peg just on the road surface, and make the turn. The un-hanging-off rider (in this scenario, Jonathan) would keep leaning and chanting the holy mantra ("Thank God for Aerostich") until something firm on the moto levered his traction away from the wheels and onto the side of the bike. Or something like that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Cliff Weston DoD# 0598 '92 Seca II (Tem) | | | | "....your balls might be too big and swollen....." | | | | -- Jonathan E. Quist | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------