Motovudu & Simon Crafar

[hostyle]

Same here. When I started riding I was told to sit further back and to have a minimum room of about a fist between bks and tank. After reading MotoVudu and watching the DVD I tried sitting more towards the tank. I feel like I've got more grip on the tank and I don't have to supoort myself with my arms as much as I used to.

I was also thaught in riding school to have the middle of my feet on the steps, my toes close to the gear and brake lever. After seeing the DVD I now have the balls of my feet up on the steps. I feel I have much more control over the bike. The only thing was that I had to get used to my new feet position, so I missed the gear lever sometimes. Now it just feels natural.

[Steve Evil]

I think that's it, much less pressure on the wrists, as whilst you can hold yourself up to a point by sitting further back, unless you've got thighs like Usain Bolt it's really tricky to hold your entire upper bodyweight up, especially under braking, so instead of fighting it, go with it.

[hostyle]

I've added some TechSpecs to my bike aswell, but they haven't improved my confidence as much as sitting further forward. Since I've changed my seating position, my chicken strips have reduced somewhat. I now think they're acceptable for a newb sportsbike rider.

[J B L]

See...that's the good thing about being a short arse... I do it naturally

I would imagine along with helping to grip the tank it also loads the front which I always find key to a good feedback about what's happening below you.

[BadgerBenji]

It's definitely easier sitting right forward, balls on the tank. Also have the gripster pads and love them for the extra little bit of grip they give. Comes back slightly to the twist of the wrist about being locked in, that if you are confident that you are held on by your lower body, your upper body is more relaxed.

Like the moto-vudu approach, it's just very track focussed, found it's a good companion to twist of the wrist, there are some bits they disagree on, but there is also lots they agree on, the only thing moto-vudu doesn't do is tell you why to do it, it's more just do it my way.

[MrOrange]

Steve Evil said:

Dragging this one up a bit, but got the book through yesterday and have tried out his suggestion of sitting right up against the tank, as opposed to further back and I don't know if it's just this or the fact that my new Gixxer is totally wikkid, but cornering feels a lot better now and I'm really chucking the bike about with a greater degree of confidence.

Interesting. I'm getting confused. Years ago a did a couple of days track training at Cadwell and was taught to get my weight forward to avoid front-end wash-out (which was quite un=nerving). I brought these learning onto the road and that seemed to help. Read TotW last year and they talk about having weight over the rear wheel to achieve grip. And now this. I'm confused and may have to go back to school to do some more learning.

[vetrof]

Interesting reading this discussion. Could some of the differences between Simon's advice and TotW be down to the differences in the bikes of the respective eras?

[Steve Evil]

Crafar does state in the book that you can ignore what the suspension is doing as modern bikes are much more capable now in that regard. There is a lot of differing advice from both sources, but it's best to try both methods and go with what works best for you. There's a lot I've learnt from CSS that I will carry on with, the quick-turning session I did was a revelation and picking out reference points to work with, plus the other vision elements from Keith Code are all really useful too.