By Eric Wood
Part 4 -Body Position
After learning the way around the track, the next steps to gaining speed and confidence involve planning your physical inputs to the motorcycle to maximize both traction and rider feedback. Last month’s article began to explore several factors that consume available traction as the motorcycle tracks through a comer. This article concluded that one of the most important things that a rider can do is to minimize handlebar input, particularly at full lean. This month we will discuss the most important things that a rider can do to accomplish this goal.
The need for support
When a motorcycle leans over, a rider must do something to support his own weight. This is most obvious in a static demonstration in a classroom when the there is no centrifugal force to help support the rider. If one person where to sit on a motorcycle in a typical riding position and several of his “friends” were to lean the bike over, that person would be forced to grab ahold of the motorcycle in order to stay on it. The further the motorcycle is leaned over, the more strength it requires to keep from falling off. When placed in this situation in a classroom, most people will sit with a majority of their weight in the seat and lock onto the fuel tank with both legs. This does a good job of supporting lower body weight. However, since humans have a flexible spine (as long as you have not been racing too long) there is additional effort needed to hold up the upper body. In the classroom, a majority of riders will support this upper body weight with their inside hand.
The main concern
Unfortunately, many riders use these same techniques to support their body weight when riding on the racetrack. This creates a number of problems. Last month’s article pointed out that the faster a motorcycle travels around a given arc, the further it needs to lean. It also explained that in order to maximize traction and stability at greater lean angles it is critical to minimize handlebar input. Now, with this classroom experiment in mind, the problem truly comes into focus: many riders tend to put most the weight on the bars at exactly the point when it is most important to minimize it.
Feel the feedback
There is a second, and equally important, reason to minimize the input on the handlebars at full lean. When riding a motorcycle, a vast majority of the feedback a rider gets comes through the hands. When something goes wrong (like an unexpected bump, tire chatter or locking up the front wheel), the problem usually gets translated to the rider as a change in force in the handlebars. At higher lean angles, there is less time to make adjustments for these forces before traction is exceeded. Therefore, it is important to detect these problems while they are still small.
Putting some imaginary numbers to it
For the sake of discussion, let’s imagine that Rider X is supporting half of his upper body weight with his inside hand. This is a very realistic scenario that I see in a sizable percentage of riders at every school that I teach. At a slim 160 lbs, Rider X theoretically weighs 80 lbs from the waist up and is pushing on the inside bar with 40 lbs of force. The problem with Rider X is that not only is he putting 40 lbs of unnecessary load into the tire (consuming the corresponding amount of traction), but he has also greatly decreased his sensitivity to feedback. If the bike begins a slight front-end push that produces a 10 lb change in handlebar feel, Rider X is unlikely to feel it. If the bars begin to get heavy as he rolls through the comer with a little too much speed, he will again not be likely to feel it. The tighter he squeezes the grips, the less he will be able to feel problems when they are small and correctable. Have you ever fallen down without knowing why it happened? This could be one explanation.
Adjustments and keys to look for
Fortunately, the solution to this problem is simple. If supporting your body weight with your arms is detrimental then the obvious answer is to use your legs as much as possible. In order to allow your legs to contribute to the support of your upper body, a few adjustments must be made to your seating position. If a rider sits with a majority of his weight on the seat (either centered or slightly off to one side) there is no leverage to support his upper body. As a starting point, all riders should separate themselves from the fuel tank by at least 3-5 inches. The next step is to slide to the inside of the motorcycle until at least one butt cheek is completely off the seat. Throughout the entrance and middle of the corner (up until throttle application), the weight of the rider should be supported by both the ball of the foot on the inside footpeg and the outside thigh on the fuel tank. Locking on to the tank with the outside leg (at mid-thigh) is the one of the critical keys to making this technique work. In addition, the inside knee should be pointing towards the inside of the track at a 30-45 degree angle and the rider’s spine should be parallel with the axis of the motorcycle.
In order to understand each of these details, I encourage all riders to put their motorcycle on a stable stand and test these principles out (with the support of a couple friends). With legs positioned properly, a rider should be able to support his entire upper body with his spine parallel to the axis of the motorcycle with no hands. A small but important detail
The importance of the mid-thigh outside leg connection becomes obvious when the rider moves quickly from side to side, gliding across the seat. If he is too close to the tank, the push from the outside leg will not move his body far enough to eliminate the use of his arms in the process. If he is too far away, it will take too much effort to complete the motion and support his weight. This is where individual anatomy and strength come into play.
Static test
Another simple test is needed to understand the importance of keeping the inside knee pointed towards the inside of the comer (as opposed to against the bodywork). Start by having the rider, while keeping his spine parallel to the axis of the motorcycle, move as far to the inside as he can with his knee sticking out well to the inside. Remember to keep the gap between the torso and the tank. Next, have him slowly bring his knee in until it is touching the bodywork. As the rider loses the leverage of having his knee out, he will be forced to transfer weight to his inside arm.
Supporting your weight with your legs is critical to success on the racetrack. It will not only make you faster, but it will also give you considerably more feel while riding. This article has just touched on the foundation for body position there is much more to discussed next time.
All the best – Eric Wood
Penguin Racing School Inc.
Reprinted by permission from Penguin Racing School Inc. © 2026. All rights reserved.
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