becoming the weightless rider is the secret to mastering traction on your
motorcycle
this method of riding reduces the amount of impact that your bike has while
what's going through it makes it lighter makes your suspension more effective
means there's less likely to have damage and less fatigue as a rider it also
keeps you in a proactive position so you can respond immediately to anything that
occurs while you're riding to become a weightless rider you have to stand but
standing alone does not make you a weightless rider the only thing standing
gives you universally as an advantage is vision by being up here I can see
farther but more importantly I can see shades I can see dips rocks and potholes
an advantage but it does not make you weightless
weightless is the ability to let the bike move freely underneath you. so that
I float above the bike so that my weight as a rider isn't influencing what's
going on down below here's where a lot of riders make a mistake first of all
they stand up and they want to be like this stiff, because they say it's
comfortable. what that means is I've raised the center of gravity on the bike
the entire center of mass it makes it less stable that's not what we want to
do we want to reduce the amount of weight and we want to reduce it by
carrying our weight down low on the foot pegs that means we have to be able to
move I've got to be able to flow and let the bike move freely underneath me
making me weightless so the first step riders will do is
they'll go okay I'm going to pivot at the hips so when they pivot the hips the
problem is they end up moving forward and that's not always where we need to
be to be weightless the next thing we do is we add the knees so they'll move the
knees and the hips that's better but it's still not weightless we're not
flowing with the bike we're not trying to feel where we neutralize all the
different things that are pushing and pulling on us
so we add in the ankles this is when we can start moving around and allowing the
body to flow forward and backwards and to be neutral so that as the energy
changes as things on the trail move the motorcycle we're always
floating weightless above it. as a weightless rider you're dealing with
three different axes. one is pitch the motorcycle rolling forward and back
the other is roll left to right and then we have elevation change and when we're
weightless on the motorcycle all of those motions need to happen independent
of where you are as a writer as a weightless rider we're never locked into
a single position we're always fluid we're moving to find that neutral sweet
spot which is always moving above the motorcycle
when you're doing this right and you become the weightless rider as you move
along smoothly the bike will move independent floating underneath you on
all three axes.
there's three states of action that we need to consider when
we're riding. There's a proactive state, an active state and a reactive state.
as a
rider we always want to stay in the proactiveand the active state we want to
avoid the reactive state as much as possible so let me give you an example
of how this works let's say I'm riding into a puddle and I'm riding up along
the edge a proactive state says when I ride up on that edge
I think the bikes gonna slip into the puddle so proactively I move my body so
once I slide the bike slides into me and I move into an active state as I finish
the puddle a reactive state means that I ride into that puddle without
anticipating that slide in an active state when the motorcycle slides away
from me I'm now out of that central balance I'm out of that neutral balance
point and I'm now reacting to it trying to get back into balance and that's when
we have mistakes that's when riders struggle and that's when we burn a lot
of energy so focus on staying in a proactive and an active state when
you're riding
the same thing happens when you're riding along and you'll catch a rock
that'll kick the front end out or kick the back end out and if you're in a
active state where you're just up when it kicks it out now you're trying to get
back into the balance point a proactive rider will see what's going on and move
in anticipation that the bikes gonna be shifted that keeps me in a place so that
as the bike gets kicked out I remain weightless and above the machine I'm not
used in the handlebars to pull myself around I'm not using the bike itself the
grip to move myself around I'm always in a floating position you know you're in
this sweet spot you know you're not weightless state when you feel nothing
pushing or pulling on you that's that point where you can let go of the
handlebars where you feel no pressure for thrust or from braking or from
gravity or for the centrifugal force through a corner in a neutral position
where I'm floating above the motorcycle just let go of the grip just enough to
let the grip float inside your palm and if you can do that going down rocks
going up hills going down hills those are the places where you're in a neutral
position if you're going down a hill and you let go and you fall forward you're
not the right spot you need to move down and behind and do a proactive position
so you're neutral so when you let go your body stays in the right place the
same thing happens whether you're you're cornering whether you're going uphill
downhill it doesn't matter there's an area where you don't feel anything
pushing against your body you don't feel any gravity you don't feel any thrust
you don't feel any braking where it's pushing you and those are the things
that we need to be tuned in to to truly be weightless we can't just think go
forward we have to think if I move forward am I feeling any force am i
holding on to the handlebars to keep myself up or am I too far back where I'm
holding on so I don't get thrown back when you're in that position where
neither of those are occurring where you don't feel any pressure on the
handlebars where you feel like you can just let go and stand free that's when
you know how far forward it needs to be that's when you're weightless
when you practice the weightless rider technique make sure you're standing that
you keep your eyes on the horizon pivot from your ankles your knees and your
hips and make sure that your hands are always loose on the grip