no matter how experienced a rider you are or how long you've been riding
it's easy to overlook the importance of proper body position this is a fantastic
body position if I had sand the ocean and a drink with an umbrella in it but
not if I really want to ride this motorcycle
welcome to MOTOTREK I'm Dusty Wessels professional motorcycle instructor for
West 38 Moto one of the things I noticed the most when I'm out on a ride doing a tour
- or doing a training is how out of whack a rider's body position is using
proper weight shifting techniques whether you're going uphill or downhill
accelerating decelerating or turning can make the difference in you feeling more
comfortable and confident or worn out and depleted so I'm standing up rolling
down the road on the bike where are my feet on the pegs? about
ninety percent of the time I ride with my arches on the pegs the reason why I
do this it gives me the ability to shift when I want to it also gives me the
ability to brake use the rear brake when I want to so I like the arches why would
we ride on the balls of our feet this is a pretty aggressive riding position
you'd probably in this position you don't want to be shifting a whole lot
you know you're not going to be shifting you know you're not going to be using
your rear brake let me give you a couple of examples of terrain that I would use
this in climbing a steep hill rocks really a lot of loose rocks on the
ground for awhile or sand on the balls of your feet those are where most of
your nerve endings are you can feel that's where your best balance is you
can move up and down you can move side to side you can feel the bike you could
just you have a lot more stability and a lot more balanced sense with the bike
I've added risers to my bike now risers are a preference a lot of people like
risers a lot of people don't like risers I say it's a preference thing so I've
ride standing up about 80 or 85 percent of the time even when I'm on pavement I
don't want to put undue pressure on the bars especially when I'm trying to
operate the clutch the brake or the throttle very delicately I don't want
undue pressure there and I don't want to squeeze the bars so I would like them at
point where I can just reach out and touch them from a standing position
I like to keep a straight wrist as well when I'm operating the controls so I'm
not trying to bend to get there so I'm more straight up and down my back's not
bent my knees aren't bent a whole lot more of a neutral relaxed riding
position Risers don't prevent me from getting down here and being active when
I'm climbing a hill or when I'm descending a hill or when I'm going
around the corner but they do allow me to relax a little bit and they do allow
me to operate the controls delicately so what I like to do is find a happy medium
for my bar position this way when I get out and I want to sit down and ride for
a long day if I got 500 miles to crank out I'm comfortable. my arms are
loose my back's loose my necks loose it's not too tight when I get off road I
transition immediately to a standing position where my bars are in a spot
where they're kind of in the middle that transition from sitting to standing
doesn't mean now I have to stop and adjust anything I personally don't like
to stop and adjust anything I don't want to do that while I'm out there so I find
a happy medium that way I'm comfortable in both positions everybody's different
all of our body shapes and lengths of arms and torsos are different so
definitely when you put risers on if you decide to make sure they're adjusted
well for when you're standing right transitioning to when you're sitting
let's talk about front and back body position two situations in which you
would want your body more to the front are accelerating fast and climbing a
hill when you're accelerating fast let's say you're going 2nd to 3rd gear you're
about 40 miles an hour you shift gears and you hammer on that throttle wide
open road if I don't have my weight all the way forward as soon as I grab that
throttle it's gonna shift my weight back do we want to be here do we want to have
our weight back straight elbow of a handful of throttle no there's no
control there so move your body before you give input to the bike if you decide
to grab a hand full throttle to take off just shift your weight forward I call it
forward to go remember move your body before you give input to the bike so if
I plan on grabbing a handful of throttle and taking off slightly shift your body
forward when I talk about your weight I'm talking about your hip weight I'm
not talking about your shoulders this is not the way to shift your weight forward
this is the way to shift your weight forward keep your shoulder parallel with
the bars keep your shoulders parallel with your hips
the other situation what you want your weight forward is climbing a hill when
you're climbing that hill how much weight you need to shift forward depends
on how steep the hill is and how fast you want to climb it put your body
position forward first you can always adjust back there are two situations in
what you would want your weight back on the motorcycle one is slowing down two
is riding downhill if my intent is to slow down really fast or just slow down
we already know all the weight from the motorcycle goes forward when we start to
slow down so if I grab a handful of brakes do I want my weight here no not a
very good control position always move your body weight first before you give
input to the bike so if I need to slow down fast the first thing I'm going to
do is shift my weight back how far should I shift my weight back why not go
to the extreme first shift your weight all the way back here you can always
shift your weight forward if you need to but keep your weight all the way back at
first keep your knees sliding along the tank seat area also squeeze just a
little bit to add stability now when you're going downhill same thing keep
your weight all the way back what we're doing mostly here is
keeping as much undue pressure and weight off the bars and off the front
tire as possible to allow it to track through the terrain better we don't want
the rear wheel moving a whole lot down a hill so we keep our way all the way back
again use your knees in the tank seat area to add more stability let's talk
about the side-to-side body position where should my weight be when I'm in a
turn weight should always be to the outside for instance if I'm taking a
right hand turn I would want to put my knee into the tank again use the knees
in the tank that's your pivot point and your stability point I stick my knee in
the tank and I shift my weight outside two things determine how much weight you
shift how sharp the corner is and the speed in which you decide to take it so
if I'm going really slow around a really sharp corner I'm going to shift as much
weight outside as I can so the bike can lean in while maintaining traction to
get around that corner so put your knee in the tank use that for stability and
shift your weight almost like you're sitting on that left rear bag if you can
put your hands in the air right here you know you're doing it correctly you want
very little pressure or influence on any of these controls or the bars
let's talk about two situations in which you would combine front and back body
position and side to side body position cornering at speed we already know when
we grab a handful of throttle and we want to go faster our weight should be
forward but now we're cornering so our weight should be to the outside okay
so body position forward squeeze that tank with your knees to give you some
stability pivot off that knee and just shift your weight to the outside
but you want your weight forward and you want your weight outside the other time
when you combine rear weight or your weight back and outside is when you're
going down a hill with corners so you're going down a hill you want your weight
back you're going around the corner you want your weight back okay it's not the
neutral just move our way to the outside no it's back and move our way to the
outside remember when you're trying to determine how much weight you should
shift side to side or front to back go to the extreme first you can always
balance it out you know you're in the right body position when you feel the
most balanced and stable.