What is the Purpose of Dragging a Knee?

[misti]

What is the whole point of dragging a knee, besides the fact that it looks cool

Misti

[1000RR]

Originally Posted by misti

What is the whole point of dragging a knee, besides the fact that it looks cool

Misti

I've been told it is to gain a better understanding of your lean angle... helps gauge your lean angle. With the proper body position and your body down low, your knee kinda just goes out anyway - seems more stable that way. By doing this, your COG would be lower and allow for more grip from the tires since the bike would have less lean angle. Having said all that... and having [only] recently drug a knee, I posed the question to one of our Expert Riders at the Track - if it is used as a gauge, how does one know when it's too much [lean angle] and you're about to low side... are there indicators or is it abrupt? The response was (with the exception of using poor tires - so this assumes you have good tires) that there would be indicators while down in the turn as you would feel the bike loosen up a little from being out on the corners but not abruptly (unless you were doing some things abruptly - not smoothly). I have looked at my tire wear and tried to correlate that to my draggin a knee so I could better understand how much wear I had on the corner of my front tire relative to the amount of knee dragging I experienced. I also thought about putting a camera mounted on the side to better understand my peg and foot position relative to my knee touching down.

Thoughts?

[A.B.]

Not only is a guage for lean angle, it tells you where the road is and can also be used a lever to push the bike up if it starts to slide... I've never done any of these

[AMRRA12]

My post on this topic

Knee as a Tool

be careful with planting a knee I have seen riders slide out because they were trying to burry there knee into the ground too hard, I like to just let if float across the surface of the pavement.

and saving a tuck with a knee is rather a hard think to do (I have tried 4 or 5 times and was only successful at it once HAHA) and that was in a low speed decreasing radius turn (maybe 50 MPH) and I had plenty of runoff to stand the bike up. but it can be done hell Hacking did one hell of a job of it last year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYKFZEeEE4

[1000RR]

WOW That's quite a save.

I found floating across like you mentioned was what was comfortable... not jamming it in...

[mrsantafe]

My best and luckiest save was from draging a knee in a two wheel slide during a trackday in Pueblo Colorado. My knee, upper leg, and hip were on the ground. When I pushed on my knee, the bike picked back up. Later I checked were I left darkies on the ground and in my shorts...........

[1000RR]

Originally Posted by mrsantafe

My best and luckiest save was from draging a knee in a two wheel slide during a trackday in Pueblo Colorado. My knee, upper leg, and hip were on the ground. When I pushed on my knee, the bike picked back up. Later I checked were I left darkies on the ground and in my shorts...........

Very nice indeed! What caused both to slide out?

BTW, what are your thoughts on trying to better understand what my knee is telling me... do you think the things mentioned above are worthwhile or not really?

Thanks for the tips btw. Oh and tell your wife I said thanks for not embarrassing me too bad out there. She only had 10 seconds on me She was looking good out there (from behind! )

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by 1000RR

She was looking good out there (from behind! )

Are you sure you should be telling him that about his wife?

[misti]

Originally Posted by 1000RR

I've been told it is to gain a better understanding of your lean angle... helps gauge your lean angle. With the proper body position and your body down low, your knee kinda just goes out anyway - seems more stable that way. By doing this, your COG would be lower and allow for more grip from the tires since the bike would have less lean angle. Having said all that... and having [only] recently drug a knee, I posed the question to one of our Expert Riders at the Track - if it is used as a gauge, how does one know when it's too much [lean angle] and you're about to low side... are there indicators or is it abrupt? The response was (with the exception of using poor tires - so this assumes you have good tires) that there would be indicators while down in the turn as you would feel the bike loosen up a little from being out on the corners but not abruptly (unless you were doing some things abruptly - not smoothly). I have looked at my tire wear and tried to correlate that to my draggin a knee so I could better understand how much wear I had on the corner of my front tire relative to the amount of knee dragging I experienced. I also thought about putting a camera mounted on the side to better understand my peg and foot position relative to my knee touching down.

Thoughts?

I'd say that this is a pretty clear and accurate description of why to drag a knee.

As for knowing when it is too much and you are about to lowside here is my take. When I feel my knee touch down I use that as an indication to not lean the bike over any further. My goal is to always get my knee to hit the deck as early as possible in the corner because that lets me know that I have turned the bike quickly, have the bike pointed in the direction that I want to go and that I can being to roll on the throttle.

Usually once the knee touches down it stays there lightly dragging or gets picked up just a titch so that I maintain my lean angle but am not scraping my knee pucks the entire time through the corner. From there (as you mentioned) I pay attention to any indications from that bike that might indicate a loss of traction and go from there. There was only one time that I recall saving the bike from a lowside with my knee and it was fairly accidental, the bike began sliding and my knee slammed into the ground and I kind of bounced back up again....

As AMRRA #12 mentions the goal is to not plant your puck on the ground and shred your pucks but rather to let it skim over the pavement so you are always aware of your lean angle...

Misti

[1000RR]

Awesome Misti... thanks for the informative response (as always). Very interesting to hear about getting to the deck early too... A lot to learn