Hope I am not presenting as the PAGE MENACE folks, but here is another one of my contributions for the readers among you. Propping-up an office desk at work in care taker mode all of this week - with nothing else to do but overwatch some builders. Could Google squirrels on water skis, but thought I would use the time to contribute (as I do). More boring old school proddie dribble perhaps? CUT & PASTES from a mates page - where I was defending his honour. Another mate (light-heartedly) suggested that the lean angle of the first mates bike (old skool KR 250 days) did not really match his body posture, which included a firmly planted knee (?) Hmmmmmmm.....maybe not that simple? The first mate defended his own honour with - Back in 88 we were young bucks learning the trade....it was all about looking pro. As long as the knee slider hit the deck, that was the main thing. Then I jumped in with - Good summary XXXX - if the knee was down, you were the tshit & that was all that mattered! Seriously though - for tall streaks like us, having your knee planted was a very advisable thing to do (not to mention a very reassuring thing to do), whenever you went past 20 degrees lean angle on those totally crap tyres. If you were 6 foot 1 plus, not hanging off like that meant that you presented as having a very high centre-of-gravity in the turn. A fuggin long way down too when the piece of tshit Battleaxe front hoop gave up the ghost ! Not many people actually understand that part of the riding style of tall streaks of Pelican Poop & it is seldom acknowledged/pointed out. Smaller-framed/more compact riders can remain more as one with the bike in turns. The other big thing about that exaggerated hang-off style for tall streaks is that you could not get by without it in the rain. Doing it in the dry has you ready for when the heavens open. In the rain on those shit road-based tyres, we used to get the knee down with the bike almost upright. That way, you could prop it up when you had a slide, still brake hard into turns as well as make the turn with such an upright bike. Really interesting human range-of-movement dynamics and bike cornering dynamics which I have become very clued-into since working with The Fastline Bikademy. The cross-overs between mottis & MTBs are very interesting and very relevant. This whole notion (for example) if HUGELY IMPORTANT for gravity-based MTB racing in wet & slushy conditions. Side note - that notion has been independently endorsed by my wife & fellow TFB instructor - a twice Australian and 6 times Hungarian National Champion in Elite Womens Down Hill racing. being Hungarian, she knows all about racing in European mud too! The step from Battleaxes to Michelin Hi sports was a quantum leap. The step from Hi Sports to the modern era Dunlop type Proddie race tyres was trans-fuggin-universal ! Back in the days of this photo of XXXX - there was no staying up on the tank and dragging your elbow on the rumble strips Marc Marquez style. Not unless you were someone pretty special. Try that more than once and you might as well have booked a one way ticket to Benalla hospital via the highside express For a great example of this notion in practise - see our mate Chris Janka (6 foot 2 with size 14 boots) hosing all the little blokes in the rain at pretty much any meeting he raced at that was wet. Was a weapon in the dry too. Photo - A pretty embarrassing one of yours truly railing the Winton sweeper as a total jube in 88. Looks pretty kooky these days but it worked a treat. I could keep up with ANYONE through a turn. Just used to get mega-hosed by all the TZRs on the way out of turns and down the straights. My braking needed work, but GTG in the corners. The reason we were so proppy was because the front ends inspired about as much confidence as you would have in an Indian built Lambretta for your trans-continental road trip. 16 inch front wheels, shit front tyres and all this bullshit anti dive garbage that was more about the stickers than actual effect. Also those ape hanger clip ons too. They were actually a good thing though. A real set of clip ons would have been terrifying with such a shit front end......
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 06:30:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015