foot out cornering

[CoarsegoldKid]

Lately I have seen a few Moto GP(Rossi for one) and WSB(Bayless) riders adopting an inside foot out style of cornering. They don't actually touch the foot down and it is pulled up before reaching max lean angle. Sort of like a dirt tracker beginning to set the foot down and thinks better of it. The first time I saw it I thought the riders foot slipped off the peg but then I kept seeing it. Then I thought maybe Rossi is trying to see if others copy the style and snicker over it. But if the likes of Rossi and Bayless are doing it, it must be for some good reason. I'm not thinking of doing the same mind you but I'm intrigued, what's it all about.

[tallman]

Practicing for their shot at DWTS.

[David]

I haven't seen that, but I wonder if it's to throw more weight to the front to keep it from tucking? Or maybe they're just toying with us, like you said.

[Boffin]

The Eurosport commentators call it Rossi's Stress Meter, as he only seems to do it when under pressure or trying to gap someone. It is always his left foot and always under heavy braking.

 

Andy

[ghaverkamp]

The Eurosport commentators call it Rossi's Stress Meter, as he only seems to do it when under pressure or trying to gap someone. It is always his left foot and always under heavy braking.

 

I can't recall if it was regarding Rossi or Bayliss in WSBK where one of the announcers said it had something to do with balance during hard braking. (I'm not making a judgment... that's just what they said.)

 

That said, I've never seen the foot-out thing as being dirt-style foot-out -- which I see a scary number of people doing on the street, because, I presume, it looks cool -- because in Rossi's case, it pretty much just goes out to the side.

[motoguy128]

I think it has something to do with shifting weight. It would affectively decrease you lean angle of the bike while backing it into a turn.

 

It's only done on left turns because they need theri right foot for braking. It does seem like Rossi only does it when pushing really hard. I've since seen stoner and I think Perdrosa doing it occasionally as well. I don't think I've seen Nikcy doing it.

 

One other thought is that it might reduce tires wear on the edges of hte tire. If the bike is more upright while braking, the contact patch will be more towards the center rather than the side of the tire. Also, when the bike is more upright, the suspension functions better, the wheelbase is slightly longer as well which is more stable.

 

Finally, the more weight that can be placed on the outside peg the better. That's what I know from riding mountian bikes off-road. The more weight you remove from the inside peg will be transferred to the outside peg. Thsi might push more weight onto the rear tire reducing loading on the front tire preventing hte bike frmo tucking. The differnec might only be 1 or 2% increase in traction, but that could amount to 1/10th of a second through that corner.

[BFish]

it always appeared to me that rossi was just stretching is leg...ignorance is bliss.

[knight88]

I have seen it done street riding too, maybe someone knows why they would do it riding on the street.

[10ovr]

I do it to get the underwear out of my crack,,Maybe we wear the same underwear,,

[RussL]

That's a standard cornering technique in supermoto racing.

[Ken H.]

I have seen it done street riding too, maybe someone knows why they would do it riding on the street.

I suspect in street riding it's a panic reaction to a rear step out sensation.

[ghaverkamp]

I suspect in street riding it's a panic reaction to a rear step out sensation.

 

The people I've seen do it appear to do it consciously, as if they've watched too much supermoto, though I don't understand why those guys do it on the paved portions, either.

[motoguy128]

I have done it on and off road before to gain balance, usually when my front end seemed like it might tuck or the rear suddenly stepped out rapidly. But again, it wasn't an attempt to touch the ground, jsut ot quickly shift some weight. I only did it briefly, not holding it out there like Rossi and others.

[SageRider]

I always thought that Rossi was just marking his corner.

[ghaverkamp]

I have done it on and off road before to gain balance, usually when my front end seemed like it might tuck or the rear suddenly stepped out rapidly. But again, it wasn't an attempt to touch the ground, jsut ot quickly shift some weight. I only did it briefly, not holding it out there like Rossi and others.

 

I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

[AviP]

Rossi has a lot of injuries and he does that to relieve the pain. That would explain the inconsistency.

[russell_bynum]

I suspect in street riding it's a panic reaction to a rear step out sensation.

 

The people I've seen do it appear to do it consciously, as if they've watched too much supermoto, though I don't understand why those guys do it on the paved portions, either.

 

I asked Michelle DiSalvo about this at Femmoto a few years ago. She showed me her boots. Supermoto boots have sliders on the bottom that are pretty much the same as the knee sliders that roadracers use. They're using them for the same purpose...it's an extra balance point. When the bike is sliding, they can use that foot on the ground to help balance. But without the slider on the boot, they really can't put much weight on it or it'll just grab and pull their foot back.

 

So...doing it with regular riding boots wouldn't really make any sense.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

So...doing it with regular riding boots wouldn't really make any sense.

 

I did it on Pikes Peak back in '04, when the front end suddenly started to wash out on some really deep soft stuff. Of course, I was only going about 10 MPH at the time; it was kind of an automatic response, and although it worked, it was just about at the limit of what I could stand in terms of leg load and movement.

 

Shawn did the same automatic thing last summer at somewhat higher speed; he ended up with a fractured tibial plateau and torn ACL.

 

 

[motoguy128]

I have done it on and off road before to gain balance, usually when my front end seemed like it might tuck or the rear suddenly stepped out rapidly. But again, it wasn't an attempt to touch the ground, jsut ot quickly shift some weight. I only did it briefly, not holding it out there like Rossi and others.

 

I don't think we're talking about the same thing.

 

I know that you were talking about putting out a leg motocross style. I've done that on my dual sport on gravel roads. Yes, it must be done carefully to avoid injury. I would never, ever do that on the street, you will break your leg with regular street boots.

 

I was refering to an alternate reason when street riding.

[Bill_Walker]

If the racers are doing it in left turns only, with the left foot only, it may be a way of making darn sure they get their boot out from under the shift lever before the bike gets leaned over too far to do so, so they can be ready to upshift (racing pattern uses down for up) as they exit the corner. Or just so it's not caught under the lever if the bike lowsides.

[flars]

Added wind resistence = quicker deceleration...

Or

Cramps...

Or

Additional vehicle width = harder to get under you to pass...

Or

Slippery rear sets...

If it were just Rossi, I would bet on it being a way to mess with other people's minds. But since Stoner et al are doing it, it must have a valid reason.

Someone needs to post a query to MotoGP dot com.

 

[Francois_Dumas]

it always appeared to me that rossi was just stretching is leg...ignorance is bliss.

 

Same here....... but a BBC commentator guessed that Rossi was signaling 'I'm coming through'. Sounded a bit iffy to me

[Bullett]

So . . . he's not signaling a cow pie on the track?

[Koop]

If the racers are doing it in left turns only, with the left foot only, it may be a way of making darn sure they get their boot out from under the shift lever before the bike gets leaned over too far to do so, so they can be ready to upshift (racing pattern uses down for up) as they exit the corner. Or just so it's not caught under the lever if the bike lowsides.

 

This agrees with the explanation Casey Stoner gave. GP bikes downshift (they call it "backshift") opposite of street bikes (i.e. lift the lever for downshift). When entering a corner under heavy braking they pull their foot out from under the shifter and the "G" force swings their leg forward.

[JTWright]

Koop is correct. The other thing it does is lets the rider position his left foot to put the ball of the foot on the peg which makes it a bit higher and provides a fe mm's more cornering clearance.

 

Jim