I've been riding about 15 years now and I am just beginning to discover what it takes to truly start riding with style. Well, at least not like a goon. I had become pretty good at getting up hills, speeding through trails, learning to get the front up, etcetera. However I knew I was missing some crucial fundamentals. Fundamentals like keeping one or two fingers both on the clutch and front break, grabbing the bike with your knees/legs, breathing right and anything in between.
Realizing I was missing out on some many of the basic techniques needed to excel in riding I decided to master holding one finger on the controls (clutch/break) at all times. This might seem normal to most of you but for me, for years, I was using all my hands to hold onto the bike and "white knuckled" everything grabbing the brakes and clutch as needed. During this process I lost a total of three fingers that normally hold onto the bars that are now in charge of controlling the levers. I had to recover in 2 ways from this: 1) I had to get stronger to compensate for now only 7 fingers holding onto the bars 2) I had to get over the mental aspect of feeling like I had less control.
After I tackled my hand positioning I wanted to tackle BODY POSITION. Proper body position is key to allowing the bike to respond to the terrain below you and for efficiently using muscular potential efficiently. Body position slightly varies in terms of the actual physical position of the rider which is dependent on their over all size and length of limbs (arms/legs). Essentially each rider will look to be in the same position when done appropriately. Jeremy McGrath, although probably fat now, has a few tutorial videos on youtube you can check out for free about body position for all types of moto terrain/obstacles. I'm no pro on how to properly position yourself before a corner or where to put yourself on the bike before you enter a whoop section. However, I do know one thing: its always better to be pushed rather than to be pulled. Let me extrapolate my thought here.
If you've ever been boating or water skiing you've most likely have gone behind the boat, doing some aquatic activity that required being pulled or required you holding onto to something for dear life. After a while your arms get TIRED. Your upper chest gets sore too and you eventually call it quits. You can get the same upper body soreness and pain from moto!
Think about it: Assume you are just mobbing around and you give it some gas you are gonna feel (or maybe you used to) it in your arms! You'll feel it there because most people use their arms to hold onto the bike and from the bike just jetting out from underneath them. Most riders or beginning riders only use their feet, well simply because they're there and you need something to help plant yourself on the bike, right? WRONG!!!
Your legs and feet are the most important assets you have in terms of riding and using your energy efficiently. If your body position is good then your head is slightly over the bars, knees slightly bent, back arched like you are doing squats at the gym, and your legs are squeezing the seat/tank for control. This is "attack mode", aka the classic Charging look you see racers pull off like second nature. You will feel that as you accelerate the weight created from acceleration (g-force) is transferred to your legs and instead of the bike PULLING YOU FORWARD WITH YOUR ARMS (exhausting you) you are letting the bike PUSH YOU FORWARD WITH YOUR LEGS! You always want to keep your feet protected and always in mind of passing objects that could crush or even sever your foot/toes. Think of it like this to get the idea in your head. You want your feet angled down so it creates a 45 degree angle with the foot peg. This creates the right angle you need to properly allow the bike to transfer its energy to your feet and legs keeping your weight forward removing the sensation of "being thrown backwards."I want to reiterate this. You never want your feet just HANGING off your bike. My example above was simply an exaggeration.
HERE IS AN EXERCISE TO HELP ILLUSTRATE POINT! Next time you are a passenger in a car i want you to do a couple of things.
1) Ask the driver to accelerate as fast as they can (hopefully it's not a hummer). Do it once leaning forward and once sitting up straight. (the faster the car the more you need to lean forward) The point of the exercise is to find a position that allows your body to resist the feeling of acceleration the most simply by position of body. Which way caused you to use more energy? Which way was easier (hint leaning forward lol)
2) When the car you are in turns I want you to lean into the turn. If you turn right lean right. You'll notice that not only is there less stress on your body but that there is a certain point, like a fulcrum point, that when you lean past you can feel the centrifugal force created in a turn dissipate. This is why super sport racers drag knees, or lean so far over into the turn to thwart the centrifugal force trying to throw him over the other side of the bike.
LET THE BIKE PUSH YOU WITH YOUR LEGS DONT LET IT PULL YOU WITH YOUR AMS!!
Keep checking back for interesting industry updates as well as information concerning OHV use in the Mendocino National Forest! Thanks for reading! Tell a friend!
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