How can you not see how his hips are? Look at his ass and the bike, they are exactly perpendicular, therefore his hips are square to the bike. The only difference is that he is leaning more than me and has his torso down more. His body is lined up with the bike and his hips and shoulders are square.

I see what you mean in the Rossi photos, his hips are slightly tweaked but his hips aren't literally against the tank and rotated around it. And that's just part of his style and you can easily find images where he's not doing that:

This fucking image won't load but here's the link...?
http://api.ning.com/files/8Ma8FzF-wo...6121050687.jpg

His hips are square... his outside leg is pressing against the tank and his inside leg is not even close to it.

And Hayden:

http://www.khulsey.com/stockphotogra...hayden_lg.jpeg

And biaggi:

http://www.bobdog.com/images/Biaggi.jpg

You are completely overthinking this, you aren't pressed against the tank with your hips. That makes you sit straight up. You are back in the seat. It's hard to explain on the net but all those riders pics you posted are doing it. The key is more the legs rotating around the tank when you slide into position when your head and shoulders go forward it will square your spine. If you look at your pics, you aren't bringing your head down and forward, but just sticking you leg straight out and going straight off the bike. You are not squared off, when you start bringing your upper body into play you will notice this rotation.

You're taking rotating around the tank too literal. You don't have to be up against it, you need to be back a bit to put weight on the rear tire. And yo've been to a shitload of track days now, you should know where your max lean is. You don't need to stick your knee way out like that anymore, unless you were just trying to get a feel after the wreck or something. Not every rider's the same either. I prefer the rotate technique and kind of leading with the hip, that's why you don't see my upper body way down and out, it doesn't feel comfortable to me. And I barely kick my knee out anymore because I know where my max lean is. I get the lean low enough and kick my knee out just a little bit and once it hits I know I have some room to play with, but not too much. You wanna see crossed up, check out Mic Doohan from back in the day. He dominated on his 500 and he was crossed up as fuck.

We all know the basics and we all have experience. I've taken the basics and tweaked them to make the bike more comfortable to me. Is it the right form? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that I still have a lot more to learn and perfect though.

Word.

The issue is that the phrase "rotate around the tank" can mean different things to different people. Some people will envision this as getting all crossed up... some people will see it as pointing their shoulders down towads the ground.... some people will see it as leaning way in w/ their upper body but leave their lower body closer to the center of the bike... and some (most), including myself, see it as "rolling" off the bike, keeping your chest pointed towards the bike and your hips/shoulders pointed downwards instead of moving laterally OVER the bike.

"Rotate around the tank" is very vague and this is why I don't use this wording when teaching this subject.


by the way, the giant pic of Rossi at the bottom of page 2... see where he's looking? It looks as though he's beginning to transition to a left hand turn, that's why his hips are at an angle to the center of the bike. You move your upper body a split second before your lower body so it's easier to get yourself up & over w/o using your arms.

Very good point about the phrase, rotating is the only way I could think of how to describe it, it's so much easier to demostrate. When I show people what I am talking about I usually put the bike up on a stand and demo what I mean.

werd...

I wish I could find a different angle of this guy... he's been a long-time customer & I think he's a product of that mis-interpretation... It's nearly impossible to see here but he's got that classic "hips pointed down" positioning even though his shoulders are pretty perpendicular to the vertical line of the bike.

very awkward.

http://www.owenssportsphotos.com/Pho...80718z077l.jpg

That's the dude on the pink SV right?

I've seen him there quite a bit... he's still in red group a year after I met him... wonder what's keeping him from progressing. I recall him crashing several times as well :idk:

yup, that's him.... part of his problem is that he almost never comes into the classroom anymore.... the other part is that he's concentrating WAY too hard on bodypositioning & not enough on the rest of his technique.

I'm hoping to see him next track day, hopefully I can approach him & work with him a bit.