Think you can ride a nice tight figure eight? If the quality of my figure eights could be measured against coffee they are now 100% free trade Arabica where once they were International Roast Caters Blend. Understanding the most basic geometry of body, bike, point of contact, gravity and centrifugal force, as drawn on the white board by Neil with all the finesse of a playschool delegate, has enabled my Freeride and I to run a figure-of-eight on a dinner plate. Body position enables you to lay the bike down further, which makes it turn sharper but maintains the geometry of the forks and front tyre, so the point of contact continues to trail the pivot point of the forks.
This massively improves performance of the tyres and suspension on the dirt you are riding. Prior to training, my initial reaction to falling into a corner was to speed up. But that only results in an exit on the wrong trajectory destroying any chance you have of pinning the next corner. Knowing what I know now, I will simply lean the bike over more and counter that lean with my body. This gave me so much confidence in my front end and its grip charging into a corner. Front-end wash out was always my monster under the mattress. Not anymore, and on my track at home I expect this to shave seconds off my lap times.
Step 3) Body position as it relates to hill climbs. Did you ever see that shower scene in Ace Ventura (based on the far more sinister scene in Neil Jordon's Crying Game), when Ace deals with the shame of the realisation that he has just slept with someone he should not have? Well that is how I felt when I found out that I had been riding hills wrong for so long.
Rather than leaning forward over the bars to keep the front down, I should be sitting back on the seat to maintain traction, because "without traction you have nothing" (to quote the Master, Mr Price). Sit back and keep your mass behind your pegs. Lay forward and keep your centre of gravity low. Feather that clutch with that single finger to give you just the momentum you need as your motor revs freely to give you as much but as little as you need to maintain 100% traction whilst you chug up hills that a goat would think twice about.
And if you must put your feet down, put them down lightly for stability only. Be delicate, like a ballerina, and stay light on your toes. Don't stomp you size 12 Spidis hard into the ground because all you will do is lift the back and break traction.
