Knee Dragging

[Mutt]

to drag knee with a V with STOCK FOOTPEGS, you'll need to be fully scraping the pegs AND hang pretty damn far off of the seat.

I get my V as low as it'll go (fully scraping the pegs to the point of almost lifting the rear wheel) and I still have about a half inch of "chicken strips" on the tires (the strips of un-touched rubber at the very edge of your tires) and with a "normal" seat hang off I'd be no where near getting a knee down.

on my RZ350 with the rear sets and metzlers it's MUCH easier, just hang off the seat a little, and lean it over until I feel my knee pucks start to scrape, and give it plenty of throttle on the exit.

so if you really want to drag knee on your V, you'll need to get 1) rear sets 2) some GOOD leathers, 3) a nice smooth 30-40mph corner and 4) plenty of ball sack

And good health/life and collision insurance.

Mutt  :)

[louthepou]

Here is going to my 2 cents based on experience.  I have done a few track days and this is the only place I would put a knee down.  I just don't think public roads are good enough to ride at that level. 

Well said...

Ideally, you want sticky tires, the clearance to do it (central stand, footpegs, mufflers... they get in the way), and great pavement without gravel or sand!

(A man I know lost a knee cap some 40 years ago... I thought I could use some of his wisdom in my riding! :) )

Lou

[inanecathode]

I heard the pegs and stuff that hit the ground are a safety feature to keep you from leaning too far?

[reckon]

Here is going to my 2 cents based on experience.  I have done a few track days and this is the only place I would put a knee down.  I just don't think public roads are good enough to ride at that level. 

Well said...

Ideally, you want sticky tires, the clearance to do it (central stand, footpegs, mufflers... they get in the way), and great pavement without gravel or sand!

(A man I know lost a knee cap some 40 years ago... I thought I could use some of his wisdom in my riding! :) )

Lou

yes all of that,...but with stickies, and rear sets (this was my R6), once your over far enough, you just stick your knee out a LITTLE, so you know how far your over,........so your knee becomes the "footpegs" on a bike with rear sets, because there is so much clearance, you can lean it over until your off the tread portion of the tires, and you will low side if you do that.



I heard rumors that valentino rossi will drag his ELBOW on some corners, but never having seen it, and because it sounds like a paul bunyon tale, I'll believe that when I see it for myself.

[zore]

Ben Spies has pucks on his elbos.  They actauly call him Elbos.

[YellowJacket!]

I've seen pics of people leaned way over and touching the ground with their fingers.

David

[Lucky]

ha! not me! at that point my fingers are welded to the grips!

[MotorPlow]

I've seen pics of people leaned way over and touching the ground with their fingers.

David

Ha!, I tried this last weekend... Never touched and didn't dare take my eyes off the road to see how close I was..... If anything, being smooth with proper throttle is more fun than touching the pavement with my fingers anyday.

[kiawrench]

my little trip to the dragon taught me well, i was trying to learn how to properly use my weight transfers to assist in high speed turns, and got carried away , my butt was hanging off the side almost level with the rear pegs . i never actually dragged the pucks , but could have touched the ground if there wasnt another curve going the opposite direction just ahead.   i guess i was basically doing it wrong, but i had both foot pegs ground down almost in half, ruined , but still a perch for my foot.

this ride ended really ugly, with brake rod breaking, but in a way, i think i  walked away from it a lot smarter than before that ride. i am of the mind that flagging a knee is ok, but dragging it is best left to track racing types. and no i dont flag my knees on all turns, just the lane changes at highway speeds, and sometimes in a quick lane change crossover.  again, i am getting old, it takes longer to heal up,, am really starting to ride more like a gold winger than a sport bike fella.
besides, once i get this thing completed this time, am not looking to ever do it again.   

[Lucky]

you just dragged a lot more than knee...

[Brian Moffet]

you just dragged a lot more than knee...

Agh!  My brain hurts because of the mental picture!!!!

[Lucky]

Cool! i can gross out someone a couple of thousand miles away...   ;D

[supervision]

  You need to go down to the NASA hardware store, and pick up one of those sendoff countdown devices, then when it goes 3,2,1, you can let off just before LAUNCH

[kiwibum]

I've had my 400 over scraping the exhaust clamp bolts on some corners, need to move them round more so it will go over a little further, then the forks are a bit dodgey for that at the moment. I wouldn't be scaping my knee on the road, as someone else said, the track is the best place to learn and you are really quite a way off the side of the bike to get the knee down and it's just to give a feel of the angle your at. It took me half a season of racing before I was confident enough to get my RS250 Aprilla over that far and feeling good about it. I can't see me doing that on the road on the XZ. Would love to take my spare one on a track day to see what it can do and get a little more use to it on it's limits but not something I would want to play with on a public road. Thinking I would like to get a little pickup truck and setup a bike for racing and track days just for fun with the spare XZ400's I'm accumalating, looking at another one will full fairing like you big boys with the 550, yippee!