In a previous post, I mentioned that my background was mostly off-road and racing before I got into police motorcycles. So it was inevitable that some of my dirty habits from my life would influence my heavy street riding techniques. Hey, I was an old dog when I became a police officer, and I had a lot of old tricks up my sleeve. Of all the off-road skills that were transferred into my urban traffic enforcement program, today’s class will cover one of the best.
Let’s start with some game show trivia. I’ll take “Motorcycle” for $200, please. How do you hold a motorcycle when you ride it? “With both hands on the handlebars.” Sorry, that’s not correct. The answer our judges are looking for? We control bike (push, pull, twist and squeeze the controls) with our hands; we hold the motorbike with our feet. Thanks for playing, get your free copy Green smoothie for life on the way out the door
Okay, that’s the bell, please take a seat so we can get started. For today’s lesson, it’s important to understand that there is an optimal position in the cockpit for the driver that helps keep the driver’s weight always balancedMinimize the negative impacts on motorbikes when we have to bear the impact force when driving on the street.
Let me explain: When we ride a motorcycle, we encounter acceleration and deceleration forces. Have you ever found yourself holding onto the handlebars like a water skier when accelerating hard or doing an involuntary push-up on the handlebars when braking hard? That’s weight transfer, and the less we bring our mass into the transfer, the less it destabilizes the suspension or affects our traction, braking, steering geometry, etc. In short, the less we throw our weight around, the better. And maintaining a consistent center of gravity in the cockpit is key.
Now, to put this lesson into practice, let’s go to the land of imagination (or the garage) and do a visualization exercise while sitting on our motorcycle. With your motorcycle upright (on a center stand or balanced with both feet on the ground), imagine the motorcycle as one of those big exercise balls you see people balancing on at the gym.
Now play along, and in your mind, with your eyes closed and your hands turn off steering wheel, shift your body to the correct position on the ball (your seat) to get you centered on the ball. Pay attention to how far forward or backward you are and imagine the ball moving in all directions. Are you still balanced? If the answer is yes, this final position is the zero point. The reference point. Home plate. From this point forward, this will be the point where you operate as you encounter the acceleration and deceleration forces (weight transfer) that push and pull you as you go and stop. Oh yes, you can open your eyes now.
Go ahead and prepare. I’m going to walk you through an exercise that will help you get into proper body posture during weight transfer and help you develop better sensitivity when you’re doing it wrong. This will allow you to self-diagnose and make necessary adjustments, since I can’t always be there waving pom-poms and getting you that special lemonade.
Tank Exercise: Here’s exercise #1, straight line, under 20 mph. Pick a safe, uncongested stretch of road or parking lot that allows you to travel 300 feet or more in a straight line without encountering pedestrians, cross traffic, or road hazards. Start by starting the car from a complete stop and accelerating to 15-20 mph. Then, use the brakes to slow down to about 5-10 mph smoothly and comfortably, but don’t stop. Great. Now, while still moving, accelerate back up to 15-20 mph again. At some point in this process, you’ll need to turn around, so go ahead and do it in whatever safe way you choose. That’s it. Great job, you’re awesome. Oh, I forgot to mention…
We’re going to do this exercise with your right hand on the bar and your left hand (clutch hand) resting on the gas tank. That’s right: Only your throttle hand is allowed to grip the bar, except when taking off and turning. With those two exceptions, your clutch hand must rest on the gas tank where I can see it. No cheating.
You’ll immediately notice that to avoid pulling the bar while accelerating (and creating that annoying rotational motion), you’ll be forced to move your upper body front. Same goes for the braking part, but you will need to shift your upper body weight backside to maintain balance and not put extra force on the steering wheel.
Go slowly, breathe, and focus on achieving a balanced position as if you were floating on top of the bike throughout the exercise. That’s how you’ll know you’re doing it right. Rinse and repeat, looking up at the sky and saying “Hallelujah!”
Practice this exercise until you can comfortably maintain a perfectly balanced position when encountering the forces of accelerating or braking without feeling the need to grip the handlebars with your left hand to compensate for any weight transfer. Remember, the harder you accelerate and brake, the greater the weight transfer, which means your range of motion will need to increase in the cockpit to maintain the ride on the flying carpet.
Over time, the push and pull you apply through your hands will gradually decrease as you become more sensitive to the weight transfer. And don’t be surprised if you also become more comfortable and skillful in your handling. Most importantly, now that you’ve stopped upsetting the physics equation with your weight, your bike will feel better and more secure beneath you. That’s great.
If you would like to watch a live version of this lesson, go to Police Motor Training with Quinn Redeker on YouTube and search for “Perfect balance on motorbike – Balance Ball 2.0”The Tank Drill is one of the few exercises I mention in the video, so feel free to fast forward – you won’t get me wrong.
Quinn only wears Lee Parks Design gloves. Find Quinn at Police car training.
See all articles about Driving School with Quinn Redeker here.
