[Guest]

another Newbie question:

When countersteering, which foot peg do you put weight/pressure on?

More specifically, when I want to make a left turn (or change quickly to the left side/lane), I push on the left handle bar (countersteer). So do I simultaneously put weight and pressure on the LEFT foot peg? Or is it the right peg to counter BALANCE the bike in the turn?

I remember that during our lessons, in one scenario, we were doing a left hand u-turn, and was told to put pressure on the outside/right peg to counter balance.

Confused!!!!!

 

[Stewy]

It depends if you want to dip the bike down lower, or stand the bike back up a little. If you want to lean the bike further down, then you'll put weight on the inside peg.

 

[rg500]

well, I'm not so sure about that. Try this little test, stand next to a wall, put out youre left hand and push against it. Now , lift your right foot and try, then lift your left foot and try. I bet you can exert more pressure with the opposite foot.
Therefore, a left turn would give better leverage if you weighted the right peg......makes sense?...besides, I think lean angle is controlled by the bars...

 

[JamieJames]

If you're shifting your weight to the inside of the turn, you'll automatically be putting more pressure on the inside peg.

When you're hanging off the bike like racers do, you have all your weight on the inside peg and little to none on the outside peg depending on the lean angle.

 

[savagebovine]

If you're shifting your weight to the inside of the turn, you'll automatically be putting more pressure on the inside peg.

When you're hanging off the bike like racers do, you have all your weight on the inside peg and little to none on the outside peg depending on the lean angle.

Yep, as can be demonstrated where you sit.

Try sitting with one cheek hanging off your chair and lean off the chair as if leaning into a corner. Now try and weight the different feet. If you can stay on the chair while weighting the proverbial outside foot, I'd be impressed.

 

[rg500]

but hanging off wasn't the topic. Countersteering, or initiating a turn, was the initial discussion. try it both ways, then decide.

 

[JamieJames]

but hanging off wasn't the topic. Countersteering, or initiating a turn, was the initial discussion. try it both ways, then decide.

No it wasn't the topic but it's an exaggeration of the same principle.

 

[rg500]

not really, hang off all you like, but don't turn the bars and see what happens.

 

[TeeTee]

You steer with the bars first and foremost (you've read the counter steering threads?). Tilting the bike or weighting the pegs just makes it feel a little better by altering how the caster and camber work with the leaning to make the bike feel at various speeds.

Road racers hang off the inside while dirt bikers and super motarders push the bike down further into the turn under the rider. Two complete opposite techniques. Who's right? They both are because they are after different advantages and pay different costs for those advantages. But these are only factors at racing levels. On the street you shouldn't need to depend on them.

Weighting the pegs only makes a slight difference when your tires are on the very edge of their traction. At that point weighting a peg may or may not save you or let you get that last few % out of the bike.

At lower parking lot speeds and tight curb to curb turns I do find that pushing the bike down a bit under me makes it feel nicer. Never got into the peg weighting thing myself. Even at the track I've got so much weight off on the inside of the bike that there's nothing left to weight the outside peg like they say you're supposed to. And if I don't shift off so much then I'd have some weight for that outer peg but I'd likely drag hard bits. And that gets painful. So if I can break the rules at racing speeds I don't see any need to worry about this stuff at street speeds and efforts. There's SO much other stuff that's more important.

Put the efforts you save from not worrying about pet weighting into practicing and perfecting your push or counter steering and you'll be far better off for it.

 

[rg500]

i think a lot depends on the bike also... when i had the R100RS, with the little narrow bars inside the fairing, it took a lot of push at , ahem .....brisk speeds... to get it to move. weighting the other peg helped. On the other hand, with those bikes with big, wide bars, it's a lot easier to initiate a turn.

 

[Squint]

You're not on the track, don't worry about it. Figure out the countersteering, let your feet do what they want. After a few thousand miles, if you want to play around with weighting the pegs, then play around. Or take an advanced riding course.

Learning to ride is a progression, save the hanging off, trail braking, backing it in, weighting the pegs, etc. for when you're totally comfortable with everything else.

 

[Sloan]

I would not stress too much about which one until you have turning in a fluid motion and you are picking up the pace. Even then I would just say weight them both and pinch the bike with your legs as opposed to sitting on your ass with your feet just being supported by the pegs.

When you have the bike by the bars and your weight is on your pegs not your ass, the bike comes to life and you get feedback from it. If not weighting pegs, there is little feedback. So just weighting both pegs and taking the weight off your seat by 50% will change a lot. Then when things pick up, I usually weight the outside when I am getting on the gas, motard, road, motocross, whatever.

Try to weight the pegs, keep you torso stationary to the bike and just turn in with countersteering. Once turned in, load up the bike with a bit of throttle and slowly roll on. Get the hang of that, never chop the throttle in the turn and do not back off if there are bumps as you have more suspension travel when acceleratiing. If you can do this smoothly you will be ok and start to feel the bike reacting to the road. If things are rough, you can get your ass off the seat a bit and the bike can move around under you with out upsetting you or your line.

Once this is all second nature and you start to pick up the pace, lead with your shoulders and head, no need to get your ass cheek off and hang until you are really giving 'er. Then you only need one cheek off, lead with shoulders as well and drop you knee a bit. Weighting both pegs adn transferign weight to the outside as you accelerate out of the turn and come back into center on the bike.

The only time I can flip the bike by weighting the pegs is trail riding when I am standing and I am rolling the bike with my feet and following with the arms.

 

[osama1234]

I think you may have the highspeed / lowspeed thing mixed up.
The scenario which you mentioned about putting 'weight' on the outer peg, is when you're turning at a slow speed. It is to prevent the bike from falling over onto the side which you're turning it. Its shown in the picture below, the rider is 'weighing' the foot on the right (From out Point of view). I find its much easier in the slow speed stuff to simply shift your weight instead of worrying about what you're doing with your pegs. At PRS, they just told us to sit with half of our arse on the seat, and the other half hanging in mid air opposite from the direction in which we're turning.

As for the weight on the inner peg, is when you want to lean the bike in the direction of the turn, basically when turning 'normally' with some speed.

 

[Sloan]

I think you may have the highspeed / lowspeed thing mixed up.
The scenario which you mentioned about putting 'weight' on the outer peg, is when you're turning at a slow speed. It is to prevent the bike from falling over onto the side which you're turning it. [/IMG]

No mix up Osama. I don't think about weighting my pegs much when going slow ie. under 30k on the street, I am just weighting them evenly and countersteering. The senario you mention is more beginer related and the rider not being a part of the bike. It is something you do dirt riding though ie push the bike down in the slower turns but you are weighting the outside peg for drive out of the turn not to keep it from falling down and a lot of the times your inside foot is not even the peg making it hard to weight it.

I speak about more agressive riding. You should be able to handle anything at legal speeds pretty neutral with even weighting of the pegs and a ton of weight on your ass without any problems.

 

[gsxr_45]

The more skilled tools you have avalible to you as a rider will only enhance your riding exp. all of the practiced motions of riding should not be dismissed, control is a balancing act . i use peg weighting when riding hard or sport touring for that matter ,learned it years ago works best with your weight forward and your ass barley on the seat , yes a racing thing for sure and works , just another tool to work for you .