I've been watching Ben Spies in Free Practice, Qualifying, and of course the race in Qatar.
What the heck is up with the chicken-dance elbows? He drops into the corner and then his outside elbow just starts doing the chicken-dance pose! It looks really stiff, compared to guys like Stoner and Rossi who look like they're leaning their elbow on their favourite armchair (i.e. the tank!).
Here's a MILD example from his WSBK days - his MotoGP style is twice as extreme!
http://www.hayabusa.org/forum/attachments/general-bike-related-topics/156833d1252108621-ben-spies-re-signs-yamaha-motogp-2011-ben-spies.jpg
As long as I could remember Spies has been called "elbows" cause he would scrape his elbow in the corners. Its just his style and it works, cant argue with the results either. I remember a race he did where they put a custom slider on his right elbow cause he was scrapping it so much he was wearing through his leathers.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a141/kalbeans/IMG_8415x5.jpg
http://www.latebraker.com/galleries/WSBKSLC09/Friday/Elbowz.jpg
http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/spies.jpg
[image: View Post]kaldek, on 12 April 2010 - 01:34 AM, said:
I've been watching Ben Spies in Free Practice, Qualifying, and of course the race in Qatar.
What the heck is up with the chicken-dance elbows? He drops into the corner and then his outside elbow just starts doing the chicken-dance pose! It looks really stiff, compared to guys like Stoner and Rossi who look like they're leaning their elbow on their favourite armchair (i.e. the tank!).
Here's a MILD example from his WSBK days - his MotoGP style is twice as extreme!
http://www.hayabusa.org/forum/attachments/general-bike-related-topics/156833d1252108621-ben-spies-re-signs-yamaha-motogp-2011-ben-spies.jpg
Scraping an elbow is one thing, but how he holds himself in place without his outside elbow on the tank is beyond me.
(Not that I've ever come anywhere close to having a knee down)
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 12 April 2010 - 07:43 PM, said:
Scraping an elbow is one thing, but how he holds himself in place without his outside elbow on the tank is beyond me.
Superbike School Level 3 focuses on this directly. Basically, you hold onto the bike with your outside knee, and not much else. You jam that thing into the scallop on the tank like you're holding on for dear life (which technically you are). If you can hold on without using any arm muscles, you're doing it right.
I tell you what. It freakin' works too - you have way more control over the bike when you get it right and you suddenly feel like leaning off the bike feels easy.
[image: View Post]kaldek, on 12 April 2010 - 06:41 AM, said:
[image: View Post]Ryanme17, on 12 April 2010 - 07:43 PM, said:
Scraping an elbow is one thing, but how he holds himself in place without his outside elbow on the tank is beyond me.
Superbike School Level 3 focuses on this directly. Basically, you hold onto the bike with your outside knee, and not much else. You jam that thing into the scallop on the tank like you're holding on for dear life (which technically you are). If you can hold on without using any arm muscles, you're doing it right.
I tell you what. It freakin' works too - you have way more control over the bike when you get it right and you suddenly feel like leaning off the bike feels easy.
Absolutely! All your weight should be loaded on the inside of your outside leg; on the knee or inner thigh just above the knee. This is especially helpful during downhill cornering on the street. You should be able to loosely flap your arms at any given time on the bike for the ultimate control - this includes during cornering and braking!
Legs are connected by squeezing and shoving the outside knee into the bike. How does a trail's rider control the bike? They hardly have any grip on the bars either. It's all with the ankles. The rest is all mid and upper body strength. Keeping your elbows up and out is important and helps keep pressure off of the bars. The harder you grip the bars the less control you have and the more garbage information you are feeding into them. Hold them loosely and only use pressure on them to change lean angle. They have to be allowed to move around where they want to outside of that. If one doesn't allow the bars to "hun't" with the front wheel doing its thing, every bit of "holding" it from hunting will be seen as a control input -putting instability right into the chassis with every tiny bit of motion you don't allow the bars to make.
In the case of Ben Spies it's much more pronounced because he's a long lanky lad like myself and he does what I often do... I often rest the outside elbow on my outside knee... which props it up higher and thus more noticeably... it's actually quite comfy that way and less effort required