Theres a reason not write this earlier and theres a whole lot more reasons to write it. Knowing that theres more sportsbike riders out there and very little knowledge on supermoto. It will come to a heated arguement on why kneedown is better than leg out. It has been explained by twist of the wrist. Physics is physics. It doesn’t change because your bike is different. So it has to be the proper way. Its like was there even a proper way on how to pop a baby out? whether it is a doggy style, missionary or piledriver style?
Motorcyle or 2 wheel vehicle with an engine stays upright by centrifugal force. If there is a constant feed of force to the rear tires, the bike will keep rolling on. Whether it is on lean or upright. Hence the saying; When in doubt, gas it out!! Yea we all knew that, so get onto the leg out stuff and less of the stuff that we all know about. Nopes, we need to understand what hanging off does for you too. To sum it up, it is an action taken by a rider to alter their center of gravity. This allows for a larger contact patch on the tires because the bike isnt fully lean in extreme angle. This also helps to fight the gyroscopic force of the engine and rear wheel that pushes the bike to a vertical motion.
So, knee down vs leg out. Supermoto are often and always runs in Go-Kart tracks such as ELITE USJ, Sepang International Kart Circuit, Melaka International Motorsports Circuit and etc. Well, you get my point. Small narrow tracks thats often run down (aside from SIKC) and some even has a baby pool in it.
Going fast in a small circuit is very tricky. It requires lightning fast counter steering, balls defying lean angle and monstrous torque to pull you out of the corner. When you slow down too much, the absence of centrifugal force from the rear will just punk you over and there you go, low side. Turning fast in such tight corners is almost like pulling the “hand-brake maneuvre” with your girlfriend during high school. You gotta get it all up till the tip and then pull it out instantly. Else happy fathers day to you! Same applies to riding a motorcycle. You lean till you cant lean anymore and the moment you hit the maximum lean vs traction coefficient. Bail out with smooth big throttle response to get that ol’ centrifugal fella up. Now imagine if you’re doing this Leg out vs knee down. sometimes in a kart track we are rolling inside the corner at maybe less than 20kmh. How low and slow can we hang off at that point? If its too damn much of effort, why not leg out? similarly if you have a short penis, why force youself doggy-ing a phat ass. Would be a Bummer right?
Another example, a bike needs to lean in order to turn and you will stay on the bike given the right certain amount of speed vs lean. The lower you lean, the sharper it turns, the radius decreases and creates more force for the tires which often translates to reduced laptimes. Some supermoto racer uses this knowledge to their advantage by leaning all the way till their handlebar scrapes the tarmac. Now, that wont be very possible if you were to hang off as theres absolutely not enough space or clearance inside of your bike. Hence some rider opt for riding upright rather than hanging off! To fully utilise the lean angle the bike has to offer. You can search this guy up (picture below) Rudi Bauer #69
Most kart track has multiple chicanes. When a sportsbike approaches a corner, he will get into body position readily hanging half butt out into the corner to attack the turn and just when he hits the apex he will swiftly move his ass from the inner turn to the opposite just to anticipate the next counter direction turn. Well, for Supermoto riders. Its not quite the case. imagine sitting upright and flipping the steering from left to right and thats it! Well, thats because the track is small and the turns will be smaller compare to big circuits. If you cant imagine it yet. Imagine a mamak flipping roti canai hand movement combine with a left foot out and the right foot in and shake it all about, you do the hokey pokey and thats what its all about!!! Its so easy its on nursery rhymes.
Ya, its that easy but what about altering the center gravity and enlarging the contact patch on tires and etcetra. A supermoto is indeed a monstrous torque machine and it shreds more rubbers than ron jeremy in the peak of his career but supermoto does not necessarily go fast at all. In fact most of the track here in malaysia is only running about max 125kmh give or take and thats the straight lines. The corners varies between 20-40kmh. So all those quality rubbers were made for the rider to achieve maximum lean to near friction loss and then apply throttle to get out of it in a blink of an eye (mildly exaggerated) because the Kart circuit is very small. Unlike sportsbike in large track where a single turn might take up to half a football field as compare to a Kart track thats just about the size of a football field. To be honest, riding a supermoto with super sticky slicks like the Metzeler RaceTec SM is like carrying a box of condoms on your first date with a gal you just swiped on Tinder. Chances of you getting lucky is low but if it happens, you have what it takes to be safe. so:
Leg out – Not having enough contact patch, not being able to alter the center gravity, leaning way overboard to near lose friction, quite unstable
Hanging off – Requires more effort, gets larger contact patch, lean lesser, more grip, more stable
Theres almost no benefit if we look at it from a sportsbike guy mentality. Heres why do supermoto rider still opt for leg out:
Supermoto riders often lean their bike lower than necessarily to make the turn sharper and with the monstrous torque they would need to sit up right to anticipate a slide or be it intentionally or not. Of course we are no where near there, but them riding as such is so that their body is always ready to react in an event of a loss of traction be it by throttle or too low of a speed. Very often exhibit in MX bikes. Riding on dirt over a berm and you can see a bike fish tail into the exit of the turn to get a good angle for full gas oppurtunity.
If you remember, leg out doesnt mean no legs at all on pegs. well besides the inner leg towards the corner, it is also important to step on the outer pegs to load the rear wheel and a pivot point for you to stay on the bike in case the bike wobbles in disagreement with your throttle. Imagine how uncomfortable it is when you hangoff and your bike just wiggles around ferociously like how you would wiggle your dong after you pee. It simply means more work for the rider as the force from that wiggle is being transfered to the rider instead of the bike which is beneath the riders crotch. So in exchange, where we could not benefit from a hanging off position, we compensate it with something else. Maneuverability and breaking traction at any given oppurtunity to steer quickly in and out so that we dont waste too much time inside a turn. Pretty much the same concept as MX bikes.
Now, i will share my transition from Hanging off to Leg out. The thing is, i do not think that you should confine yourself with a single way to ride. Knowing more doesnt mean you need to utilise all of it. Choose a method that you feel that you are making progress and can be faster. Supermoto is a hybrid between MX and also sportsbike, hence i think we can choose to ride both ways in a hybrid manner. I was confused at first as to which style suits me more and the journey to find that out took me about 7 years. I did hangoff full lap and got 53s in ELITE and i did leg out full lap and i also got 53s! Soon i realise there are some turns thats abit difficult to execute a perfect body position with a graceful poise, i switched to a more rugged MX style and there are faster corners in ELITE such as the high speed down hill right turn, It doesn’t feel comfortable going at high speed with leg out. Thus, i revert to knee down and the bike seems more at ease and control. In ELITE im doing more leg out than knee down. Lets say 80% leg out and 20% knee down. Ive seen some really fast rider thats doing 47s with kneedown only! and it worked well for him. While in SIKC i realise im doing the opposite, whereby im doing 80% knee down and 20% leg out. Simply because the track has more flow and allows me to stay on throttle longer at lean.
Did all those law of physics bugged me? yes of course it does. Every single time riding a supermoto it almost feels like you are defying physics but of course you’re not. Don’t think too highly of yourself. We are merely just utilising the equipments to work to our advantage and riding MX style has its risk too but with more practice, it all came into sense. There are less time spent monkey-ing around from left to right on the handlebar. Which allows you to focus more on what matters most. Throttle, brakes and steering input. Theres less effort when i need to drop the bike instantly to a maximum lean in the shortest time with least effort. Which allows me to dip into turn very late and get the bike up very early. Which also allows me to get back on throttle earlier, taper off the brakes earlier and steering input to straighten the bike earlier. Need not to say, a reduced in laptimes. At times when theres higher speed, id revert to knee down. Well, it feels safer at higher speed and the bike wobbles lesser too. This is due to the design of the bike that really wasnt meant for high speed. Having shorter wheelbase and a sharper rake. You probably need to make the extra effort of hanging off properly to get the weight distribution right. Which is why if you are a sportsbike rider, this is the ultimate riding machine closest possible to a motogp bike. short wheel base and extreme steering angle with lots of power starting from idling to max rpm.
If any, id ask myself how long to put our foot or knee out? That is the bigger question. A short answer would be as soon as you are on max lean and has hit the apex then keep them legs together!!You’re not a RM50 whore to leave them legs spread for anything and anytime! Hence, you should focus on getting out of the turn with as much throttle you have in your hand and clap your thigh together while charging straight to the next apex.
All in all you need to be versatile and work around or with your bike. Its not a bike that does it all but with a good understanding on when to apply kneedown or leg out truly improves the pact between you and your bike. By then it is us against the world kinda thing. Now, why didnt we apply these shit in our relationship huh?
If you are still deciding leg off or knee down. Take this advise, in turns that you felt tired struggling to balance the bike in a slow turn, try leg out instead. The speed is probably too slow for you to knee down properly while clinging onto the bike like a koala bear but if you have the speed to do so, yes ultimately knee down is still faster. Winning a race with knee down, might prove to be difficult but not impossible. Look at Aaron Yates or Josh Herrin.
Im sorry if i did not state clearly on which is better, but i do wish that when you are reading this, you could get some realisation on where and how or when to apply leg out or knee down. It can be a mix of kneedown and leg out, it can be full knee down or vice versa. Most importantly, It helps you clear the turns quick enough.