Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Specifically, how should you sit on the bike?

I'm not concerned with how to do it on a track or even hardcore canyon carving. Just spirited riding with a considerable safety margin.

One friend says it's safer to basically sit in the same spot; shifting your weight around is just one extra task to be loaded with.

Another says shift your weight; it keeps the bike relatively upright and maximizes your tires' contact patches.

I'm fairly confused.

If it's relevant: My bike is a middleweight standard with a pretty upright riding position.

It depends on how much motorcycle experience you have. The technique you're inquiring about is sometimes called "advanced body positioning." As you noted, this is not necessarily a high-performance riding technique. It helps produce conservation of lean angle. Anytime you shift your weight off the centerline of bike in the direction of the turn, you'll use less lean angle for the given maneuver. This allows a greater proportion of your allocation of traction to be available for other things, like acceleration, braking, or simply adhering to the road surface. This applies to normal street riding as well as high-performance riding.

I feel it's definitely not a technique for a first-year rider, as your friend notes, a beginner has enough to cope with just mastering the basics. But for a rider who has mastered the basics, advanced body positioning can definitely contribute to safety, if done correctly.

I recommend Lee Park's book "Total Control". There's a chapter devoted just to body positioning.