Downshifting

Have been watching the MotoGP riders going into left hand turns with their left legs off and to the side, rear wheel in the air half the time. Can't figure out when they are downshifting. Do they just shift downshift 2-4 gears to begin with and let the slipper clutch/electronics sort it out while they continue to brake? Thanks for helping me figure this out. Paul

Combination of electronics and feathering the clutch depending on the rider. But yeah, they bang out all of their downshifts super early. The engine doesn't over-rev because they are also decelerating at a very rapid rate. Jason Pridmore talks about this during his Star Schools. May even be some youtube video of it somewhere.

Yep, by that time they have already done their downshifting.

Downshifting several gears

Thanks guys, I will give this a try at Miller Sept 7, we get the full track so should be downshifting from 6 to 3/2 at the end of the main straight. Engine braking control, slipper clutch, feathering the clutch out as I near end of braking, what could go wrong? Ha!! Don't know the value of hanging a left leg out tho, any insight with that? Seems like at 140 sticking my leg out wants to just jerk me off the bike. At 180+??? Still learning, sorry if these questions are stoopid. My desire is to ride smooth at 8-9/10. Not trying to be a racer, just want to explore what the bike and I are capable of for fun. I will earn my living elsewhere. Began riding on a track this year. My street experience only goes so far. By the way, the brakes on the 1199s are phenomenal!!! Paul

Valentino Rossi started the leg dangle thing about 7 years ago. I almost think he did it just to see if others would copy him (they did).

You should do what feels comfortable. In some turns, it does seem to help feel more balanced when you're braking very hard and setting up for a sharp turn. But on a majority of turns on tracks I've been on, I just like having both my feet on the pegs. I'm not going at professional racing speeds with the kind of braking G-forces those guys experience, so I probably just don't benefit as much from the leg dangle technique.

We used to stick our inside leg out and off on really fast turns when we were downhill mountain biking. Not sure why it worked. But it did something. I think it isolated our body from feeling bumps, and it got our feet out under us, so we felt more normal as well.

With our inside foot clipped in, it was up high and leaned oddly. Being that moto GP bikes have very high pegs, I can kind of see a parallel. It had to work, because clipping in and out on a mountain bike while gravity trys to kill you, is not the easiest thing to do. So why do it?

I do remember, squeezing the seat with your legs gave more control of slides, but the bike would fishtail and slide more. Leaving your legs loose, not touching the seat, gave less feel, but more traction. Unclipping and hanging a leg out was like taking the latter loose leg idea, and going further with it.

I've noticed that gripping the seat, and floating loose over the bike, have similar effects with motorcross bikes. But I think they sitck thier leg forward and off for different reasons. Just to get weight forward for steering a bike with slack head angles.