how to hang off

Thud son is right, need to lock into the bike from the hips down and get loose on the bars. I have a throttle lock on my r6 and often when coaching, drag knee with both hands in the air (after turn in obviously!)

I think your hips and feet look like they are in the right place but your upper body is too upright and looks like too much weight on the bars.

If you look at the pictures I attached I get my hips, shoulders and head to the outside of the centerline. Upper body low on the tank and head pointed to the outside looking where I want to go. Try and minimize twisting your upper body back to the inside of the bike, that keeps the center of gravity high.

If you have trouble try pointing your inside foot to the center of the turn. Heel firmly into the heel guard, ball of the foot on the peg. That rotates your hip to the inside of the turn which makes it easier to move your upper body in the same direction and stay relaxed.

You may need to adjust your rearsets and seat to get everything right. I have short legs and had to move the pegs up and cut about 2cm of foam out of the Ducati race seat before it felt right.

outhouse said:

Reminds the of the story that sticks in my head.

Maybe it was keithcode I don't remember but it was about a pro rider.


Couch or dad made him wear a tie, wired the tie to the triple tree to keep his head down

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I remember reading something about this. I thought he tied the zipper on the kid's suit to the triple. When he came in after 1 lap his suit was unzipped. Made the point about staying low on the tank.

The best part ..as stated earlier..is that you are not crossed up..... I see this so many times with guys I ride with... I say nothing to them... Not my place and they don't ask.... all they say is "my chicken strips are smaller than yours..ergo I must be a better rider"... (Street riding)

I smile...nod and ride.... Kope... I know you are at a totally different level to me... Love what you bring to this place.. Thank you!!!

i just went down to the garage and heeded all the good advice - no problem to call it that ! - went sitting on the bike on the stand so pritty leaned over.. found that when i get real low ( wich works as i didn' wear the leathers) as im wide i can't close my arms against the tank...

then dropped the handles bars 15 mm ( i carry raised ones) to stock trim and found that worked better.. at least whilst standing still it did feel not easy to slide backwards but being on the rear stand that should be normal...

i'll just have on it .. that lean angle must go down.. spa should be good for that next week as it is not as tiring as Zolder...


My buddies did the Ducati riding experience this week in Dijon ( check out the channel STEF COU at YTbe) and Laconi said that the pani has the fairings cut out to press the knees into to relax under braking... i found them and will def give it much attention next week at SPA....

i' ll also try the stock DP race seat... perhaps the one i had made is too high and tilts me over too much...


i ve found that it is hard to download pics lately . anyone haing the same problem?

I have severe arthrosis in both hips and have a hard time to hang off too.

The Panigale being so narrow helps a lot but it's always a bit painful.

Stw said:

The best part ..as stated earlier..is that you are not crossed up..... I see this so many times with guys I ride with... I say nothing to them... Not my place and they don't ask.... all they say is "my chicken strips are smaller than yours..ergo I must be a better rider"... (Street riding)

I smile...nod and ride.... Kope... I know you are at a totally different level to me... Love what you bring to this place.. Thank you!!!

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HEY! stop that! Im the slowest rider here with no strips! I take that personal


The only time im hanging off is over a 60 ish on the faster sweepers. In the tight stuff we stay planted. No use hanging off on the slower stuff anyway.


The only advise I can give is to practice to the point of feeling comfortable with your head down going a bit slower, then it feels 100% natural when your at your fun speed.

You mention your leathers.....I had a dainese two piece suit previously and it restricted my movement so it was hard to get off the bike. New one piece trickster suit made it way easier.

Seriously though drop the shoulder and head and the rest will follow. I found I had my arse off the bike but I was crossed up because I was keeping my head upright. (See pic attached). Pivot steering with the outside peg and keeping loose on the bars is also important. Download Keith Code's Twist of the Wrist II of Amazon, it's got all you need to know.

There's a 'slow motion' thing that happened for me when I was finally able to get off the bike, it was weird but felt great, felt 'right'. It really does help to be as relaxed as possible which is hard.

I'm in a similar situation, granted I'm not anywhere near the fastest rider on the track but I'm having a hard time getting my body off the bike. I've read twist of the wrist and had a coach on the track I go to follow me and critique me but.... The problem still remains




I take a few laps to slow down and focus on my body position, but then I'll follow a faster rider and revert back to my old habits since it's what I know and my body position gets bad again. It's something I know I need to work on and really focus on. It's nice to see everyone helping each other out and sharing good experiences on this thread

i did hang off on a couple of occasions ( i thought overdoing it) and i did get much tighter throught the corner...

Kevin, my story completely... its like you think that by extending, you can pull the bike through the corner... just to find it run wide..

about being twisted... perhaps i'm just riding with a lot of old school folk but it s as common as muck... was like we all did the doohan stuff..

Kope, I can relate. I'm significantly younger than you, but I have the flexibility of a brick. Can't sit cross legged, nor touch my toes and in particular have very little range of motion with my hips (my elbow will drag before my knee does).

I learned a great deal about how the positioning of our weight affects the motorcycle while at the Yamaha Champions Riding School. As others have pointed out, how you get your weight there is not an exact science, so just do the best with what you have. I have found that greatly exaggeratingy body position helps a ton, because no matter how far off the bike I think I am, the pics tell another story!

Couple of quick points, butt back will help put weight forward generally if you are tucked. Your head is basically a bowling ball so tucking towards the nose puts a lot of weight there. I learned this real fast the first time I took a liter bike on track.

And two, just relax and get your head and eyes as far up as you can. Even while hanging off as low as possible on corner exits you can see pretty far ahead. I had to quit wearing my AGV Gp Texh helmet because the field of view was very limited in a tuck. This made a huge difference for me.

And for some opinions from someone who teaches some of the worlds fastest, here is an article by Nick Ienatsch that is very informative.

http://touch.cycleworld.com/home/74165#1

fireman1251 said:

I have severe arthrosis in both hips and have a hard time to hang off too.

The Panigale being so narrow helps a lot but it's always a bit painful.

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respect ...

great article Shaka !

Great to hear all your enthusiasm , I had never watched racing or been interested in sports bikes till I sat on the Panigale ( my salesmans fault!!) I think I may do a track day later this year so I am learning from you guys ( I have never been to a race track!)

Don't hang off too much. If you do, it will be hard tiger you knee out. I've heard it called he triangle of light. Point that inside foot and knee flares the corner. Your heal should be riding the swingarm. Lock the knee into the tank . Point your elbow down. Slow do you pace and your on your body position.

WAfatboy said:

You mention your leathers.....I had a dainese two piece suit previously and it restricted my movement so it was hard to get off the bike. New one piece trickster suit made it way easier.

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100% agree on getting leathers that fit. I wear an undersuit which helps me move as well. Nothing worse than getting bound up in sweaty leathers that don't fit right.

Well they were tailor made to fit so no real issues there . I even got back to wearing my old boot as they seem a tad more comfy .. What might get difficult is bending the neck back to look up .

Could have e seat made that keeps me back and still blocks me from going forward .. Naaah .. I ll just have to focus

The Duchess of Desmo said:

Great to hear all your enthusiasm , I had never watched racing or been interested in sports bikes till I sat on the Panigale ( my salesmans fault!!) I think I may do a track day later this year so I am learning from you guys ( I have never been to a race track!)

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You 'may' your higness ? You shall !

kope999R said:

Well they were tailor made to fit so no real issues there . I even got back to wearing my old boot as they seem a tad more comfy .. What might get difficult is bending the neck back to look up .

Could have e seat made that keeps me back and still blocks me from going forward .. Naaah .. I ll just have to focus

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I have the problem with the lower lip of the schuberth, gets stuck on the back hump... Works better with the bell star. Might
Wanna try a different helmet or reducing the hump height on the leathers...

By the way, this isn't an exact science. In addition to the YCRS, I've also attended the Pridmore Star School. While the concept of getting weight to the right places was the same, the way it was demonstrated was slightly different. Pridmore sacrificing some movement on the bike to make sure you still had feel through the bars.

Basically if you are fully extended as far as you can, it's likely your muscles aren't relaxed enough to be sensitive to feeling through the bars. So if a "10" is as far as you can possibly stretch, back it down to "9.5"

That said, I believe at YCRS this wasnt brought up that particular time because while we all thought we were stretching to a "10", it was probably more like a 5.

I was fortunate enough to attend a Pre-season session of the YCRS where we were sharing track with Graves Yamaha's teams. Josh Hayes in particular had some really good pointers and insight for us all. I suppose the best tip I can really give you is book some time with a school that does this professionally. It's amazing what some instruction can do for you and it's really tough for any of us to give any specific thoughts without being there.