Went along to this on Saturday - course aims to teach you how to improve your confidence in cornering and by changing your body postioning 'Get your knee down' i2i Motorcycle Academy : Knee Down The course runs on an old airfield near York - its £200 which is not cheap but the training ratio is 3:1 and you use their bandit 600 which has had a couple of extra crash bars fitted. The day runs from 10:00 to 16:00 with break for lunch Started off getting used to bike which was in good condition - def. not a nail but not so pristine to worry about it Jack the instructor demonstrated some techniques and soon had us on the bike for about 3 mins at a time doing figure of 8 loops round cones till we got the pegs down. This was to show us that we could lean the bike over enough to knee down, and from then on it was all about body position adjustments to be able do it. Was not long till I had toe slider / tarmac interface, some further adjustments and next lap or so and knee hits. Then it was crack the other knee, and finally try and go round the cone in a circle. Was the course worth it? I think so - the course also covered positive and negative steering inputs and what the bike is doing - its not 100% just 'here is how to get your knee down' Its a safe environment and what I learnt will help on track days and has already made me more assertive in my body positioning on the road. While I have not tried to knee down on road yet (just time / fatigue on Saturday) I am sure my confidence / ability has increased. The level of tuition / level of attention and lack of time constraints is far better than you would get on a trackday where its a rush, lots going on, bike passing etc. I know there are some on here who prob. cracked it in no time, find it impossible not to do it, cannot understand why some folk can't do it etc. but its maybe the whole confidence thing you need to crack when you are a young and bomb proof teenager, or have mates who can do it BUT also pass on techniques - telling somebody 'stick your knee out' is not how to train somebody / impart knowledge! Video above , stills and other video to follow Jumbo V!
£200 seems a lot, but when you think you get that level of tuition, use of their bike and fuel all day and taught skills which will hopefully make you a more controlled, confident and safer rider for years to come (not to mention showboatability lol) then I think it's worth every penny! Could blow £200 on bling in seconds and gain nothing, other than bling lol which is very important to some ha ha Also, if its something you wanted to achieve in a while why not! Crack on in a safe environment instead of goosing it up infront of your mates at the local bike meet ha ha See way too many folk on track just trying to get their knee down, makes them slower and fcuks up their lines... Better off not bothering or stop trying so hard and let it come.... You though al have it in the locker for your next td / oulton! Ps - didn't actually happen unless photos are posted
May have a little play one evening this week. Looking at video need to really work on upper body position off to side / down for max showboat-a-bility
Tbf when i went on the blade i was hopin to get my knee down and managed it on only a few bends properly. secobd time on the trackbike tho i was using it to gauge my lean angle miles better and ended up goin through corners a lot quicker than i thought i could. Still ended up dragging toe peg and knee tho at some points. not only does it feel.nice but it boosts confidence aswell
Definitely makes you feel more confident in a corner. To me it feels like you're taking a bit of a load off the Front end.I never try to do it unless its for a photo and Most of the time its totally unplanned, I just hang off On every corner. One note as well is its very easy with 55 profile rear on, touched down on the left while running The tyre in accidentally. .....p.s. this is only a comment so Please dont turn it into another 50 v 55 debate lmao.
Thanks for posting this mate - definitely interested in the course myself so it made interesting reading!
Not dragging every corner but shifting my weight to the Inside of the bike for every corner to unload the tyre's A little and it just feels more natural to me.
+1, Just a habit I got into years ago, can't break out of it now, must look a nerd at times, but as above, the bike feels more stable to me when I am moving around.
