How Light Can You Get It?
May 14th, 2009 by Leo
Yes, this is yet another post on being light on the bars, like this one. But here I want to ask you a question:
How light CAN you hold the bars and still be in control?
Ask yourself that question on your ride home…
So, let’s break this down: how hard do you need to hold the bars when you’re going straight? Answer: None at all, right? You just need two fingers to maintain the throttle, but the bike will go straight pretty much without your input.
How about when you’re going through a gentle turn, slight lean angle, at maybe 40 mph, how hard do you need to hold the bars then? Answer: Again, NONE. Once you’re in the turn, the bike will continue in that turn. If you don’t believe me, give it a try… If the rider fell off the bike, the bike would continue in whatever lean angle it was left at until it ran into something. So in a turn, you only need to maintain (or roll on slightly) the throttle.
How about when you’re first initiating a turn, how hard do you need to grip the bars then? Answer: You don’t really really need to grip, do you… You only need one palm to push on a bar to initiate a turn.
Why do you tend to tighten up on the grips? Probably because you’re holding yourself up with the bars instead of sitting comfortably and locking on with your legs. Sometimes you have to brake hard or cut through tight traffic and unconsciously tense up. This is self defeating though, because when you hold yourself up with the bars, or tighten up it makes it harder to steer, and when you’re in a hairy traffic situation or tight turns you need to steer faster and more accurately. That’s MUCH easier when you’re light on the bars.
So here’s the drill: on your next ride focus on lightening your grip. See how light you can hold on, and how quick and easily your bike can steer. Use that lightness as a mental reference point so that every time you ride you can find your seating and grip.
By the way, I think cruiser riders tend to be better at using a light grip whereas scooter riders and small bike riders tend to grip harder than they need to.
[PS - can anyone guess what the bike is in the picture? Hint: You can't buy it in the US]
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I admit it.. I am a death grip person. I tried bigger grips, grip puppies and the rest, but they are just band-aids. I finally reached the point that 2 fingers on the brake and a ‘O” grip on the throttle. Still like to grip too hard if the road is wet but I am getting there. A bad habit I wish I didn’t have.
For me, road conditions are the biggest determiner. Newly spread asphalt (especially on a freeway) is a dream; you can almost steer the bike with your mind. However, here in So. Cal, when you’re riding on poorly rain-grooved stretches of freeway (wavy, anything but straight), you better hold tight if going straight is important to you.
I think poor road quality is one of the things that make me tighten up on the bars… But how much of a grip does one really need in order to turn a bike or keep it going straight on poorly surfaced roads? …assuming the suspension is doing its job and working alright.
Just have to experiment and see…
On slippery surfaces, holding the bars tight actually makes slips worse…but what about on bumpy uneven ground?
great website!
i think one of the reasons that people grip the bars too hard is because they use the bars as their anchor point when leaning or when braking. it’s really the knees that should anchor oneself to the bike. e.g. you should be able to lean all the way, lock the throttle in position and take your hands completely off the bars. your turning radius should still be the same.
here’s another data point – i was at a track day and was behind a bike going into the lean. the guy in front lost his oil filter and dumped a band of oil through the turn. once i felt the front slip i immediately went light on the handle bars and glided through the oil. it was funny because my lean angle was maintained even though i was now moving in a straight line (imagine a car drifting). i’m pretty sure that if i hadn’t let go and let the bike do its thing, i would have fell.