Steve Plater masterclass..I'm not worthy

[Fireman]

I just wanted to share one of the best biking experiences of my 26 year riding career.

Silverstone GP circuit Focused Events 'Stars Day'. We were all entitled to a session with one of the guest stars. Reynolds?, Whittam?, Mackenzie?, Walker? or Plater?.
As it was the Monday following his triple victory at the NW200 I thought Plater is on the money, I'll collar him.
Teamed up with a guy from Devon on a ZX10R we met Mr Plater at the front of the pit lane. He decided I should lead as I had the slower bike. "Just ride like you normally would", he said, "and I will follow you for a lap. Then I'll take it up. Just follow my lines. Don't worry if you can't keep up, I'll keep an eye on you and adjust my speed accordingly.'
To be honest I was shi***g it. I'm a mid div inter. How can I even hope to live with him for half a lap? My first lap was ragged to say the least. I used the full width of the track following the "text book" lines. As I entered the pit straight, our coach took it up. I immediately raised my game as he showed me a clean pair of heels. I managed to keep in touch, just, although it was patently obvious he was cruising.

He barely used his brakes and was uber smooth, taking a much tighter line than I had. After two laps with him leading he dropped back and it was down to me. By this stage, I realised that we had only been passed by three of the 30 riders in our group so must have been making better progress than I am normally capable of. Summing up my best effort I attempted to replicate Steve's lines and momentum. The combination of nerves and the physical exhursion had me blowing into my visor. The chilly morning air turned the inside of my visor opaque and I kept lifting it against the pressure of the air against it in order to see something!! Note to self...breath through your mouth and buy some decent anti-fog. After another lap he took the lead again.

Releived of the responsibility of leading, I relaxed a bit and my breathing settled. We came up against some back markers on safe lines. Steve ran right inside them on the brakes and slipped cleanly and safely up their inside. Oh the dialemma. Tuck in behind or follow him? I went for it. Gripping my tank with my knees and braced against the bars I braked for all I was worth and tipped the bike into the chicane before Bridge. It was a revelation and I nipped past the group of riders, I would normally have been part of.

The 20 minute sesson ended and it was debrief time. "Well Pete", he said."how do you steer a motorcycle?" Perplexed, I came out with all the cliche answers. "Counter steer, lean, with your head?" I said struggling to change his expression. "No", he replied, "you steer a bike with your feet. Your not doing it. You are sitting on the bike and are trying to steer it with your body. Ride it like a jockey does a racehorse. The only time your arse is in the saddle is when you're braking. You should have all yopur body weight on your legs and push on the pegs to turn the bike. There should be no pressure on your arms in a turn. Your hands are just there to guide the bars and work the controls", he added. "Also on your own you are squaring off the corners, you're riding in your comfort zone. You are looking at the tarmac, instead of where you are going next. Once you have tipped in you should be looking through the exit to the next corner. Don't worry you're not that slow, but if you want to get into the fast group, you have to work on all of these things. Practice and the speed will come naturally."

Determined to take full advantage of my lesson, I spent the rest of the day trying to put Steve Plater's advice into practice. Getting my wreight off the bike and steering by transferring it through my feet worked brilliantly and by the end of the day I was doing it without thinking. My body position improved and I even got my toe sliders down. This was the first time, but my knee did not make contact? So still doing something badly wrong. By the time I arrived home every bone in my overweight unfit body was hurting. But I was happy.

Following This masterclass experience I have decided to book a one to one with an instructor for a whole Donnington Park trackday. I am not happy just getting round and want to do it properly as I think it will make future track days even more rewarding.

Sorry to have banged on like this but I can't rate this experience too highly

[dakk66]

Sounds like you had a top day & learnt something as well , can't be bad.

[andyb]

expect the css lot to be along telling about steering with your feet.........or not as the case may be. to steer is about handlebar imput no imput no turn..........regardless of how hard you push with your feet.........

However weighting the pegs with your feet can assist the manouvreability of the bike.....

[Fireman]

Funnily enough my partner on the day raised the CSS case with Mr Plater. His response was Yeah there is some input from the bars as you tip in, but it is not in isolation. You actually do it automatically as a result of shifting your weight onto the inside foot rest and as you move off the bike. His approach was pressure on the pegs was a fundamental input and created the desired centre of gravity for a more stable turn. Only once you get this right can you move on to deliberate counter steering, opposite counter steering etc etc. In case I've lost you - opposite counter steering is what some racers do to stand the bike up more through a corner while they are still hanging right off so they can get the power on earlier. Apparantly you push on the outside bar. In his opinion this is stuff for really advanced track riders..I tend to agree.

I don't want to get into a protracted debate about this as everyone is right on this subject. Because there are a range of conponents all working together.

I found his case for concentrating on weighting the foot rests made a huge difference to what I was doing and the speed, and stability I achieved through corners. Obviously because i was relying solely on the bars and leaning my upper body.

[NedLudd]

Originally Posted by Fireman

I found his case for concentrating on weighting the foot rests made a huge difference to what I was doing and the speed, and stability I achieved through corners. Obviously because i was relying solely on the bars and leaning my upper body.

What were you doing differently - 'simply' weighting the inside peg more, or positively pushing down on it etc? I'm always a bit confused by the peg stuff because I've also read people advocating that once turned in you'd weight the *outside* peg to stop the back stepping out. Tricky stuff...

[Fireman]

Originally Posted by NedLudd

What were you doing differently - 'simply' weighting the inside peg more, or positively pushing down on it etc? I'm always a bit confused by the peg stuff because I've also read people advocating that once turned in you'd weight the *outside* peg to stop the back stepping out. Tricky stuff...

I have to admit that I wasn't weighting the inside peg at all. I realised this once I started to do it deliberately. I was just sat on the seat moving my backside across a bit.

His advice was a positive push, achieved by virtually puting all my weight through my inside leg. To do this you have to be in the skiing crouch type position with your backside half off the seat. hence my aches and pains following the day! Your outside leg is locked into the tank to stop you falling off! I can't see how you could then weight the outside peg, but the idea is by hanging off you keep the bike more upright and with a lower centre of gravity, thus making it more stable. To do all of this stuff is tricky. I suppose that is why these guys can lap the IoM TT at average speeds around 128mph and mere mortals like us discuss it.

[Ghost]

Good post Fireman, enjoyable read.

[TP#12]

A simple and effective test would be to ride in a straight line, take your hands off the handle bars and then push through the inside peg with your foot and see what happens. Then, riding in a straight line, don't weight the peg but simply press and release the inside handle bar and see what happens.

This will show you what is happening.

I've done the same thing for people who think they are turning the bike by leaning it. I've had them ride in a straight line and lean over, not touching the handle bars, and see what happens. Then do it by pressing and releasing the inside bar.

I'm not going to try and convince you either way, do the test for yourself and see what happens.

So to clear up what Steve said about weighting the pegs, you weight the inside peg to get the bike turning and once it's turned, then what? When, if at all, do you weight the outside peg?

[Ghost]

2 quick guys who gave me some tuition at the Nurburgring, as we were sat on the floor having a coffee I noticed the soles of their boots.

Both boots on both riders had almost 20mm diameter and quite deep impressions where the pressure they put into the peg ends where almost punching through the sole.

These 2 guys were 8 min/lap at the ring so very capable.

[TP#12]

Don't take anyone's word for it, do the test and know the facts for yourself. It's easy to do

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by TP#12

Don't take anyone's word for it, do the test and know the facts for yourself. It's easy to do

Your right in insisting doing the test. I have a strong feeling which will be the most effective.

As I regularly test one of the methods on the straight, but have not tried the other one.

[Fireman]

Originally Posted by TP#12

So to clear up what Steve said about weighting the pegs, you weight the inside peg to get the bike turning and once it's turned, then what? When, if at all, do you weight the outside peg?

Steve did not mention weighting the outside peg...someone else did in this thread. He did mention opposite counter steering when hanging off to help keep the bike more upright mid corner.

He said as you move across the bike you concentrate on pushing all your weight through the inside leg/peg. He said this gets the bike turning but as you do this you will naturally put pressure on the inside bar. It is one fairly fluid movement. He didn't mention what happens next other than to say concentrate on looking through the apex to exit to the next turn.

But once you turned in and have your lean angle, the way I understand it is it is controlled by numerous factors. Dropping your shoulder which automatically applies more counter steering pressure on the inside bar to tighten the turn, the throttle - power will make the bike stand up, closing it will make it fall in, opposite counter steering if you know what you are doing, adjusting your body position, a gust of wind etc, etc.

OMG what have I started? It was a good day though and Steve Plater is a very approachable down to earth bloke.

[TP#12]

Originally Posted by Fireman

Steve did not mention weighting the outside peg...someone else did in this thread. He did mention opposite counter steering when hanging off to help keep the bike more upright mid corner.

He said as you move across the bike you concentrate on pushing all your weight through the inside leg/peg. He said this gets the bike turning but as you do this you will naturally put pressure on the inside bar. It is one fairly fluid movement. He didn't mention what happens next other than to say concentrate on looking through the apex to exit to the next turn.

But once you turned in and have your lean angle, the way I understand it is it is controlled by numerous factors. Dropping your shoulder which automatically applies more counter steering pressure on the inside bar to tighten the turn, the throttle - power will make the bike stand up, closing it will make it fall in, opposite counter steering if you know what you are doing, adjusting your body position, a gust of wind etc, etc.

OMG what have I started? It was a good day though and Steve Plater is a very approachable down to earth bloke.

Haha, there'll always be debate on what works and what doesn't. Please don't take it the wrong way, I'm not having a go, I just wanted to understand what he said. I've heard he's a decent guy as well.

Andy Ibbott interviewed a number of GP riders whilst writing his latest book and he was surprised at the responses he got so you don't necessarily need to know exactly what you're doing to ride fast.

So did he tell you to stop pushing your weight through the inside peg at any set point in the corner? Once you're in the corner if you keep pushing it you are effectively pushing the bike underneath you and applying more forces through your contact patch with the road, as if it doesn't already have enough to deal with. You can overload it causing it to break traction which means you on your bum.

Once your bike has turned it doesn't need any more input to hold the line it is on. So you don't need to drop your shoulder or weight any bar etc to get it to do that. If you want to tighten your line you can do that. Weighting the inside bar is still steering the bike. So if you want to hold a line and you're pushing the inside bar you'll either eventually ride off the edge of the front tyre and crash or you'll be counter acting this force in some way. It could be a badly setup bike or you could actually be pushing the other bar as well as I found one of my students doing. Also, opening the gas will not make the bike stand up, this is a common misconception. If you're on a chosen line and you open the throttle too much it will cause you to run wide but if you roll it on at the right amount it will balance the bike and hold the line you want. If you roll off the gas you'll be weighting the front tyre, potentially overloading it and breaking traction, or you'll eventually just fall over. Assuming you don't take any corrective action.

Opposite counter-steering is used to pick the bike up quickly, you can see GP/WSB riders do this because they want to get to the fat part of the tyre quicker on corner exit so they have more grip and therefore can use more power. You don't need to do it to hold the same line once the bike has turned. You can weight the outside peg when you're in a corner to help you carry more speed for a given lean angle but this is an advanced technique and not necessary for the road. In theory you should be able to take your hands off the handle bars once you're in a corner and the bike should hold the same line. I've done this with my left hand, because I'm still rolling the throttle on with the right, and touched the ground in left handers or just stuck it in the air on right handers.

I'm only saying this because I get concerned about riders being given the wrong information and then trying to apply it because it can lead to a crash.

[stretta]

Not sure if this weighting pegs business is meant for, or works, at road speeds.

I have tried it quite a few times on spirited rides, and found it didn't do anything at all, so I gave up!

[TP#12]

Originally Posted by stretta

Not sure if this weighting pegs business is meant for, or works, at road speeds.

I have tried it quite a few times on spirited rides, and found it didn't do anything at all, so I gave up!

Counter steering is all you need to turn the bike, you can go from right knee on the ground to left knee on the ground very quickly just through counter steering.

Smash them into the ground