at a sportbike forum I frequent, we recently discussed what to do if you enter a turn too hot and have to run the bike off the outside of the turn. One is supposed to stand up slightly on the footpegs(among other things), as this helps stabilize the bike over rougher terrain.
I know one benefit of this is that your legs act like shocks, so that any bumps don’t get transmitted through your body and arms to the handlebars, but a disagreement broke out over this:
Does standing up slightly raise or lower the center of gravity? I initially said that it lowers it, since you are placing 100% of your weight on the footpegs, instead of 30% or so down there and the rest up on the seat/tank. Others say that the action of standing up actually RAISES the center of gravity.
Anyone know?
It raises your center of gravity.
Agree with the succinct Spritle.
The location of the center of gravity does not matter where you are applying pressure, it depends on the distribution of mass.
If in a normal seated position, you sit two different ways:
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You take the weight off your feet so that they are still touching the pegs but were exerting negligible pressure
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You put weight on the pegs so that your ass is still touching the seat but exerting negligible pressure
The difference in where the weight rests on the bike changes completely, but the change in center of gravity would be negligible.
Effectively you are making changes in the way the sprung weight is managed.
If you can isolate your mass a little more, from that of the bike, by standing on the footpegs then the bike can bounce around more freely without kicking you about and throwing you off it.