So now I am getting my knee down I seems to be doing it more than I perhaps should! I think it’s a comfort thing as I can track lean angle but as a result I have worn out my sliders. All part of the learning curve but I have just looked at the price of replacement Alpinestars sliders and they are £45! I have flipped mine around to try and get more wear out of them as i’m wearing the leading edge out quicker (symptom of sticking my leg out too far) Can anyone recommend a better priced alternative that maybe might be a little more hardwearing?? £45 seems a lot for something that’s just going to get scraped down the tarmac.
They are surprisingly expensive, especially if branded. I continuously swap them over and even move them around as some tracks seem to wear them differently.I always carry a spare set and needed them this week at Silverstone when I hit my right knee hard on the curb at Club corner and the bloody thing fell off! The final corner and Farm made a weird noise and as I looked down at my knee on the Wellington straight I realised what had happened and had to come in.
As soon as I ‘touch down’ I lift my knee up again. It’s just a gauge of lean afterall. I use Held wood sliders (tbh the plastic ones are good as well) and also wiz which seem to last better than most others I’ve tried
Either go cheap and replace often or the old leather type ones which are expensive and tend to last a lot longer. Or wood type (not tried) as they have a rep for lasting longer You could try some ti ones but you’d be off the track for the day after the first session
Now you've arrived at the knee-down place, enjoy it for a while... Then do as Advikaz says; pull back 'cos it's a lean gauge not a state to stay in too long, however god-like you may feel when doing so My sliders were hard plastic and I managed to set them up so they wore 'flat', not on the edges.
I’m in that in between place where I have reached the top end of inters pace but without any real finesse. I’m a bit ragged in my riding and need some time under my belt to calm things down and tune things. I went out with an instructor at Silverstone and he said if riding were music I was listening to thrash metal and should be aiming for mozart! Back at Cadwell on the 10th so need to get some new ones ordered and hopefully learn a little more!
Disagree with the 'pull it back'; comments. Knee down is really useful for loads of things, especially confidence. Plant the bike on your knee, leave it there and drive it! Take the cost of sliders!
I have gone with the Held timber sliders - about the same price as the Alpinestars OEM but if they last 3 or 4 times longer then far better value! The best explanation I saw of how knee down should work was that if you can cultivate a consistent body position then your knee should touch down a little before you reach maximum lean - giving you a clear indicator that you are at the optimum angle while allowing a small amount of leeway for extreme circumstances. I don’t think I have cultivated that level of good and consistent body position yet but I felt I made progress at Silverstone thanks to the long flowing corners giving me time to work on it. So I’m reaching out and following the line of the corner for confidence - lifting my knee as I lean further and then as I lift the bike extending a little to maintain contact. Reaching the end of the season now so only got a few more days booked in - hopefully just enough time to consolidate progress and relax a little!
if your worried about how this looks (!) you could do as one of my mates and lean out of a car to scrape them on the deck...He did have short legs though.
I also tend to touch down then pull back in a bit, mainly because I have a probably groundless paranoia that if I catch the slider too hard on a kerb it might pull me off the bike, unbalance me or yank my foot off the rearset, most likely because I had a crash caused by my foot slipped off, albeit for different reasons, namely the stupidly slippery design of the 748 peg, and I am worried about that happening again. However, I know some people use the knee on the floor as a sort of outrigger/stabiliser so I am in two minds, as surely digging your knee in too much would risk unloading the tyres. I have a track training day with ex-racers later this month so I will ask what they think.
I was using Alpinestar, but I used RST recently, they are harder wearing and cost less via Ebay. Sometimes you can pick alternatives up cheaper because people sell them. I also lift my knee up when it touches. It isn't hard to do so no great sense of achievement now. I can lift it so it touches lightly or just sits above the ground.
Better to be down then up imho. Unless a super fast corner. Chances are if knee is down the tyres are less stressed and more upright on the fetter bit of tyre. I can’t these days, but helped transform my track riding
Ain’t necessarily so, As fats said! These are one of my lads sliders from two days at snett! The Astars are mine from the same weekend as I went around him at coram!
