Seems like no matter how I write someone will read it differently from what I intended. I guess it’s normal because you’re not in my head, and we don’t have the same point of reference. I said this before and I’ll say it again – I’m a street rider, not a track rider, and my main focus is on street riding technique, maximizing control/traction in a safe manner. I’m a strong advocate of never riding faster than your sight line, and I cringe whenever I see guys diving into blind corners. With that in mind, allow me to respond:
– Hanging off is a totally different and separate issue from dragging knee, or even high speed, for that matter. I used “hanging off” as a way to describe “extremely weighting the inside” during a turn. You could be hanging off with the bike nearly vertical going merely 15 mph around a treacherous turn. The point is to minimize lean angle and maximize traction. This will result in a higher, and safer, speed, but the speed is a result of better control, not necessarily the goal.
– When you’re doing tight parking lot u-turns, which is generally at constant speed, pushing the bike under you (counter-lean), dirt-bike style, with your body upright, maximizes bike lean angle, and minimizes the turning radius. However, It’s different in a steep downhill hairpin turn. See next bullet.
– In a steep downhill hairpin turn (let’s say 15 mph going in), you’re loosing elevation and gaining speed very quickly during and after the turn. For example, elevation-wise, you could be dropping 15 ft in 15 ft of forward movement. [Edit: Maybe that’s exaggerating a little bit – maybe 15 ft drop in 25-30 ft of forward movement in a severe downhill hairpin – but hopefully you get the point I’m trying to illustrate.] If you kept your body upright and pushed the bike under, like you do in a parking lot u-turn, as the bike drops down the slope and gained speed, your body would be lagging behind the bike, i.e., you’d be out of position and playing catch up to the bike. By leaning your body down and into the turn, you’d be ahead of the bike, and in position for the next move. Think about skiing or snowboarding – how do you take a steep downhill corner – body first or feet first?
There are all sorts of variables – your own skill level, the type of bike, road camber, steepness, tightness of the turn, duration of the turn and the nature of the transitions, surface texture and cleanliness – so no matter what you read it’s not one-size-fits-all. Whatever you read, you should extract the essence, experiment on your own, and adapt it for your own use.
[edit: maybe I shouldn’t have used the term “hanging off”. Maybe “kissing the mirror and getting a cheek off the seat” is closer to what I was trying to describe in terms of body position for street riding. But the point and the goal are the same – pre-positioning and strongly weighting the inside BEFORE the turn.]