Apparently somebody has posted a message on some news list that stimulated quite a few e-mail messages to me seeking confirmation of another bit of folklore that is pure rubbish. The claim is that if you stand on your pegs you lower the bike's Center Of Gravity so that you can have better control of it.

The thought is that because you take weight off the seat and place it, instead, on the pegs, that you have lowered the Center Of Gravity as a result. Wrong! [Well, wrong if you STAND in order to do it. If you merely put a bit more of your weight on the pegs while remaining on the seat you will shift the Center of Gravity VERY MODESTLY (insignificantly) down.]

Consider: If the bike was at a dead stop and you were sitting in the saddle all the weight would be distributed onto the contact patches of your tires. That is, if the total weight of the bike (including you) was 1,000 pounds, there would be about 600 pounds on the rear tire and about 400 pounds on the front tire. Now, if you stood up on the pegs and measured the weight on each tire you would find the total remains at 1,000 pounds. However, it would probably be closer to 550 pounds on the rear tire and 450 on the front. i.e., you have probably moved the CofG forward, but you have not reduced it one ounce.

It is clear that you DO change where the CofG is by standing on the pegs. At least you now know that it typically moves foreward (at least it does if the pegs are closer to the front of the bike than where your butt usually rests on the seat.)

When you sat on the seat you RAISED the combined CofG of the bike (including you) as compared to where it was when you were not on the bike at all.

Now, as you stand on the pegs rather than sit on the seat, you RAISE the combined CofG even further!

It is true, however, that you increase your ability to quickly lean the bike in this new posture, and you do not have to suffer the shock (at least the indignity) of that seat slapping your butt when the bike bounces over those railroad tracks.

This is true because you have, when standing on the pegs, placed your body torso on top of another set of 'springs' - your knees. Your body is now 'double sprung weight' as a result. You have, in other words, allowed your body to move in another direction than the bike moves. (It should be clear that the body will follow the average direction of travel of the bike, of course.)

For those who still misunderstand, if you stand on your pegs as you ride through a set of twisties you know, (I hope), that you will have LESS CONTROL and could not negotiate those curves as fast as you could if you were sitting in your saddle. This, because your combined CofG is HIGHER. Your bike would have to lean farther than it would if you were sitting in the seat to manage the same curves at the same speed.

• Standing on the pegs moves the combined CofG of your bike and you FORWARD.
• Standing on the pegs moves the combined CofG of your bike and you UP.

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