Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I've noticed that I can use my hips to manuever my bike around road obstacles more naturally and easily than just pressing on the grip to swerve. Do the rest of you women find this to be so?

I've only got about 400 miles under my newbie belt--am I developing a bad habit?

It should be ok, as long as you don't over do it. I assume your gripping the bike with your knees and using your hips to guide the bike.

I've never tried...hmmm...

I assume your gripping the bike with your knees and using your hips to guide the bike.

Yeah, my knees stay against the tank. I don't know where the tipping point for overdoing it would be, though--no pun intended. I am much faster with my hips than with pressing my grip. It's instinctive. And of course, my center of gravity is in my hips, not my shoulders, so I wondered if this might be kind of normal in women.

In an earlier thread ("Can you tell . . ."), most women were saying that their male friends could tell female riders by the way they used their hips sometimes when they rode--maybe this is what they meant?

I found myself doing that while in my MSF class.

The instructor immediately pounced on it and said not to.

After riding for a few years, I see why. It's simply less effective. It feels all subtle and precise and stuff, but in reality it just doesn't work well, and in an emergency you really really don't want to do it. In an emergency your body will do what it's used to, and when swerving you will be tossing your body the wrong way.

It's a little more difficult to learn to maneuver the handlebars well enough to get precise enough with small movements, but it pays off.

You can countersteer, followed by the "hip" movement to push the bike further into the lean. You should always countersteer first.

Moving your body isn't nearly as effective as using your handgrips. However, in shifting your hips, you might actually be adjusting the position of your upper body and thereby delivering steering inputs to the controls.

Eh- I'd have to see it

Hmm I think I'd like to watch you practice this technique to determine it's effectiveness

In all seriousness though I know what you are talking about and I've done it a few times for tiny bumps in the road. I wouldn't build too much dependency on this though because counter-steering will be what saves your "O Ring" (hips?) one day when you are in a bad situation.

I use my hips, too and I guess I just didn't realize it until I read your post. I will do both though and have been riding for about 10 years or more. I will hug the tank with my knees once in a while, too just out of habit from riding snowmachines. So, I am guessing it's a woman thing.