The Dynamics of Riding Crossed Up

I've been on a tear lately watching past MotoGP seasons, and I gotta say, a lot of really fast guys ride completely crossed up. The obvious case is Mick Doohan. But then I see Kenny Roberts Jr., Troy Bayliss, and a whole string of top 10 riders throughout the 2000s. You can see the characteristic goofy looking head up over the tank while everyone else's head is down with an aggressive lean out style. The most modern example is Alex Rins, who is getting podiums in 2018. So, I've taken courses, read Total Control by Lee Parks, and seen countless videos about this, and everything tells us that riding crossed is WRONG! I agree with this, but it's odd that guys are still making it to MotoGP with crossed up riding style.I've concluded that there is a comfort advantage to riding crossed up, but since the bike has to lean more, it results in more crashes, especially nowadays.Going back to the 500ccs, it seemed like half the field was crossed up. Obviously these riders were positioning their torsos over the tank to handle the constant sliding from those bikes. They were beasts, and doing a full lean out style made it very difficult to deal with the rear spinning up, and the result tended to be nasty high side crashes. It's horrible to see, but they happened all the time, and always to lean out riders. That's because as the rear starts sliding, the rider corrects by throwing his body back on top of the bike, which instantly creates grip on the rear and throws the rider over the bike. OUCH! But..., riding crossed up allowed the rider to absorb the slide with his chest on the tank and control. This is very obvious watching 500cc races in the late 90s. And it is still, I believe, a reason why the crossed up style lives on in Alex Rins. You see the tracks where Alex Rins thrives..., what's happening to the other riders? Sketchy high side crashes in practice and the race.Now, look at how much Alex Rins has crashed this year (always low sides btw). His body is over the tank, making him have to lean the bike more than the other riders. His head is up like a goofball, and he's trying to keep up with the pack. He crashes, while the lean out riders continue, seemingly effortlessly. So there is an obvious characteristic of the tracks where Alex Rins is fast, that catches the others riders out. I haven't analyzed the nature of the tracks this year, but I'm curious whether these things are known to the teams, or whether they just focus on statistics alone.
Submitted July 11, 2018 at 08:22AM by ascari2hamilton https://www.reddit.com/r/motogp/comments/8xxjhz/the_dynamics_of_riding_crossed_up/?utm_source=ifttt