Motards vs. Sportbike

Hello All,

I'm wondering which is faster in a given corner? (say tight corners where hp and top speed don't come into play)

and why is it that motard turning style is to push the bike under the rider, while sportbikers hang off?  Seems completely opposite.  From a physics standpoint, one style should be wrong and the other should give the best cornering speeds and both riders should be turing using the same method.  

Given equal riders, in these types of corners, my money is on the supermoto. The light weight and great leverage from the flat bars make short work of these tight, technical turns.

Having seen some mighty fast supermoto riders at trackdays, I'd say a good supermotard rider can hang with the sportbikes in corners right up to ~ 70 or so mph. Then the sportbike pulls away on the faster corners, sweepers and straight sections with their higher output and better aerodynamics.

You can certainly drag your knee in a supermoto. I've got a picture of Nicky Hayden with his knee on deck and the rear wheel hacked out motocross style. If you watch AMA Supermoto, you can see the varying styles at play.

Even within roadracing, you have riders with different body positions. Certainly Larry Pegram cannot be slow by most definitions nor Norick Abe despite their dirtbike like upper body positions. On the other extreme, you have Noriyuki Haga, Makota Tamada and Eric Bostrom who hang waaay off.

Hey, single tracked vehicles are funny. Engineers and physicists cannot even agree on how motorcycles steer/countersteer.

Just remember what Colin Edwards once said, "There's no one way, just ride the *** out of it.:  

[quote...and why is it that motard turning style is to push the bike under the rider, while sportbikers hang off?  Seems completely opposite.  From a physics standpoint, one style should be wrong and the other should give the best cornering speeds and both riders should be turing using the same method.