Yesterday, something obvious struck me while I was emptying an overfull bladder. Wrinkle your noses all you like, but here's the situation - most men should be able to understand this easily. I'm standing above the pot and I've got my legs split up really wide. Don't know why, but there it is. At this point, let us focus only on the events occurring at the sole of my, say, left foot, although either will do nicely.
The floor of this particular loo is one of the those new-fangled textured jobs where grip is easy to find and the chances of you breaking you head in by falling in the wet are low. But, for some reason, my foot starts slipping outwards. Not being a gymnast, this immediately was a cause of concern. For once, family jewels landing with a sickening thud on the rim of the pristine but unforgiving edge of the toilet bowl is a painful image even to conjure up. And second, landing on the floor in a split would ensure that a tortured groin would put an end to motorcycle adventures for some time to come.
To recover, I tried pushing down on the sole - more weight equals more traction, remember? It worked. But then, reassured, I tried varying where the extra weight was. And in there, lay the light bulb that lit up above my head like a Diwali rocket. I found that if I put my weight on the inside edge of my foot (the arches side), the slide started again. However, the moment I used the outer edge of the foot, the left edge of the sole of the left foot, the slide was arrested with a ferocity I haven't consciously thought of before.
Now, how does that apply? Here goes.
You know that the ideal position for cornering involves you hanging off the inside, weigh on the inside peg, using the outside thigh to lock you into position etc, right? However, weighing the inside peg is the same, in effect, as exerting the pressure from the arch side of the left foot in the toilet situation. As long as traction is good and the demand for it is reasonable, the feeling is of stability. However, the moment, traction is at a premium, like in the wet, more weight on the inside will as usual, reduce lean angle, but will also provoke a slide earlier. Which is why, they tell you to weigh the outside peg in the wet, and in off-camber corners. Both are places where traction is relatively little and the pressure on the outside helps the tyre dig in harder and postpone the slide.
Yeah, yeah, all OCD disclaimers apply. And feel free to disagree, try this etc.
Just don't pee outside the bowl, ok?
