The Knee-Whack Solution

The knee-Whack Solution

Adding Motocross-Style Knee Cups Removes the Pain From Concrete/Knee Collisions in Road Racing

John Ulrich

Knee whacking—the collision of a speeding, extended knee and an immobile concrete edging—is enough to break the concentration of the coolest rider. At Elkhart Lake, a combination of factors made whacked knees a common problem.

Huge, slippery pavement patches in each turn limited the available lines through the corners, often to one fast line and one slow line. The patching was about mid-track, and crossing it sent a bike’s front wheel skittering toward the outside, often putting the rider on his ear in the process. The only fast way through most corners was tight inside, which put the extended knee of a hanging-off rider within easy reach of curbs, bumps and other devices designed to warn sports car drivers that they are running off the inside edge of the track.

Victims included Wes Cooley, whose knee-whack didn’t keep him from running away to a 20-sec. lead in the Superbike race (before running out of gas two turns from the finish). After the race Cooley’s knee and leg swelled in spite of ice packs. Cooley walked to the Formula One race grid with a limp, but shot off in front to win the race. He said later that once the start flag dropped, his knee didn’t bother

him, but by day’s end he could hardly walk.

The solution to whacked knees is installing motocross knee cups in road race leathers. Barry Sheene and Takazumi Katayama have done so for years. But what inspired me to have the cups put in my leathers three years ago was seeing Keith Code whack his knee on an alligator bump inside Riverside’s Turn Six, then pull off the track and hunch over his bike’s gas tank in agony.

Are knee pads effective? That was left to theory until the 1980 AFM Six-Hour race at Ontario. I went inside a slower rider at left-hand Turn 11, only to have the rider change line mid-turn and force me over to the inside edge of the track. WHACK! My left knee ran straight into an alligator bump. The force of the impact knocked my butt back up onto the high side of the seat, the handlebars wiggled, and I continued on my way. It took a moment for it to sink in exactly what had happened, and to realize that my knee didn’t hurt. The kneecups worked.

It cost just $20 to add kneecups to my latest set of leathers when they were built by Bates. It’s more expensive to have Bates add kneecups to already-finished leathers, running about $50 including the

cups themselves, according to Marilyn at Bates Leather Shop, 660 W. 16th St., Long Beach, CA 90801, (213) 435-6551.

Rister Industries charges about $45 to add kneecups to already-finished leathers, but Rister, unlike Bates, will work on any brand of leathers, specializing in repairs and modifications. Rister Industries is located at 134 N. Second Ave., Upland, CA 91786,(714) 985-0922.

Whatever it costs for knee pads, spending the money surely beats limping around after a race.