Originally Posted by
motorthings
this may open a whole can of worms, but I go a little crazy always hearing people talk about "weighting" the outside pedal in a turn. I think it is important to understand what this does AND what it DOES NOT DO.
The location of your center of gravity is very important to the bike, as it directly affects the forces acting upon the bike/rider system, but you cannot change your center of gravity via simple muscular stress. Even when you are pushing on that outside pedal, it is doing nothing to change your CofG. Period. Beyond this simple anchor mechanism, pushing "harder" on the outside pedal does nothing productive.
Creating a line of force down that outside leg to the pedal will anchor you better, and allow you to relax more, and relaxing helps confidence, and it all leads to a smoother line through the turn. So, it affects stability, but maybe not in the way many people talk about it. A small point perhaps, but I have seen how understanding what is actually physically going on can make everyone more confident and faster through the turns.
Weighting the outside, down pedal really does do something. It changes what happens to your CG if your bike slides. When you slide out, if your pedals are level and your weight is mostly in the saddle, the saddle and your weight dips toward the road, increasing the angle of lean, and causing a fall. However, if you weight the outside pedal and are loose over your saddle, when you slide out, your outside foot follows the slide since it's about in line with the contact patch. Your CG doesn't drop to the inside, and you have a good chance of recovering. That's been my experience. I think the feeling of stability comes from that foot following the contact patch as it squirms across the road.