Originally Posted by Per Kuhlwein
Hi Mentor58
Ah.... yeh and no. I do not think the body weight is that important in that matter so far that you are using your body to balance the bike. In fact if you need you can move your body forward and backwards and sidewards too. How easy it is to steer depends among others on the weight on the front wheel.
By the way, imagine driving on gravel road with 60 percent of the weight in front
Per
I've do it. Along the Lewis and Clark Trail on the eastern end there is a lot of dirt roads and trails. The 60/40 split makes a bit harder to lift the wheel over something but most of your body weight is centered over the rear wheel. Riding on dirt with this loading isn't as hard as it might seem. As for avoidance maneuvers, the weight on the front wheel tends to dampen the steering a little but if you have most of your weight on the rear wheel, a fast maneuver can result in setting up oscillations that will eventually put you on the ground. Plus the fact that the front wheel is the strongest one anyway. If you hit a hole with the front wheel under load, these less chance of doing damage to it then if you hit the same hole with your rear wheel.
But again, the load should be low on the wheel.