Back to the Auto Racing Newsfeed

Dragging shoulder: Explaining MotoGP's impossible lean angles

Fifty-two years ago, Kenny Roberts changed the course of motorcycle racing. The three-time MotoGP world champion from Modesto, California, is widely considered the first to regularly drag his knees across the pavement while cornering.

That knee-dragging style has been a pillar of the sport ever since. It's a skill that riders don't think twice about, but newly introduced onlookers can hardly believe. And for the better part of 40 years, those mechanics of cornering didn't change much.

Then riders started brushing their elbows against the kerbs. Two-time champion Casey Stoner was photographed doing that at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 2011, setting the series alight.