My question is, when you guys see any sort of pot hole or weird bump in the road, is your first instinct to stand up on the bars a bit when you ride over it?

I can't help it, it seems like some weird instinct to just stand up every time I ride over a large bump or pothole in the road. So far it seems to make riding easier and more comfortable, but I just don't know if this is bad form for some reason that I'm not aware of.

For the record I even do this at 70mph when there are dips and bumps on the motorway. Also, I am most assuredly not an expert rider, though I feel like I've never not been on a bike, if that makes sense.

 

It is natural on a standard with pegs under the seat. It's a little harder with floorboards. But, I still pull up a bit to take some of the shock out of a bad bump.

 

Yup, natural and conducive to maintaining good control with mid-mount controls, as you can stand a little without much pulling on the bars for leverage to get up.
You have the right idea. When riding my Husky 450 offroad, I am on my feet 90% of the time since the "roads" I ride are generally rock and hole infested.

 

Yup, It's a natural reaction, especially on the lowered sportys, to shift some of your weight from the seat to the pegs and let your legs act as shock absorbers.

 

Thats what they teach ya to do at the motorcycle safety courses. Really guess it depends on just how bad the holes look to ya though.

 

I do it, saves your spine.

 

____ Yup ! , I shift my weight when I see a BIG Bump Come-in-up

 

No need to stand all the way up,just use your legs/feet to save your back.

 

I have to say this. I dodge the big bumps and ignore the little ones. The only time I come off of the seat now is over an unintentional obstacle. When I was riding dirt we went over the obstacles but on the road we try not to go over them.

 

It's a common enough practice that someone else made a thread about it a few days ago.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...nd-gun-it.html