In general....will you lost your nerve before your tires lose traction?

[BkrK12]

I may have missed the point of the OP, but aren't you supposed to lose your nerve before you lose traction? Otherwise, you fall down all the time.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I may have missed the point of the OP, but aren't you supposed to lose your nerve before you lose traction? Otherwise, you fall down all the time.

The OP is asking the question...basically, can he lean over as much as he needs to...or will he lose traction at some point?

He was asking for other's experience in this matter.

Atleast that's how I read it.

 

[Niehart]

What say you Mr. HaulinAshe?

 

[Wee Willy]

I may have missed the point of the OP, but aren't you supposed to lose your nerve before you lose traction? Otherwise, you fall down all the time.

Yup...comes down to managing expectations in the end I guess. Fall enough times at speed and something's bound to change.

Cheers,

W2

 

[Geezer]

I have to add that 'losing traction' does not necessarily mean crashing. I have had the rear tire get loose in a curve and recovered with no more harm than a stain in my pants. I'm sure many of us have had that experience. OTOH, when the front tire gets loose is takes a lot more skill than I have to recover.

 

[Fred W]

+1 there. Many (most) of us have built in inclinometers that prevent us from reaching that point of no return.

 

[Bugnatr]

Not sure I would agree with your worn tire has better traction. Yes race tires have no tread but their compound is totally different than street tires so let's not compare apples to oranges.

New tires will always grip better than worn tires. Think of your favorite shoes, as they get worn and have no tread left they slip much easier on sand, wet and other places where good tread won't. True with auto tires as well as my car and truck tires loose grip as they wear, don't yours?

Street tires need the groves to help "grip" the road

 

[jjsC6]

Not sure I would agree with your worn tire has better traction. Yes race tires have no tread but their compound is totally different than street tires so let's not compare apples to oranges.New tires will always grip better than worn tires. Think of your favorite shoes, as they get worn and have no tread left they slip much easier on sand, wet and other places where good tread won't. True with auto tires as well as my car and truck tires loose grip as they wear, don't yours?

Street tires need the groves to help "grip" the road

I agree. I've seen this with car tires on Corvettes quite a bit. The rubber gets harder and grip gets worse. I'll admit that at one time I assumed that due to less flex and more rubber contacting the ground that tires with worn down tread would be better, but experience tells me that is not at all the case.

 

[Fred W]

Not sure I would agree with your worn tire has better traction. Yes race tires have no tread but their compound is totally different than street tires so let's not compare apples to oranges.New tires will always grip better than worn tires. Think of your favorite shoes, as they get worn and have no tread left they slip much easier on sand, wet and other places where good tread won't. True with auto tires as well as my car and truck tires loose grip as they wear, don't yours?

Street tires need the groves to help "grip" the road

I wasn't talking about race compound tires. I was talking about the old practice of shaving down non-race compound, off the shelf tires for use in racing.

And I wasn't talking about how well a tire will respond to loose stuff on the road like sand or water. I even mentioned in my post that having more tread was important for channeling away water in a street tire. But in perfectly clean/dry road traction, having more tread is definitely not always going to give you better traction. If it does it is because the rubber compound in the substrate layers of the tire are a harder compound than the outer layer, such as seems to be the case with the PR2, not because the tread groove depth has been reduced.

I agree. I've seen this with car tires on Corvettes quite a bit. The rubber gets harder and grip gets worse. I'll admit that at one time I assumed that due to less flex and more rubber contacting the ground that tires with worn down tread would be better, but experience tells me that is not at all the case.

It might be that your real world experience points us to the answer here: A tire that is so worn has been through more heat cycles than a new tire. Does the hardness of the tire rubber actually change as it ages and through use? If so, then how one uses their bike may have some effect on how much a tire degrades as it wears, separate from how deep the tread is.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I don't the answers to these questions Fred, but I know now that I want a stickier tire in front...or atleast as sticky as the back tire...no matter the reason. I'm willing to change fronts with the backs if that's what it means...

...cuz I have learned that once my front tire goes sliding down the road, I have absolutely no control over the next chain of events...what I hit, etc.

 

[boomerang]

In general, I will lose my nerve before my tires lose traction, but I have been surprised more than once by loss of traction due to unexpected road conditions. I have had plenty of pucker moments due to tar snakes, gravel, or a pot hole.

+1 on the unexpected. Ilike to keep my skin so,I will tend to lose my nerve first.

Oh and if ya should happen to see my old girl friend again ( pot ho ) tell her I got the Big Buds.

 

[rogdeb]

I have heard that you can lean it far enough to hit enough hard parts that you end up levering the tires up off the ground before you will lose traction on dry road.
Haven't tried this myself. If you do, let us know how it goes...

I tried it unintentionally Right muffler hit down hard which levered the rear wheel off the ground = lowside crash.

This of course was on my '03 (original mush suspension) 2-up, with 24k on the clock. Aftermarket shock , stiffer fork springs and heavier fork oil have alleviated even my peg feelers scraping ... yeah :yahoo: