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

[DELETE-PLEASE]

On a well-groomed, well kept road, let's assume little or no leaves, and things like that. Will the hard parts drag and force you to stop leaning before the tires are past their point of traction? If so, how much more lean angle would you guess the bike could get past the part where the parts start to drag?

Just curious.

Alexi

 

[Fred W]

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...

 

[DELETE-PLEASE]

Good to know. So if my peg feelers are dragging on a good road, it's not a sign that the tire will lose traction unless I go further and lift the tire off the road. Just checking. Haven't gotten there, don't PLAN on getting there, but I like to know where my limit is in case I need to make some sort of crazy maneuver and change my line if something's in the way.

Alexi

 

[Ignacio]

Will the hard parts drag and force you to stop leaning before the tires are past their point of traction?

They probably depends on loading. You a skinny guy with nothing in your side cases...probably not so much. You testing out the limits of your suspension and carrying a pillion in spandex.....prepare to road polish your exhausts.

If so, how much more lean angle would you guess the bike could get past the part where the parts start to drag?

Just slightly less than this much.

...still trying to find pictures where Cdogman scraped his pipes.

 

[wheatonFJR]

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...

Yeah...I've heard that too.

...from a friend.

 

[Fred W]

Good to know. So if my peg feelers are dragging on a good road, it's not a sign that the tire will lose traction unless I go further and lift the tire off the road. Just checking. Haven't gotten there, don't PLAN on getting there, but I like to know where my limit is in case I need to make some sort of crazy maneuver and change my line if something's in the way.
Alexi

You got it. :thumbsup:

 

[v65]

"will you lost your nerve before your tires lose traction?" I didn't, where is that crash club insignia? <_<

 

[Bungie]

I believe thats a personal thing and depends on the rider more than the bike. Me, I've never scrapped a peg on this bike, but I've dragged my foot a couple of times. My internal 'tiltometer' goes into the orange zone when my foot touches down. I know I still have quite a bit more to go, but I like to think of it as reserve.

That being said, I've ground the hell out of the footpegs on my cruisers that I've had. I think in the spring I'll find me a big empty parking lot and run some figure eights in both directions and reset my tiltometer.

 

[MrTwisty]

You will definately run out of nerve before you run out of traction on a dry road. On the left side you'll hit the kickstand before the muffler. When the peg touches down, you still have quite a bit of lean angle remaining, but it is a good indicator that it might be a good idea to let up a little.

BTW, if you'll learn to get your ass off the seat you will can corner faster, with better control and with less risk.

 

[Reaper]

Depends on the tires too! I got into a curve too hot once, had the right peg folded almost all the way back, elbow about a foot off the ground and my knee pulled up under my armpit...and the '04 FJR pulled me out of it with Conti Road Attacks. I think they are good on dry pavement, not so good on wet!

 

[Geezer]

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.

 

[C&C]

^ what Geezer said.

 

[SwollenRaccoon]

Everybody has different pucker factor settings; I know mine have changed over the years, due to experience and a few track days. I'm not a "knee dragger", but I do slide my cheek off the seat when I'm hustling, and it makes a huge difference. I use the pegs as a reference that I'm at or near the edge of the tire, and that's about my comfort limit (either solo or with my lovely wife of 27 years on board). Once at a track day, I watched a buddy on a Bandit 1200 low-side right in front of me, due to dragging too hard, finally taking enough pressure off the front tire to slide off the track. Obviously, from the excellent replies to your initial inquiry, yes, you can corner harder than just dragging the pegs, but advance from there slowly and cautiously, at your own risk. As you can guess, if you knowingly go too far, sympathy will be hard to find. Rock on, kids!

 

[DELETE-PLEASE]

Thanks guys. I'm basically trying to figure out where the limits of the machine are. Cause I know where my limits are, and they're NOT that far. But in a scrape, if I NEED to change something or misjudge a corner or obstacle, I want to know how much past my personal comfort level I can go.

Alexi

EDIT - Personally, when I'm riding solo, I just kinda move my ass off the seat and try to lean my body into the curve to keep the bike more upright. I've never been taught to do it, so I'm sure I'm not doing it correctly, but I do notice the bike can stay more upright when I do it. And I figure it's better than NOT doing it. And when I'm with the woman, I ride MUCH more conservatively. She has no interest in riding quickly. Only smoothly and very safely.

 

[Geezer]

One rule I use when I find myself getting past my comfort zone: it is always better to keep leaning as far as necessary. In a worst case scenario, it is better to slide the bike down the road than to stand it up and crash into something or get pitched off in a high side.

 

[HaulinAshe]

In a pinch, throw your body into the corner, roll on some throttle, and pull the big girl with you. You will be amazed at what the FJR will do for you. On clean, dry, smooth pavement, and with good tires, it's capable of more than your mind would ever accept.

Be very careful of striking hard parts when solo. The bike's (rear) reaction is much more severe when solo and unloaded, than when two-up and fully loaded.

 

[wheatonFJR]

One rule I use when I find myself getting past my comfort zone: it is always better to keep leaning as far as necessary. In a worst case scenario, it is better to slide the bike down the road than to stand it up and crash into something or get pitched off in a high side.

I would definitely agree.

But more than just the leaning item alone, look at the relative stickiness of the front and rear tires. I have found through personal experience that just replacing the rear alone because the front has "plenty of tread left" is a fool's choice if yer gonna be riding twisties...in cold weather...on unfamilar roads...blah biddy blaah....click here

The slide was not so bad...sailing over the ditch and hitting the far side of the ditch not as good.

But face it, if you are in guardrail country...it's gonna hurt for sure. So KNOW your limits beforehand and back off a reasonable % below that.

 

[v65]

So KNOW your limits beforehand and back off a reasonable % below that.

Kind of hard to get scars that way!

 

[Fred W]

But more than just the leaning item alone, look at the relative stickiness of the front and rear tires. I have found through personal experience that just replacing the rear alone because the front has "plenty of tread left" is a fool's choice if yer gonna be riding twisties...in cold weather...on unfamilar roads...blah biddy blaah....click here

Although (I think) I understand your assertion, I don't fully comprehend the logic of your statement.

To paraphrase, I think you are saying that as a tire becomes worn it has less traction than when it is new? The only way that this would make sense would be in the case of a dual (or multi) compund tire where the stickier soft compound has worn away to reveal harder rubber underneath. I recollect that this would be possible with some of the dual compound rear tires due to the way they are laid up, but I don't know about the construction of multi-compound fronts.

In the case of a single compound front tire the dry traction should progressively increase as the tire gets worn as there is less tread to squirm around under lateral pressure. That (along with reducing unsprung weight) is why racers used to "shave" tires down to the minimum amount of tread thickness that they would need for a given race. Of course, once you add rain, the reduced water dispersion of the tread will effect traction negatively. That has always been my reason for ditching worn front tires before they are worn to the carcass. Yu never know when it's gonna rain on your next parade...

I also agree wholeheartedly on the premise of maintaining a "better" traction tire in front (vs rear). Just not sure how that relates directly to wear status in the dry.