Tire slipping?

[WABBMW]

Tire Slipping

Now, back to the topic of tire slipping. I certainly do not ride my FZ1 to anywhere near its limits. Have never even scraped the peg feelers. I have also seen many videos of the FZ1 being ridden much more aggressively than I have ever done it, so I know the bike has capabilities that far exceed my riding abilities. Certainly the particular tires that are being run - do have an impact.

I am progressing in skill level, and very well know that I can push the bike quite a bit harder without issues. But - I refuse to get outside my comfort zone, so my progress is gradual. Also, I have too much at stake, both in preserving the value of the motorcycle, and in avoidance of a bodily injury. I absolutely cannot afford to crash. This is probably the greatest Survival Reaction that I deal with, hence I am leaving a large margin in case the road surface deteriorates; an oncoming vehicle takes up part of my lane; etc. Also, any videos of lowsides - seem to happen almost instantly, so the chance of recovery is small.

I would truly like to know just how near I am to the tires slipping. I can honestly say that I have never felt my FZ1 tires slip. I wish I had some of those "training wheels" that prevent the motorcycle from lowsiding, so I could push the bike to its limits without disaster. I know I would be very surprised at just how aggressively the bike can be ridden.

In addition to track riding, is there any other way to advance - with 100% safety?

 

[Dreamdemon]

I would truly like to know just how near I am to the tires slipping. I can honestly say that I have never felt my FZ1 tires slip. I wish I had some of those "training wheels" that prevent the motorcycle from lowsiding, so I could push the bike to its limits without disaster. I know I would be very surprised at just how aggressively the bike can be ridden.

In addition to track riding, is there any other way to advance - with 100% safety?

There is never 100% safety not on the track and nowhere. However if you want to advance in leaning angle go to a riding school, it's the best and safest way to improve.

I learned only on the street and never low or high sided my bike. Just don't try to push too fast, slow progress on days you feel good and on known roads or even better large parking lots.

 

[Dustin]

I subscribe to the idea of The Pace in regards to building skills and 'going faster'.

 

[Oldschool]

Now, back to the topic of tire slipping. I certainly do not ride my FZ1 to anywhere near its limits. Have never even scraped the peg feelers. I have also seen many videos of the FZ1 being ridden much more aggressively than I have ever done it, so I know the bike has capabilities that far exceed my riding abilities. Certainly the particular tires that are being run - do have an impact.

I am progressing in skill level, and very well know that I can push the bike quite a bit harder without issues. But - I refuse to get outside my comfort zone, so my progress is gradual. Also, I have too much at stake, both in preserving the value of the motorcycle, and in avoidance of a bodily injury. I absolutely cannot afford to crash. This is probably the greatest Survival Reaction that I deal with, hence I am leaving a large margin in case the road surface deteriorates; an oncoming vehicle takes up part of my lane; etc. Also, any videos of lowsides - seem to happen almost instantly, so the chance of recovery is small.

I would truly like to know just how near I am to the tires slipping. I can honestly say that I have never felt my FZ1 tires slip. I wish I had some of those "training wheels" that prevent the motorcycle from lowsiding, so I could push the bike to its limits without disaster. I know I would be very surprised at just how aggressively the bike can be ridden.

In addition to track riding, is there any other way to advance - with 100% safety?

The sport itself means no 100% guarantees. A cheap bike that has no bodywork, like a Super Motard would probably be a good way to push your comfort zone and learning curve.

I have found the only way to find the limits of bike and man are to occasionally exceed them. A controlled environment like a track is a safer way but not 100% safe.


I sometimes exceed the limits of tire adhesion on back roads.

My experience with tires are that softer compounds will give you more warning when they are starting to reach their limits vs. harder compound tires that tend to have less "feel" and are more prone to suddenly slipping. This is a huge generalization and just used as an example.

On bikes in the past (the 80's) I used Pirelli Phantoms because I liked the fact that I could feel when the tires were starting to slide vs the stock Dunlops of the day that had next to no feel.

Tires have come huge leaps and bounds since then, but the differences still remain. Quality tires cost more but deliver better results, and traction and predictability are what those results are.

 

[MegaMatt5000]

well from the video it would seem you're pretty fast at least bit faster than I would go on unknown roads so won't give any riding advies...


riding advies seems silly when you give it to faster ppl than yourself...Ssky


what I can tell you, is bike suspension doesn't work when you're leaned over (doesn't work for road bumps, it takes weight shifts and other stuff I don't know how to explain )but only the tires take care of the bumps !

So.. keeping that in mind I would play a bit with tire pressure, a softer wall tire will work like a softer damping suspension with a higher spring rate (cause you need more air pressure) and a harder walled tire the other way around.

This isn't exactly an unknown road to me. I haven't been out there many times, the video only being my 4th, so I was at the point of getting pretty familiar with the curves, but I don't have all of the road imperfections memorized yet. I have played around with tire pressure quite a bit and I find 34/34 to be the best for my tastes. Any lower an the bike feels sluggish.

Thank you, I didn't realize I was giving advice, rather having a discussion about traction and how it relates to sketchy road conditions.

The only advice I did suggest was that at the speeds that anyone is considered pushing a bike through a corner that they are in the upper riding limits for the road most likely and exploring the limits of the rider as well. I don't know if you are aware of the way they set speed limits on roads, but typically the speed limit is set to what is generally considered safe for most drivers in varying weather conditions. I've talked to a couple of different civil engineers and they both have said that in general you can safely speed on a road up to about 20 mph over the posted speed limit without exceeding the limitations of the road. This in turn is why at greater than 20mph over a posted speed it becomes criminal speeding because at that point the driver/rider becomes an imminent danger to other motorist.

After reviewing the video I could say that I would most likely keep up and probably let go of keeping up at certain points because the thought of how mangled my body would be if I had an off at over 80-100mph on a country road typically slows me down. I do see chronic pain patients and have in the last few years had numerous patients that their pain is from motorcycle accidents, including a couple of amputations with phantom nerve pain, which if you've ever had the pleasure of meeting in your life will develop a certain level of understanding for the fragile nature of the human body.

So the only advice I would have is save that type of riding for the track, where if you have an off you slide on a relatively flat surface, likely some dirt and don't have many large hard objects to immediately halt your further progress. If that point when he crossed the double yellow going 65-70 mph and a car was coming in his direction, he would have been dead in under a second and likely impaled his bike through the car/truck/suv or whatever killing everyone inside.

Outside of the reality check: I loved the video, the rider is highly skilled, I'm totally jealous of him weighing only 160 for the suspension and the OP has balls for posting a vid to Youtube that shows his speed. There have been people in AZ that have been arrested for criminal speeding (felony) for posting vids like that.

To the OP I was not trying to give you advice at all, ride your ride, have fun and get home safe.

Having reviewed the video many times, I've really thought about all the things that could go wrong. There are many places where a crash could have me eating through a straw. Thanks for the compliment by the way, and speaking of getting arrested, there is one video with my face in it that I'm going to take down right away. I appreciate the feedback and I'm always looking for good advice!

 

[Ssky0078]

Having reviewed the video many times, I've really thought about all the things that could go wrong. There are many places where a crash could have me eating through a straw. Thanks for the compliment by the way, and speaking of getting arrested, there is one video with my face in it that I'm going to take down right away. I appreciate the feedback and I'm always looking for good advice!

One guy that got arrested, did not have his face in the video at all. He was racing a Lambo around and all they had was part of the dash and the color of the paint of the car. From that they ran DMV records and found the guy.

I try not to post videos that have my speed displayed. I will usually edit out the parts that my cam may pick up the speedo before posting to Youtube.

I use a GoPro Hero2 on the side of my helmet and keep the angle up off the instrument display. Really only feel drag at speeds over 70.

Check out set ups on the side of the tank/rad guard, rear set, ERCI's boom setup off the back of the bike.