Slip sliding away...

[Honclfibr]

Took the bike out this evening after work, leaned in moderately into a corner and I felt the rear tire slip. First time I felt that so it was an interesting feeling, not as hairy as I expected but it made my heart race a bit. Pulled the bike up from it's lean and everything smoothed out, I think it was a good experience but I'd rather not do that again until I'm more comfortable with my riding.

What I'm trying to figure out is how much of this was new tires and how much of it was cold. I just had new M1's mounted this weekend and they've got about 3/4 to an inch of chicken strips all around. I was taking a right hand corner at maybe 45 in a 35 when I felt the slip. It was about 6:15 and I'd say probably about 50 degrees outside, I'd been riding for a good 45 minutes so the tires were nice and warm. I don't have much cold weather riding experience so I'm wondering if this is just something I need to be aware of in the cooler weather, or something that will go away as the tires are scrubbed in.

[benVFR]

Lots of things can do it.

An off camber curve..

Some water on the road, etc..

Too much pressure in the tire, tire too cold, rear suspension too tight, etc..

As long as you're smooth no big deal. If you have Sport-touring tires it happens a lot more. M1s should be really good and hard to slip unless something is weird.

The cold temps right now are making the tires take longer to warm up. I swear one night last week when it was in the 40s my tires felt mushy for like 5 miles at least. Really annoying.

Ben

[RandyO]

as temperatures get cooler, think about dropping the air pressure a couple pounds. it will help tires warm up quicker and stay warm. tires can cool down quickly even with a short stop.

[Stoneman]

Most likely a combo of newer tires AND the colder temps. As a general rule of thumb, I like to do about 100 miles to 'scrub' in new tires (on the street). I gently increase my lean angle and corner speed throughout those 100 or so miles to make sure I get all surfaces of the tires scrubbed...

[Degsy]

Originally posted by Stoneman
Most likely a combo of newer tires AND the colder temps. As a general rule of thumb, I like to do about 100 miles to 'scrub' in new tires (on the street). I gently increase my lean angle and corner speed throughout those 100 or so miles to make sure I get all surfaces of the tires scrubbed...

Except the half-inch either side at the edges, right Jay?

Degs

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by Degsy
Except the half-inch either side at the edges, right Jay?

Degs

Someone had Wheaties for breakfast, eh?

[Degsy]

Originally posted by Stoneman
Someone had Wheaties for breakfast, eh?

Nope, just far enough away not to worry.

D

[legalspeed]

Cold tyres always get me. I have about three or four missed heart beats per year.

One day it's a gonna get me.

[Honclfibr]

Yeah it probably was a combination of cold and tires, I suppose I'll just be a bit more wary in general as the temps drop, probably only a month or so left of riding in my season anyway.

Randy, you mentioned dropping tire pressures a bit, I might give that a try. What do you usually run in the fall months?

[skiierx]

Darrell, I would go with what Jay said, your tires need to be scrubbed in before really leaning. You have to work your way into a lean until there are fully scrubbed. Drop that air pressure as well. I am running 35 rear/32 front right now and have not had a problem with slippage (normal tires pressure for me is 37/34 for leisure riding.)

Sunday while riding with mysterysquid, I felt very confident on my tires, it was the road/farm debris that was tough to deal with. And now comes the leaves, some exciting times for sure, I know I will miss a couple heart beats!

Jamie

[RSVMILLE661]

Originally posted by Mystery Squid
you know, we put a man on the fucking moon 34 years ago, yet we can't manage to sell "ready to go" motorcycle tires...

They're called race take offs..