Chicken strips and tyre size

[Andy XRV]

3DP said:

Whether you choose to lean it over much on the road is your own business of course but this forum is turning into a MAG/IAM zone recently!

"Save knee down for the track"

then

"Save using the full width of your tyre for the track"

what's next?

"I never use more than 8000rpm on the road. Save that for the track".

LOL!

Good points well presented

[upsidedownmark]

clen666 said:

Can you feel when you are right at the edge of the tyres available grip?
How do you know when there is no more lean available, other than picking yourself out of the nearest bush?

Feel. Isn't that the whole essence of fast riding / driving in anything?

You've run out of lean when stuff starts scraping on the floor, assuming you don't run out of grip first.

The edge (of grip) isn't a cliff where everything spontaneously blows up, it's where you've gone past the peak grip of the tyre and it is now decreasing. In a car you 'feel' that through reduced steering torque amongst other things. That zone can be quite big (and quite small) depending on circumstances and vehicle. You identify it by creeping up on it gradually so you can come back rather than jumping straight over, listening to the 'feeling' through your butt and hands as things start to change, and edging into the zone where things are starting to get worse then coming back. You calibrate that feel subconsciously as much as anything else.

If you did it any other way you'd be lost when it rained, the surface changed, anything.

Thats why nobody could ride the ducatis of the last couple of years (lack of feel), and the difference between fast and slow racers - the ability to read that feel and stay as close as possible to the optimum that the bike/tyre/suspension can provide.