Chicken Strips: Fahgettaboutit.
 

People talk a lot about chicken strips. Chicken strips don't necessarily mean anything. It's EXTREMELY dependent on body positioning.

After going to the track last fall and making huge improvements in and working on body positioning much of the time, I got new tires and went to ride a favorite road of mine at around probably 75 percent pace or something like that. Previously, before I ever went to the track, this pace removed the strips from my stock tires... using what I probably thought was great positioning but really wasn't. This time, at the end I looked down and still had big old strips on the tire. They mean nothing. Now, if you've been to the track and STILL have strips... then you've got a problem.


Complete lack of strips on the street now means one of two (or maybe both) things to me:

1. Your body positioning sucks.

or

2. You ride harder on the street than is probably safe, which is your choice.

(not starting a judgement here, since I am comfortable pushing on the street, even with proper positioning, to a point where the strips will probably be pretty much gone...)

Chicken strips are inversley proportional to the size of your weiner.

damn... T-Rock... always though you were a dude... guess this proves it wrong

:zowned:

i love chickenstrips. sooo yummy

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0325081942.jpg

That's it, generalize everyone that's a better rider than you into a category that is either "unsafe" or has "terrible body position."

I don't think he said that.. What I think he said was

People who have good body positioning and have no strips shouldn't be doing that on the street.

People who have shitty body positioning and have no strips, suck at riding, and shouldn't be pushing that hard on the street..

Damn, now I'm hungry.

Well it's kinda true. There is nothing safe about what we do at deal's gap.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm Popeyes.........

my funniest chicken strip or lack of chicken strip story is the day after a trackday in july when it was like 100 degrees and i pushed the bike pretty hard and burned up the tires i rode into work.. there was 3 or 4 bikes there and ironically enough they all pulled in around the same time so there were out there checking out each other's bikes and talking.. so i pull up and park.. one of the guys says nice bike.. then he is walking around it checking it out and is like damn you use all of those tires don't you? i said yeah i got to get my money's worth. i think all 3 or 4 of those fuckers went home and sold their bike and joined a knitting class or something because i haven't seen them back since.

i guess its kind of hard to scrub in a tire and get rid of the chicken strips on an HD.. i think you scrub in the chrome or something..

awesome..

I ride entirely too fast on the street.

I'd say I fall into category 2. But I never ride like that with any traffic around. I take it out of the city for that.

I got out last night for the first time this year...and I'll tell you something...after going to the track, I have no desire to ride fast on the street. It's just not worth it to me.

Well said. Anyone who thinks Chicken strips are a measure of how good a rider is, needs to learn how to ride themselves.

If you have no Chicken strips, it basically means you are using every little bit of traction the tire can give you.

Basically on the street that means you have no out. You have no more useable traction coming through a corner, if a panic situation was to occur.

I am with you.. I just don't have any desire to ride fast on the street.. I get my speedfix at the track and its so much better..

comparison - you are 16 and sneaking into your girlfriend's house = riding fast on the street vs. you are 30 and banging a whore in your own house = riding fast on the track.

Only if both women in question are 16.

Shoulda known that reasponse was coming.

not really my point but hey whatever floats your boat.. its only illegal if you get caught..

ok let me redo my example:

riding the street is like smoking crack in detroit
riding the track is like smoking crack in amsterdam

or shooting heroin or banging prostitutes..

does that clear it up?

crystal.

i guess it depends on your point of view...

will i respect someone a bit more if they use most of their tire versus having a huge worn spot in the middle? (aka straightliners)

Survey saaayyys: Yes

Do i recognize that not having strips on my tires before ever doing a track day is dangerous and irresponsible?

Yet again: Yes

Do i think its all about body positioning and whether it sucks or not, no, cuz mine used to suck and I still had a respectable ride on my tires...

Am I still going to ride the way I ride? Yes. Do i ride the way I did before my track time, HELL NO, since now I recognize that going fast and riding hard on the street just isnt what its cracked up to be. I also know that you dont have to be pushing incredibly hard to scrub most of the tire, just a few good turns or an abandoned s/d. Am I ever going to booger my tires on the street? :lol: Thats funny, and the answer would be NO.

I get what CEO is saying, but I have to disagree with the above.

i have noticed that the longer i have been riding the harder i have to try to get rid of the strips, what pace used to roast them, now leaves edges

I need to wear down my knee sliders. I have new knee sliders that don't have a mark on them.. Looks like I will be busy this weekend... :rockwoot:

need new ones myself, almost down to the cloth on one oops...

Please explain. I'm curious to hear your reason.

My reason for saying that.....If you are taking a hard corner, and are using every bit of the side of that tire where else can you go?

If you come through a corner and a car is parked in the middle of the road for example. You can't straighten. You can't lean anymore since you're already on the absolute side you can use for traction. You're using your max lean angle. What are you going to do?

If you aren't on the total edge of that tire, you can press alittle more to try and get past the obsticle in the road. If you're at the limit of traction, all you're going to do it go down. See what i'm getting at?

Ok, so are you saying if you meet me, you will respect me less and think of me as a bad rider for having more of a flat spot in the center of my tire?

Granted, I have almost no "chicken strips" on the R1. But the center of my tire does wear alot faster then the rest of the tire. As a result, i'm getting a flat spot in my back tire. Guess what. The past several years i've been riding the same thing happens with every tire.

I ride my bike daily to work. Back and forth at least 4 or 5 days a week. On my commute to work every day, I have basically 4 turns in a 16 mile trip. I have the right out of my driveway, the right onto a major street, a right onto another major street and a left to get to my work.

So since most of my commute is a straight line, the center of my tire wears faster since I ride everyday and I ride a sportbike. I put more miles annually back and forth to work, then I do riding on the weekends. So of course the center will wear faster. So am I a bad rider in your opinion? :idk:

I get what you're saying. I wouldn't ride that hard on the street, shit, I don't even ride street anymore.

That's why I only quoted this part.
Having no strips may mean you used the whole tire, but I don't think it automatically means you are at max lean or "using every little bit of traction". I'm no expert, still trying to learn myself. But here's my thought, when leaned over, there's a certain part of the tire making contact. The contact patch may start somewhere on the tire and end right at the edge of the tire. Does this mean you're at max lean? I'm thinking no, there's prob more lean, the contact patch is just getting smaller.
I noticed this just doing trackdays too. Yes, my body position sucked big time and I'm sure that had an impact on how the tires wore, I'm still working on it. But pretty early on I noticed I was getting to the "edge" of the tire. I've found more lean since, and I'm pretty sure there's more! Pretty sure body position changes things around as well. You got someone with decent form leaning far enough to wear the whole side around a turn, what would happen if the person were to hang off a little more around the same turn?

:pwhore2:
almost forgot...
TAKE IT TO THE TRACK!!!

r!der is right, just cause your tire is fully worn doesn't mean you are at full lean. Take my av or some of the other guys av's that aren't of rossi or some other pro racer. With that lean angle, it will wear the tire completely with no chickenstrip, but I still have plenty left to go before my tire losses traction. No chicken strips, doesn't mean you are using the tire to the very edge of it's limit.

Fair enough. But you have to agree, the furthur you are leaned over, the less traction you have avaliable. Even if you are wearing down chicken strips, you still have less traction in the case of an emergency. Use alittle more body position for the corner and save alittle more avaliable traction in case it's necessary.

So Trip, in your AV, do you have both cheeks off the seat or just one.. I cant tell.

just one, I not nearly being a monkey as I should be when I hang off the bike. I really need to work on body position.

Im not even close to dragging a knee yet, I fell like I have a mile to go and I hang off (1 cheek) and I have no chicken strips on the back and the fronts are only 1/4 inch. :idk: It's certainly track time so I can get my body position right.

Back tire strip is easy, try to get the front off! HAHA

Knee down doesnt mean you have great body position and it could be other factors why you cant get it down too. I am long and lanky enough to get my kneedown on stock rear sets like its nothing, crazy easy. With vortex rearsets, I have them as high as they go and it make it hard for me to jam my knee out there and get it down easy. I have to lean it over a lot further now to get my knee down. Upper body postion I think is the hardest thing to learn. I can get my lower off, but my upper just doesnt want to get there.

Yeah front chicken strips you really got to crank it over. The profile on the powers is easy enough to get it for me, the corsa IIIs are a lot tougher because there profile is a lot steeper.

hmm i don't really agree here.. i think you have more traction at full lean but i need someone much smarter than me to confirm.. the contact patch straight up and down is less i believe.. but straight up and down you are more stable due to gravity not trying to pull you down.. the only way to adjust is lean more or get it upright and use brake..

I never stated that I wouldnt respect you if you had a flat spot, I said I would respect a rider less that ONLY used the middle of his tire, aka straightliner.

There are varying degrees, dont get your panties in a wad.

If you have a flat spot in your tire, that is only in the MIDDLE, with very lil or no wear on the sides, this indicates you do not use your tire at all, might as well have a car tire on that thing. We call those in these parts, straightliners, as they go in one straight shot either east or west, never challenging the roads that are off the main coast road, many of these are the riders often referred to as posers also...the "i can beat you in a race, as long as we go in a straight line" (i have heard this btw) type riders. Their style of riding, as I already stated in my previous, causes a HUGE flat spot in the middle and pretty much no where else. It requires no effort to go in a straight line and thus doesnt earn the level of respect from me that someone who uses their tires. They are welcome to learn another style and in the event they stay open to that and want to learn, they have the opportunity to earn my respect. Unfortunately, many of these are more interested in how good they look with their "crew" on their way to Hooters...

A rider that utilises his tire does so on a daily commute as well as more aggressive riding. You can look at my regular street tires also and see that I have no chicken strips or very lil and I have all of 4 turns on my commute, but I love to play and actually lean while turning, versus sitting upright for a turn. You cant tell me that you have no wear on the sides of your tire from taking turns on your way to work. I can look at your tires and see that you know what you are doing and respect that...

Let me clarify that the point of this thread was really targeted towards people who CARE about strips and try to use them as a gauge for their/other's ability/progress or lack thereof.

People who know anything or have any skill know that there are tons of factors at play.

That all being said, I'm glad this sparked some good old-fashioned motorcycle technique conversation, which was my intention.
Kyle knows that's not what I meant, he was just being a douche.
I totally agree with your first sentence.

However, I'm with r!der, and disagree with the second part. When the chicken strip is just gone, you are just getting the contact patch to the side of the tire. You don't need that entire patch to maintain traction... you need MUCH less... you can go a lot further than that point.

I do understand what you meant though, regarding less available traction and less room to account for road issues.
His point was that the lack of chicken strips does not correlate to using your every bit of available traction, that's all.
You're right. And your TD shots looked good and faster than me, so you must be getting something right :lol:
Ok now I feel like we have a broken record. But yeah, that's it.
I had them gone on the front tire on my OEMs... I don't expect that to occur on the corsa IIIs... we'll see.
The rear contact patch when straight up and down depends on what you are doing. Under hard braking it's small or maybe even non-existent. When you're accelerating the rear squats and you get a big old patch.

That patch under accel is about the same size of the one you get when leaned over... the difference is that you are turning and the centripetal forces of cornering are perpendicular to gravity as well as your accel forces (for a flat turn at least). So you are relying entirely on friction in two dimensions to keep you on the bike instead of just one..

I still have about an 1/8" stip on my tires. Well cuz I live in central Illinois and I have NO GD twisties... Yeah the largest part is worn in the middle of my tire, but I cant change that. When I get the chance such as when entering on ramps and other things that arnt all covered with rocks I use it the best I can. Does that make me a squid?? Cuz I dont think so. And Im still in school with not many chances to make it to track days. although I am going to attempt to make it to one this summer.

I've noticed that too, the profile on the front Corsa III is going to make it very difficult to scrub the entire thing.

I know for me, it was a stepping stone... Probably not a good goal to have, cause it didn't really help me get any better, but damnit I hated those fuckin chicken strips... It took me a while to get them off of my tire... My body position suffered cause I was working so hard to get the bike leaned over...

Once I got rid of them on my first set of tires, it was game on. I stopped worrying about them and my speed increased a lot... as did my body position and skill level. My 2nd rear tire had a ton of fucking chicken strip left on it, despite my antics with drewpy. In fact, that was a topic of conversation throughout one memorable ride... how my fucking chicken strips just would not die... Every stop drewpy was like, 'that HAD to of done it...' Nope...

On my third, and current set of tires, the chicken strip was gone on the first ride. I wasn't focusing on it, in fact, it wasn't even that hard of a ride (WVA trip)... It just happened.

Well said ceo.

The only reliable way to measure a person's riding ability is to take a look at their 12 o'clock bar.


Let's take a look;
http://g.photos.cx/proseries_12bar_bike_sm-8f.jpg
The above bike is obviously not seriously ridden. The 12 o'clock bar is almost untouched, the can has not been chopped, the tire still has tread...pitiful.
Whoever rides this bike is obviously a huge squid. You're average segway rider could destroy him in the twisties. They probably also love the cock.

Now compare that to this;
http://g.photos.cx/contents12bar-8a.GIF
This bike is obviously ridden by a pro, probably WSBK/MotoGP caliber rider. Notice the destruction of the rear tire, the abuse put to the 12 bar and just look at the size of that sprocket, almost as big as the rear wheel. It's a safe bet that the rider of this bike has several lap records at multiple GP circuits to his name.

how about...


WHO THE FUCK CARES?! so what if you have 5" chicken strips... or if you have none?

as long as your not a poser or an idiot stunter (the ones doing the shit in traffic) you've got my respect as a fellow rider... you can loose or gain from there on how you ride, knowledge, and just what kinda person you are.

not everyone who rides is out to drag a knee... doesn't mean they're not great riders...

besides... I've seen plenty of guys in Alaska that buy track take offs... (yeah they had them shipped up) with no chicken strips... just to sit in the fucking Taco Bell parking lot. you telling me this guy gets more respect?

Lets not judge a book by it's cover... and get to reading :dthumb:

Wait til you drag your knee over a rumble strip or completely put it in the dirt around a turn.

It feels like someone is punching you in the knee.

Chicken strips, 12 o'clock bars, doesn't size matter anymore? The rear sprockets on my bikes are half the size of this guy's. But then I do like to ride over 60mph now and then.

:lol: Best post in this entire thread!!! Ebbs is right, get to reading or get to riding...

I fucking hope not.

You're missing the point a bit, methinks.
Or touch down some bare leather like I did before my pucks were positioned correctly... MAN that shit grabbed.

i have touched down leather.. was having too much fun grinding my pucks and ground a little too much off so my leather started dragging.. i didn't realize it until after the session.. the edge of the velcro that holds the puck is still all fucked up..

That's some scary stuff right there. I had a pretty mean pucker moment when that happened. I guess it forced some input on the bars and the bike started to get a little headshake while I was leaned. Left a pretty good mark on my brand new suit too. :bash:

Good thing I always keep a roll of black gorilla tape in the toolbox.

Mine just weren't positioned right for my height, bike, rearset height, body position, etc. They needed to be up further and slid a bit towards the front of my body. Now they're gravy.
I must have been loose on the bars at the time otherwise I would have crashed for sure. It yanked the whole left side of my body backwards. Yikes!

You can see the mark on the leathers here, on the left knee. It also broke a couple of the stitches that hold the velcro onto the pants, but it's not a big deal:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...0302081257.jpg

Edit: This was all at about 80mph. Scary shit.