Chicken Strips: Fahgettaboutit.

[Mudpuppy]

Originally Posted by NeonspeedRT

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.

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..

[the chi]

Originally Posted by NeonspeedRT

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?

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...

[ceo012384]

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.

Originally Posted by dubbs

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

Kyle knows that's not what I meant, he was just being a douche.

Originally Posted by NeonspeedRT

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 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.

Originally Posted by NeonspeedRT

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?

His point was that the lack of chicken strips does not correlate to using your every bit of available traction, that's all.

Originally Posted by r!der

Does this mean you're at max lean? I'm thinking no, there's prob more lean, the contact patch is just getting smaller.

You're right. And your TD shots looked good and faster than me, so you must be getting something right

Originally Posted by Trip

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.

Ok now I feel like we have a broken record. But yeah, that's it.

Originally Posted by Trip

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Mudpuppy

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..

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..

[GearGrabinGuy]

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.

[Cutty72]

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

[PiZdETS]

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;

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;

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.

[No Worries]

Originally Posted by PiZdETS

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.

[the chi]

Originally Posted by PiZdETS

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;

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;

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.

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

[OneSickPsycho]

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.