[Hedgepig]

Chicken strips knee down its all a crock of s##t . Those using all their safety margin on the street are just first in the queue for an ambulance . And yes I have done it only to discover its not big and its not clever . Best place to find your limits is in a place where your safety is paramount with the help and guidance of people who can teach . That guy with fried tyres probably did it at a race track then parked up so everybody could admire his skill and daring .

 

[Sal Paradise]

Please don't think this way. If you have been lucky , you have no idea how painful it is to crash. Just ask me. I can't tell you the insane snowboard and mountain bike crashes I have had with no injuries. I would bounce off a frozen mountain at 40 mph and laugh. Add a few years, and a motorcycle with 100 HP = whole different crash. Busted me up bad. Its risky enough riding cautiously - DO NOT PUSH IT the risk to your health and well being are not worth it. You will really want to walk around and exercise and have sex in any position and stuff like that when you are old. Believe me.

Roads are not to be trusted. No one is sweeping them off in the morning. What are you going to do if you are leaned way over and you hit a huge patch of sand and gravel?? Crash that's what!!

Just enjoy your ride and be as mellow as possible. 0

Been riding for many years, pretty fast....I have never looked for chicken strips on my tires or anyone else's. They mean nothing. You are probably taking better lines and have good body position.

 

[mick 85]

You could always just use sandpaper ? But read the instructions carefully .. sandpaper needs to be used in controlled conditions

 

[Hedgepig]

You could always just use sandpaper ? But read the instructions carefully .. sandpaper needs to be used in controlled conditions

With the bike elevated on a paddock stand careful use of an angle grinder can scuff your tyres up suitably :grin2:>:surprise:0

 

[Misti Hurst]

Chicken strips knee down its all a crock of s##t . Those using all their safety margin on the street are just first in the queue for an ambulance . And yes I have done it only to discover its not big and its not clever . Best place to find your limits is in a place where your safety is paramount with the help and guidance of people who can teach . That guy with fried tyres probably did it at a race track then parked up so everybody could admire his skill and daring .

Chicken strips are certainly no indication of how fast/good a rider is. You can have a rider that is faster, safer and an overall better rider than someone else that has huge chicken strips. What that shows is that they are leaning the bike over less and giving themselves a margin for error.

Running your tires right over to the edge just shows that you are using most/all of the lean angle available.

What should the lean angle goals be when you're riding? Do you want to be at max lean angle? Is it better to lean the bike over less? How do you go about using LESS lean overall angle?

 

[AutoXer]

Chicken strips on street bikes are a sign of superior intelligence ... :wink2:

Here's why you don't want to be riding at the limit on the street. I went for a short lunch ride yesterday (102 miles) and chose the winding roads leading to my lunch spot. On the ride I discovered the following:

1. The OEM tires don't seem to stick well at cooler temperatures (40-45) compared to the Michelin tires I've fitted to my previous bike. Could be the tires, but it also could be ...

2. Salt in the corners left over from the previous weekends snow; salt definitely does not improve traction once the snow and ice are gone, and there was a lot of it on the roads.

3. Areas where they had put down salt brine pre-treatment and it hadn't been worn away by traffic yet - this stuff is also slippery.

4. A traffic circle where someone had dumped a good bit of oil or coolant.

5. A corner where someone had dropped a load of coolant.

6. A large squashed animal mid-corner.

7. Sand/dirt in several corners.


After a couple of "Uh oh" moments I reverted to my "Old Man Riding Style" (though some say I never actually ride any other way) and simply enjoyed the ride. I have nothing to prove to anyone. And to be honest, I have chicken strips and I've still crashed twice in 26 years after hitting something slippery in a curve ... how many more times would I have crashed if I always rode at the limit?

 

[Elloryp]

i dont really understand the obsession over chicken strips, particularly if you are a road rider.
I ride my bike like a total loon compared to some and like a nun to others, have been riding since 2014, am on my 4th bike and i dont think ive ever fully eliminated my chicken strips. closest i got was on my first bike when i was actively trying to scrub them out. since then ive learned a thing or two.

When you're taking a corner you need the most contact between the tyre and the road, track riders lean off their bikes in order to distribute weight to the inside of the turn. This means the bike doesn't have to lean as much and therefore gives a better contact patch = better grip. Yes you absolutely should lean into a turn, but you will already do this naturally, it will feel right just like counter steering. At the more extreme conditions the less you have to lean your bike into a turn the better. Very often people force extreme conditions on unnecessary situations.
So many people i see taking corners trying to scrape their pegs and knees when they dont need to. Its all bravado and one-up-manship.

If anyone calls you out on your chicken strips, give em a wink and let them know you've been riding for 8 years with no problems.

 

[ranger995]

Since this has been resurrected. I will add that actually Chicken Strips can be a sign of someone doing things the right way. If you corner properly with good body position and selecting proper lines on the road, then you should have chicken strips. A good line coupled with good body position means you can ride through a corner quickly without using all of your tire.

It is unwise to combine body position, proper line, and major lean angle on the public roads. That should only be done on a track. Save the knee drag for the track, even the best riders get in accidents in the canyons because they go to the limits of traction on their tires and the road is unpredictable. Save some traction for dealing with that unpredictability.

There really is no need to put your tires to the limit of traction on a public road. You can get a good thrill just having good body position and finding those good lines.

If you want to get rid of your chicken strips for aesthetic reasons, just go to a parking lot and do very tight figure eights at slow speed for about 30 minutes. This is good exercise anyway for good throttle, clutch, and brake control.

So, in sum, I think your chicken strips actually indicate that you are a good rider. You take corners with good lines and proper body position, and you have the proper judgement in not going to the limits of the bike's traction.

 

[secondwindsteve]

I think I have an inferiority complex about my riding skills. I've been riding for about 8 years and gradually worked my way up to a Street Triple. However, my tires are about shot and I'd say there's a strip about an inch wide on each side of the Pirelli Rosso Corsas that has not touched the road. Is this is sign that I'm not leaning far enough or is this difficult to achieve when only riding on the streets? I see my dad's sport touring tires are used completely side to side and I always feel like I'm keeping up when I ride with him. I seek out some pretty curvy roads and I just have this feeling that I'm not pushing the bike into curves as far as I could/should.

In case you're wondering, I've never done a track day (nor do I plan on it) and I've never taken a class. I want to get better or at least feel more confident but it's tough when I ride mostly on my own.

When ""keeping up" with your father, are you enjoying the ride? His tires are worn all the way over because he's comfortable at a steeper lean angle than you. That doesn't make him a better rider. In fact, it is better to use your upper body to reduce lean angle in turns. This gives you a margin of lean when encountering something unexpected that is best dealt with by turning a bit harder than your line.

It's good to practice making the bike do what you want it to in an empty parking lot: panic stopping, figure eights, U turns, etc., stuff you don't normally do on a ride. We don't just have those skills. They're something that requires practice.

We're all good riders, evidenced by the fact we're here to talk about it. It's the ability to negotiate the unexpected when it occurs and not panic and target fixate that allows us to continue to be here to talk about it. We're all good riders - and we can all be better.
Taking some time every ride to work on skills has another benefit: it increases self confidence. That sounds like the main issue you're having.

 

[2wheelpony]

About 10 years ago the local police where i lived at the time were doing a two day riders course, these were biker cops giving up their weekend to help and instruct local bikers (not learners) to ride safer, smoother, and faster (not to fast though) the training that they had learned (police motorcycle training) over months, they passed about 2% on to us, and I thought i rode ok prior to going on that weekend course, after all I had been biking for years.
But after I completed that weekend with them I realised what little I knew about riding, there's two types of riding, the first is just riding taking basic instruction and passing a test to get your licence, and second, riding smooth.

Let me pass this snippett of information on to you, the smoother you are the faster and safer you are, you have to imagine the road is a river and you are a fish, and all the other vehicles on the road are preditory and they are out to get you, but not only is the road a river, it's also a book, and like a book you have to read it, to understand it.
Read the road, like a fish reads a river.

Don't worry about chicken strips like someone said in a previous post (and I agree) it's a crock of s*!t.....all that tells me is that your speed is correct for the bends in the road so that's a plus. If your speeds to high into the bends you have to lean the bike more in order to make the bends, because if you don't lean the bike more then you are not going to make the bends.
It's all about margins and giving yourself plenty in reserve because if your at 100% all the time with no margin where do you go when the unexpected happens, always, always, have a plan B, an escape route.
Over here in the UK I haven't heard of the police holding anymore of those weekends (well not round here anyway but I may be wrong) it may be different elsewhere in the UK.

Your fine, if your comfortable with your riding, and just accept it as your style, if your not happy with your style then do what I done. Now I don't know if in the USA where you are if your local cops do something similiar, but if they do then sign up for a day or two with them, and they will strenghten and polish up the skills you already have and give you new one's you don't, like I said earlier that was at least 10 years ago I done my weekend and still even now, I use what they taught me everytime I ride.

Sorry its a bit long but I hope it points you in the right direction. ride safe.

 

[Pudge]

Sorry its a bit long but I hope it points you in the right direction. ride safe.

:goodpost

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast."

 

[Misti Hurst]

:goodpost

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast."

Fast can also be smooth and yes smooth is fast. What is the key to riding as smooth as possible? Why do some riders look super smooth compared to others? What are they doing differently? :grin2::nerd: