tire traction

[Ken Robb]

We have had many tire threads and they usually have people referring to road tires having good or bad traction in corners. I am no racer but I can't remember ever sliding a tire cornering a bicycle on clean pavement. I have 50 years of motorcycle riding and I have "put down blackies" exiting corners under power on them. I have over 300 days driving cars on race tracks where I have danced all around the traction envelope and beyond so I understand good vs. bad traction.

When we read that tire "A" has better traction that tire "B" does the poster meaqn that he corners so fast that he slides one and not the other at similar speeds? How often can a person do that before collecting big road rash?

[benb]

I think it's mostly the following:

- General feel - a more supple tire will give more confidence, even if you're not doing lurid moto-style slides

- General way they lose traction and regain traction.. same concept as moto tires

- Bike tires don't have the differences with triangular front profile vs. round, etc.. like moto tires

- Braking traction is pretty easy to discern with bike tires

I have slid quite a bit actually.. not at super high speeds but generally tight corners that might have sand, wet crits, etc..

Personally on a bicycle I feel a huge part of how well slides are handled has to do with bike fit & rider weight distribution though.

It is the same thing as street vs. track motorcycling though. The bicycle slides happen at lean angles similar to the slides you might get on the street on a motorcycle.. they are at a lean angle you can recover from very easily if you're skilled, as opposed to track motorcycle slides where you have a really high chance of crashing due to the extreme lean angle.