TIRE CONTACT PATCH 101

by SPEEDSLUG

Given the weather conditions that I've been seeing on Weather Channel, for some of you, I thought I'd put up something to think about till next spring. 

Next time you walk past your bike bring along a sheet of paper from your printer, along with a pen, pencil, sharpie. Roll the front tire over the center of the paper and close as you can, draw around the contact patch between paper and tire. You needed to check the air pressure and move the bike anyway, right? BTW, Try to roll the bike once in awhile to keep the tire from 'sitting' on one spot for too long.

Take a look at the unused portion of the tire along the outside edges of the tire. Quite a 'safety' margin of unused tire isn't there? Squids (meant in a complimentary fashion) refer to them as 'chicken' strips. Supposedly shagging a tire to the very edge, on public streets is a way to remove these strips and utilize max lean angle on your bike. I prefer to keep my 'strips' thank you very much.

Back to our 'picture'. Look at the area where the tire makes contact with the road. Now think, 65mph, long sweeper, roughly 600#'s of iron, OMG! We don't need to talk tire compound, tread design, carcass construction to realize that a whole lot rides on a very little section of rubber on the road.

First year riders spend most of their time learning the do's and don'ts of turning. Looking down the road, steering inputs, proper gear selection. By the time the second year comes around these skills are becoming more and more familiar, as are the roads and confidence.

This in turn leads to fractional increases in speed as your skills start to become instinctive-until. Until one day you find yourself in a new turn, or a new speed, or a brain fart in mid turn, or whatever. "It happens," as Forrest said while jogging.<G>

One thing I don't hear too often, other than the things NOT to do, is a basic premise about your front donut: Trust your tire.

Sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Well it is. We don't speed around, draggin' knee, toe sliding along public roads. More often than not, the speed and skills we possess are more than adequate to complete the aforementioned hypothetical turn. Yet when the brain is screaming to 'give it up' on the turn. No one ever 'tole you' that the proper response should be 'I trust my tire'. You already know the skills required. Look ahead, push on the bar, throttle control, etc. those things will automatically fall into place. Now you have a frame of mind to use during your next corner adventure.

Next time you go out, enjoying your ride, take out one turn and mentally say to yourself 'I trust my tire' as you complete the turn.

The layer of calmness or completeness to your riding skills will finally feel 'right'. Add this to your mental arsenal. Maybe even stop by one of the tire manufacturer sites and read up a bit on tire technology. 'trust me' :).

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