Chicken strips

[jason1]

I just ride to have fun when i can . Chicken strips or not and yes i do have some ( not measured tho ) I think a lot of how we ride is experiance and natural talent, plus confidence in our bike.
  Talent became apparent to me few years back when i was on  a nice long twisty road with large roundabouts along route . When i was seriously blown away by a guy who rode like a demon and especially round corners and knee down on roundabouts . The surprise to this is , the guy only has one arm , missing his right arm . Bike obviously modified to his needs , but fuck this guy could ride. Sleek fast and pure talent .  Tried my best to keep up and follow his lines , but no chance . Just sat back and watched in ore , as be buggered of in the distance .
Enjoy ya chicken strips and enjoy   

[JoeRock]

To be honest I'm not that bothered about chicken strips on my bikes, although that said I found the Fazer 6 so easy to toss into the corners that I completely eradicated mine on the day I first rode it home!

On some bikes though it can be extremely difficult to eradicate the strips on the front, I know on older 16" wheel fireblades you could have literally no strips on the back, and still a good 1/2 inch on the front! Drove my mate mad  :lol

[adeejaysdelight]

I agree that it is more important to have fun. It just so happens I do have fun pushing myself and always trying to improve. I am of the mind-set that if you are not moving forwards, you are moving backwards and carry this mentality in all aspects of my life, including riding. I never try to ride at anyone else's pace, and most often go riding on y own. I prefer It that way. I set my own pace. Sometimes I will tag onto another rider or group to see if there is anything I can pick up.
When I think about it, of all my mates who ride (or used to) I am second to slowest. And I'm ok with that. Even if I were the slowest. As long as I am getting better, that's all I care about. My original point was, what is the point in having a focused sports bike with 100 and odd bhp, top suspension and brakes and not using it? Why not but a comfy bike, save some money and relax. Is it just about showing off? I tend not to visit these Sunday biker hang outs as the "leather clad bullsh***ers" just annoy me. I was more impressed by a guy riding his KTM 990 through the snow on the motorway at 5am last winter. 

stevierst - as you wish... 2013 Valentino Rossi test the Bridgestone Battlax T30 & Yamaha FZ1 promotional video

[nick crisp]

High Beach I miss tho. Yes you got all the bullshit brigade, but it's been established a long time, and there are a lot of older guys who have outgrown the bullshit too. And some of them are still pretty fast riders if they feel like it.

[adeejaysdelight]

Agreed. The guy I bought my first "big bike" off was 76yo and rode an MV Agusta F4, and a HONDA DEAUVILLE! He was getting rid of his CBR as it wasn't good enough at either (for him) speed or comfort anymore.

[stevierst]

Y'all see, the white ones ARE the fastest! (well with Rossi on it anyway :  )

[nick crisp]

It used to be YELLOW but he went so fast the colour just stripped off :lol
Sorry, think I stole that reply from someone else...
It's actually YELLOW but he went so fast it got white hot  

[ghostbiker]

Need to remember that tyre size and shape effect chicken strips to. I once put on a taller tyre ont the 955 kitty. Old ones had no strip but the taller ones I never got all the way over.
Lent just as far and had small slides on both.
Also riding style makes a big diff. I have no strips on the gen 1 fazer but have friends that leave me standing on twisties on similar bikes yet have small strips.

Way to many various things to get hung up on it.

[MEM62]

Guys, is there really kudos in the amount of unused tread at the edge of your tyre?  It bothers me not a jot.   

[stevierst]

Guys, is there really kudos in the amount of unused tread at the edge of your tyre?  It bothers me not a jot. 

Its not really kudos as such. Its a good measure for yourself in how you feel your doing in the corners. The way your rubber wears tells you a lot about how you ride.
Its just the bullshitters that go on about knee down corners and peg scraping when they've clearly got huge chicken strips. Every tyre tells a story!

[Fazerider]

As Ghostbiker says, the tyre profile has a lot of effect. The tread pattern may continue further round the tyre depending on style and manufacturer so chicken strips can't be taken as an accurate measure of lean angle unless you use a protractor.
Centre of gravity is another factor. Because the tyre has significant width, the further you lean over the further away from the centreline the contact patch is (obviously), but the effective lean angle is the line through the C of G to the contact patch... so the lower the centre of gravity the lower the cornering G force is for a given angle of lean as measured on the tyre. So lightweight riders will actually be leaning the bike over slightly further to corner at the same speed as a heavy rider.
Hopefully this crude drawing (exaggerated for clarity) may explain it better.





Of course, hanging off (or moving their body the wrong way as I witness quite often) will have a larger effect.


I just took a stroll round the bikes parked at work and of the twenty proper bikes (I ignored the learners and scooters) one had no chicken strips, one had none on the right yet a whole inch of unused rubber on the left (presumably a roundabout specialist) and the other 18 had strips of an inch or more on both sides.

[VNA]

A young fella at work purchased a brand new R1 a few years ago. 
Yeah he had matching one piece leathers fitted with nice big knee sliders.

Poor sod was parking up at work one morning - just so happened the works bus was pulling in at the same time - he was was just turning the bike round (probably hit full lock) and flopped over.  What was worse is I am told he got stuck under the bike, a couple of the folks getting off the bus helped him out.

Now we've all had these embarrassing moments, which is what I told him when I bumped into him later in the day, but then I couldn't help but add - at least you finally got your knee doon!

[stevierst]

I bet the winter nights fly by in fazerriders house :)))

[Bornagain again]

Like someone said tyres differ and profile makes a big difference.

The other point to think about is chicken strips show the limit of your footprint so theres still a way to go before you go off the edge.

But still strips are the mark of your riding, get the sandpaper out LOL.

[Chillum]

The first time I ever heard about chicken strips was when some guy at work asked me if I was a roundabout demon. I had no idea what he was on about, so he then says 'you've hardly got any chicken strips'...nope..still not a foggy.

Turns out he was an ex-racer who had crashed badly (which explained why he had a standup computer setup - he literally couldn't sit down). Anyhoo, when I went and looked I had about 5mm of unused bits on the side of my tires so it finally twigged.

Next thing I know I'm booking a session at snetterton, getting the exhaust and the side of my boot down. After that there was just these little rubber balls on the edge of the tyres and a foc off big grin on my face.

The fazer6 couldn't hack it on the straights with the other bikes, but I was going round the outside of them on the bends, that bike handles so sweetly for a street bike and the brakes really inspire confidence. 80mph round the bomb hole, hard on the brakes and through the chicane, only to have all the thou's blast past me and the R6's and GSXr6 and 750's would get past me up to the next bend, then I'd be round the outside of them and out of the corner before they were.

I know we were told it wasn't a race, but man there were some red faced 600 sports bike riders that day. Weird thing was, when I was fully leant over and had my head about 6 inches from the chain and rear tyre of the bike I was passing it felt like I was at perfect peace. Every little detail was clear and it seemed everything was moving in slow motion - fantastic feeling. Would love to have been a racer I think, but my parents were so set against bikes I didn't end up getting one until I was 30.

[Fazerider]

I bet the winter nights fly by in fazerriders house : ) ) )

Dammit! You mean geekiness is still uncool?
I play number-plate scrabble and do mental arithmetic on odometer numbers to pass the time on boring motorway commutes too. :lol

[stevierst]

[quote author=stevierst link=topic=8915.msg88851#msg88851 date=1374257886]
Dammit! You mean geekiness is still uncool?
I play number-plate scrabble and do mental arithmetic on odometer numbers to pass the time on boring motorway commutes too. :lol

))))

[locksmith]

Me thinks you all think too much about things like chicken strips.
Enjoy your ride and get home safe and sound, that's all that matters.

[Punkstig]

No chicken strips here!

[Derpdiherp]

I hadn't noticed mine till a mate pointed them out when I went riding with him a little while ago, they're practically gone. I'm not massively bothered personally but it's still a badge of pride to not have them. But I wouldn't talk down a rider because he does have them, my mate has an inch either side on his er6f, but he makes it round the corners ok, so who cares?