Tyre Tester!

[Kwaka-Kid]

i dont know where this topic should go, so i shoved it here! (please change if needed mod's, ta )

now, I hear old Sharpy did this years ago in Aus, and was wondering if anybody knew anybody, or if it still even existed as i am keen to become one.

After FINALLY for the first time, finding the very limit of a street tyre, i began thinking - and heres what happend.  Ive never actually crashed from leaning too low yet, or even found the limit, but i take it i did coming home from work the other day.  It was wet and the corner was of the downhill variety, and for some stupid reason i decided i wanted to push the bike further and further down into this corner untill somthing happend.  I pushed it down (still kinda sitting uprightish as it was slow corner) and then just kept shoving the top of the bike lower into the corner, furthe rand further, untill i go the biggest scare ever! (the fact that i was 1/4 of an inch or so i spose from losing all that i loved!(my zxr400)) and all of a sudden the front wheel twitched a bit and i felt her letting go and kinda sliding towards outside of corner! i rapidly ripped her more upright keeping power even and succeeded in making the corner.  Firstly - is that a normal sorta thing to happen? and if so, to you experienced and good riders, do you enter that situation often? or always when u guys go so fast thru corners?

Secondly and most importantly, i started thinking.  I wish i had a bike given to me (an old shitter or anything) that i could like, take to somwhere without cars/kurbs/poles (racetrack? anywhere!) that i could go fast thru a corner, and keep gonig thru puyshing it further and further, untill she slipped and hit the tarmac, as i honestly think if i could really concentrate on whats going on/how much time i get before she fully goes etc, would make me a better rider/racer. Once i conveyd this idea to my old man (who then accused me of being suicidal and thinks ill break bones) i learned that Sharpe did this in ozi, with a specially setup bike with a cage sorta thing, and really good gear.  He would do this and test different sets of tyres and give feedback to the tyre company who paid him.  Now i would actually and honestly do this as a job quite happily, even without any form of cage - so long as i got enough pay to live off easily enough.  But the reason id more want to do it is for personal benefit, i really do think that experience is valuble!  Lastly if i actually had a bike i didnt care about/was given to do so onor whatever, id love just to put it thru "safe" crash situations, e.g jam on the fron brake really hard @ good speed, untill i flew over the front and slid down the track.  With modern gear etc im sure i would be well protected from too much, and i wouldnt mind a few burns etc.  However i honestly think i wouldnt do too badly, and i reckon i wouldnt break a bone either.  I know i know im young and think im invincible, but i actually dont think that, i KNOW it.  Or at least in the situation i gave where head ones etc r not involved.

BOTTOM LINE IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ ALL THAT: does anybody know of a company or ANYONE/THING that offers jobs or anything (even free!) to test tyres or even a crash analisys etc, on motorcycles in New zealand.  I thought even (i doubt we have them here) but like a Crash rider or somthing? just crash's for Movies/TV? anything please.  If it Involves Crashing motorcycles, im Keen.

TTFN - +anybody else considerd this?

[MikeL]

Kwaka, I'm getting seriously worried about your obsession with crashing. This is NOT NORMAL, and you need professional help.
Or alternatively, you could prove us all wrong by going out there and acting out your fantasies, surviving miraculously, and keep telling us how much fun you're having. Until one day...

[SPman]

I beleive the California Superbike School (Keith Code) has developed a ZX6R with outriggers, which you can lean as far as until it lets go, without actually arsing off.The idea is basically the same as you are proposing, ie learning what it feels like on the limit!

http://www.superbikeschool.com/

[wkid_one]

Is it just me, or other other KiwiBikers concerned about Kwaka's mental state of well being.......

I know we all have to accept crashing as part of riding - but Logan you are concerning!!!!!! 

I agree though, it is difficult to learn where the limits of you bike/tyres are without actually binning the bike - or giving yourself a serious need for new undies in the process (or both).  Oh to have the bottomless wallet of SBK/GP teams where who cares if you bin the bike. 

I am sure Xaus is a tyre tester as he seems to be intent on testing the limits of his tyres.

The difficulty in testing tyres is getting consistent conditions.....as conditions very considerably (road composition/road temperature/camber/tyre temperature/tyre wear) - any data you got would vary unless you were intent on riding the same corner every time.  Same reason SBK/GP teams change tyre sizes/compounds/pressures for every track - they largely know the variables are going to be consistent.  Unfortunately on the road, it does come down to the feel back through the front wheel. 

I would pay to watch you do it though - if other kiwibikers were prepared - you might be able to make a living?

[bluninja]

KK, join the Q for thrashing the nuts off bikes and getting paid

Why not ask Vince Sharpe how he got his job? Then you'll know the ball park you need to head for to get into that field. What about other ways of getting to ride bikes and getting paid? How about a bike journo? Create a few articles and get them published, then approach the bike companies as a freelance writer, ride their bikes, test their kit, write the story and get paid for it?

Or given your love affair with the thought of crashing; how about being a stuntman? More and more films and pop videos are featuring bikes and bike stunts, so there is a market....especially with NZ attracting international film makers. I don't know what you would need to do, but an old docu film showed that a wanne-be stuntman had to be able to do gymnastics, a martial art, and their specialist stunt area to a high level......either that or be a stunt god that they just want for all the OTT stunt stuff.

SPMAN..yes the CSS does have a lean machine. It also has a bike to demonstrate how you can't steer a bike by just weighting the pegs or leaning off, but by countersteering.

KK if you really want to push your own bike, why not go to Pukekohe for some track time or a test day?

TTFN

[Coldkiwi]

*raises hand*

yes... I too am concerned about logans scant disregard for his own safety. Pushing a bike well beyond his normal riding limits in the wet on a road with cars/poles/kerbs on hand in an ATTEMPT to loose control???

No previous reading done before trying to learn the hard way that would answer his questions???

The whole point in having good tyres with good profiles is to get round corners quickly. A short squiz at ANY m/cycle race will tell you that it involves hanging off the inside of the bike (there are SO MANY articles out there online that have good advice on all these issues) to get round fast. Why you would want to be doing the opposite of that (trying to crash just doesn't compute in my mind)... I do not know

I dunno how else to say it dude, but I think you're a flippin nutter!!

 

[Kwaka-Kid]

hmm.  Cheers for the advice guys - specially bluninja over there, but hell yeah id be a stuntbike rider! i will endevour to find out more!

hmm, i know what ur saying about leaning to the inside, which is what i do if i am going hard or trying to actually do the corner proper, but i purposely stayed uprigvht, and, well, go try it for yourself if you havent, make the bike do all th eleaning and keep urself upright, so like, basically theres far less force acting in an outter direction on the bike, so therefore as i found myself in slippery trouble, it was easier to  save, but still fucking freaky! but the adreniline rush is amazing afterwards! and thats what makes me want to do it more.    Anyways i have lost what i was thinking about as i walked away halfway thru this message.  So good luck to you all - i hope non of our fellow kiwibikers went for a slip on that very wet day yesterday, there were aqua plains all over the motorway coming home! scarey stuff, i think my tyres are just legal depth, but even if they were brand new i dont think it wuda helped, wide bits of rubber seem to float more in large pools of water!

[bluninja]

Missed opportunity KK. Yesterday would have been an ideal day to test racing wets You've gotta be ready to seize your opportunity

KK problem with pushing the bike away from you in corners is it's pretty easy to go past the balance point and flip the bike rather than slide. I push the bike away from me to lean the bike a bit more when I'm scrubbing the tyres, but that's all.

If you really want to get the feel for sliding, why not find a square of shitty flat surface like you find in the corners of industrial estates and start circling whilst hanging off the inside. Then just keep winding on the power till you start to slide....best to wear sliders so you can drag the knee and play catching the front end If you don't want to go too fast just make your circle tighter. Try in both directions. I would not encourage or advise anyone to do this as if you do this you could get fined for dangerous driving, suffer serious injury, and/or wreck your bike and shag your tyres?  KK you have read this far haven't you???

 

TTFN

[Kwaka-Kid]

cheers man nice idea.

a) fines - nah, theyd have to catch me to give them to me wouldnt they?

b) injury - hahahah your kidding me? -its me we are talking about.

c) wreck the bike, NOOOOO! anybody gotta shitter they could lend me for a few hours? :P

hmm, i think i will try this, how hard is it? my tyres are stuffed anyway, lots of tread on edges, shit all in centre (so many aswell even them up) when i feel her start to slide, does it all happen really fast and i will lose the bike? or is it quite easy, and u just button off and come back to feeling safe?  do you do this often?

argh, blah it, i dont know why im asking, im going to try it anyway.  But not to a hardout extent because i really dont want to damage the bike if i drop it, mind you, i could quickly "pop" the indicators off, as they are just rubber push-in's.

[bluninja]

Does it gradually slide, or just let go??? Dunno....I guess it depends on your tyres and how agressive you are with the throttle. Do I do it often? Nah too dangerous for me I have been know to visit industrial estates and practice my braking drills (best done on a flat surface so that you don't lose the front end when you lock it up) and even bed in new sliders, but that was long ago in a land far away. Why not pop down AMCC club rooms in Ellerslie tonight if you are doing nothing better, I'll treat you to a coffee.

TTFN

 

 

[SPman]

Ronnie Smith (deceased) did this in a Performance Bike Mag a couple of years ago. Got a ZX7R and , with different tyres - good to shagged, rode round and round in ever decreasing circles, until he fell off! I think the idea (born in a pub!) was to find out how far you could lean a bike etc etc before it let go..........go to it Logan....but, can we watch??????

[tz lover]

When did Ronnie Smith die!!

[SPman]

He was killed when his scooter hit a parked car on the evening of Friday Jan 9th, going down to the shops!

[Kwaka-Kid]

spman ta - and sad to hear about Mr Smith.

Blu - sorry just got on this today (friday) but ive been down to AMCC meetings three times now, not in a few months tho, went there when invited by Greg sharp, he helped with my turbo tank, which is why i dont want to go, hehe because im a lazy sucka and havent had a chance to get any further with the paint job! but yeah maybe next thursday?  and yeah today i tried but didnt quite have the confidence to pull the brake lever much harder, going down a fairly steep road near me, i was surprised that as hard as i did pull it the front didnt lock up!

but hmm, i wonder if any bike magazine would employ me to do much the same?

you see my main worry is, atm my 400 is my everything bike, i still want it to go to work on each day, aswell as the other thing holding me back is the embarrasment of "having an acc" on the street, if it was organised, and i was purposely and people understood that, id feel much better, but yeah, dont wanna damage the 400!

lastly i have been (today + yesterdays riding) trying all sorts of weird and wonderful positions to be in on the bike around corners and leaning, like, just trying to put body in different ways and how far apart/bent/close me arms are and all sorts, and i never really realised how much quicker i can go with almost fully moving my ass off the seat into the corner! but then i wind up scraping the side of my boot WELL before i get anywhere near my knee (or elbow for that matter!) ? i think i just have a bad seat position or somthing, but the other thing i found is when im off the seat really hanging into the corner like that, i feel really really vulnerable.  i think its because i know i dont have as much time to brake or somthing, because i gotta move all my weight (yes the whole bloody 69kg of it!) from one side of bike back to middle and streighten up and then start braking, i dunno, it just doesnt feel very "comforting".  HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND ALL! if anybodys going to try find the "Less-Legal" (not illegal of course!) drag train tonite, hope to cya there.

[Kwaka-Kid]

just quickly (im addicted to bikes, and 5 is such a better number of bikes to own then 4) i am possibly going to get an RC30, no wait, NC30 is it, Honda V4 400cc, not VFR400, they are called FVR400 or RFV400, i dunno :P the proper race style ones, i havent herd much about them, but just that another deal might be popping up for 90's one, any advice"?