Brand new Gixxer crash vid - Guarantee hilarious

[James Deuce]

Good idea for the 70% of the tyres, but unless you can do doughnuts, again and again, on a metal road, then how do you scrub off the last 25mm (the chicken strips)? This issue has had me fascinated through three sets of recent scrub-ins. Ya see, the last 25mm is used when das bike is down and dirty at 45 degrees or better. To get there you have to be going fast...on the wax. Scares the fuck out of me. And now I have to do it all over again on me new Metzlers. Grumble, moan, freak!

Modern tyres are not inert blobs of "rubber". They are complex chemical engineering in motion and the first 200 kms of the tyre's life are quite important in "fixing" tyre compounds in a stable state. The first few gentle heat cycles perform the job of blending the final tyre state. Part of this process causes the surface of the tyre to shed the release agent. On a road tyre, "scrubbing" refers to gently running the tyre in to finish the manufacturing process.

On a race tyre "scrubbing" is making sure you've scrubbed the entire surface of the tyre in because it is only going to be a useful to a racer for one heat cycle unlike a road tyre which will be used for thousands of kilometres.

By the time you get to use the outer edge of a road tyre a chemical process has caused the release agent to evaporate.

The whole road tyre scrubbing in process is why manufacturers suggest taking it easy for a couple of hundred kilometres and why some of you blokes who punish your brand new tyres from the get go with solvents or spirited riding may not be getting the mileage from the same tyre on the same bike that more gentle souls do. I find tyres fitted in Winter don't last as long as those fitted in Autumn or Spring, especially if their initial life on the road involves days of rain.

[carver]

Was that Carver???

maybe while 12'd on the front wheel

[vgcspares]

I rub my new tyres down with Wax and Tar remover to avoid potential problem like this.

So how come Bike and Tire shops don't do something along these lines to remove the wax before the Maiden Voyage ?

And don't think that's a daft OSH type question - if that many people have fallen off on their first ride then there's a problem with the service delivery of the bike tire vendor and/or bike industry not the riders

[DMNTD:Me]

So how come Bike and Tire shops don't do something along these lines to remove the wax before the Maiden Voyage ?

And don't think that's a daft OSH type question - if that many people have fallen off on their first ride then there's a problem with the service delivery of the bike tire vendor and/or bike industry not the riders

'cause some people don't agree with the practice.
Everyone knows to take it easy on new tyres....can't be wiping everyone's arse for them eh. Then again if someone did ask for it to be done, then that's different.

[EJK]

They keep coming