Grooved slicks: Road legal or not?

[idleidolidyll]

Chicken Strips ! how quaint when you understand bike handling, tyre profiles and riding properly you may finally realize that they don't mean shit on a road bike.

ride on the road like you do on the track and only one person will win.... he wears a long black cloak and holds an old farm implement in his hands.

rotflmfao! that's your opinion and of course you're welcome to it

generally speaking they DO indicate just how hard a rider is riding

[idleidolidyll]

it's amusing that people are so challenged by a simple thing such as using red text.

as for people talking of their own experiences: ya don't have to read it, ya don't have to believe it, ya don't have to give it any credit at all.

in fact if it annoys you that much, just use the ignore button

am i gonna stop? nope, my experience is all i've got

[scracha]

well when i was a roudy youth i thought "fuck em all" and turned it up real loud. Now i'm a grumpy old grandad I find myself complaining about those noisy fucken youths.

Aint growing up a bitch!?

I knew when to draw the line. Coming in pissed once in a blue moon and having the stereo up for the odd party is fine. Doing it on average 4 nights a week cos
a) you're a lazy wee cunt who doesn't work
b) mummy and daddy pay for everything
c) your other friends mummies and daddies tell them to fuck off so they come to your "doss house" to party

Just isn't on. These little pricks are gonna kill someone in their chav'd up $hitboxes. Sooner they raise the driving age the better.

[nsrpaul]

it's amusing that people are so challenged by a simple thing such as using red text.

as for people talking of their own experiences: ya don't have to read it, ya don't have to believe it, ya don't have to give it any credit at all.

in fact if it annoys you that much, just use the ignore button

am i gonna stop? nope, my experience is all i've got

it doesnt annoy me that much, just makes me think
knob

[idleidolidyll]

Well the slicks are on the bike and I must say they are at least 3 grades better than the tyres that came off the bike.
The steering is faster and more stable and the grip is excellent.

I grooved them very minimally so I'm mindful that I them hot before going hard: that's not a problem though since I always do that anyway.

I'm running 35lb in the front tyre and 38lb in the rear tyre. Haven't had any slides yet but I might run them at slightly lower pressures to help them heat up faster although there's a balance between low pressure and the tyre lasting any length of time.

Note: A friend who runs slicks on his Ducati told me on the weekend that he'd got up to 8000km from a slick.
He's not slow either.

[kickingzebra]

my brief experience of testing race bikes on the roads would seem to indicate that they tear up on the road, the coarse chip seal slicing the tyre longitudinally. also, heat cycles make a huge difference to tyre feel, few of my used slicks are worn past the wear marks, but none of them grip worth a shit anymore.
I have a garage full of 40 lap supercorsas and various other tires, will happily onsell at a fair rate to any who can't afford nice shinies.

[idleidolidyll]

: "my brief experience of testing race bikes on the roads would seem to indicate that they tear up on the road, the coarse chip seal slicing the tyre longitudinally."
I've done about 400km so far and on mainly chipseal roads south of Auckland. The tyres have not cut up at all and I've been deliberately driving them pretty hard out of corners to try and find their limits.
They have a nice sticky feel and are reasonably hot when I stop and check em.

also, heat cycles make a huge difference to tyre feel,

the heat cycle argument does carry water but in my opinion it really applies mainly to seriously overheated tyres that have gone blue and crusty (those of you who have picked up an overheated blue slick will know what i mean).
It's also probably more of an indication of tyre grip compared to other race tyres rather than to road tyres. The tyres I've fitted are from one of the country's better riders and are in great condition, still sticky and soft to the fingernail. Less grip is demanded from a road tyre in most cases and a little fall off in maximum racing grip is OK by me.

few of my used slicks are worn past the wear marks, but none of them grip worth a shit anymore.

the tyres I have are nowhere near the wear indicators (still about 5mm left). Compared to the totally crap Bridgestone BT020 that was fitted to the rear, they are light years grippier. They also seem better than the Diablo and Diablo Corsa that I had fitted to my old supermoto but without a side by side 'test', that is of course purely subjective.
perhaps, as suggested above, they ARE past their use by date for the track but are fine for the roads.

I have a garage full of 40 lap supercorsas and various other tires, will happily onsell at a fair rate to any who can't afford nice shinies.

depends on how hard they've been used, are they blued? are they worn out on one side (ie, used at one track for many laps)?
the tyres i have are 18-20 lappers and are about 30% 'worn' judging by the wear guages. If yours have done twice that distance they might be 60% worn and for me anyway, not worth buying.

i reckon buying used slicks is OK but probably best if you know the seller and can see/touch the tyre before forking over the $$$$

[kickingzebra]

some still have casting marks in the middle of the tyres. Stand firmly by the supposition that if you are losing chicken strips on the road, you are or soon will be a statistic of some sort or other.

I run my race take offs on my road bike, a thousand, so far 3000 kms out of a set of supercorsas that i pillaged on the 600 for 60 odd laps of taupo.

Got a super soft michelin pilot rear that still has 4 or 5 mm in the wear dots, but I gave up on it after it tried to highside me 5 times in one day, the last time was at 200 kmph, and resulted in scary grass tracking manouvre. They have never been blued though. 6 race meets out of that tyre, but as I say, grip not worth a shit anymore.

Suppose it depends on compounds as to how they hold up on the road, and as they age/are worn, it drives water out of the carcass, which hardens the compound, so maybe in some respects the over heated tyres will last longer on the roads.

I think any tyre will do for the road, you just need to adjust your riding to suit. If you want to ride really hard, I would spend the money, or look at bulk buying and importing a bunch of them for personal use.

[idleidolidyll]

some still have casting marks in the middle of the tyres.

that's irrelevant if the sides are flogged out of course

Stand firmly by the supposition that if you are losing chicken strips on the road, you are or soon will be a statistic of some sort or other.

can you explain more what you mean by this?
I'm nearly 50 and have been riding hard for about 35 years
My tyres almost never have chicken strips left after even the first few decent rides.
In the old days as a youthful hoon, I did have a number of accidents on the road, some because of inexperience and some because of road obstacles (plus a few just plain dumb ones). That was a long time ago though, last road accident was in about 1986 when a car did a U turn in front of me on the open road.
I reckon it's not about the chicken strips but about experience

I run my race take offs on my road bike, a thousand, so far 3000 kms out of a set of supercorsas that i pillaged on the 600 for 60 odd laps of taupo.

i see, so you're doing just what i am. I don't doubt that a really good set of road tyres will be exceptional on the road. What this whole thing is about is that those tyres would maybe last 3000km on my bike the way i ride (i had a set of soft Avons last just 1500km's a few years ago, never used em since).
replacing my tyres every 6-8 rides and buying the expensive rubber when i do so, is beyond my humble means.

Got a super soft michelin pilot rear that still has 4 or 5 mm in the wear dots, but I gave up on it after it tried to highside me 5 times in one day, the last time was at 200 kmph, and resulted in scary grass tracking manouvre.

I'm not into speeds like that on the road, i'm more of a go hard in the corners and slow down for the straights kinda guy. In fact, my new KTM has never seen 200 and probably never will.

They have never been blued though. 6 race meets out of that tyre, but as I say, grip not worth a shit anymore.
Suppose it depends on compounds as to how they hold up on the road, and as they age/are worn, it drives water out of the carcass, which hardens the compound, so maybe in some respects the over heated tyres will last longer on the roads.

sure, an overheated tyre may last longer but will probably be less grippy.
i'm interested in the comment that "it drives water out of the carcass", i wouldn't have thought there'd be any water in the carcass.

I think any tyre will do for the road, you just need to adjust your riding to suit. If you want to ride really hard, I would spend the money, or look at bulk buying and importing a bunch of them for personal use.

yeah, i think so too. in the end i reckon that being able to feel the tyre and know when it's starting to let go is more important than absolute grip. That's why I never use Michelins, I know some people love them but I just can't 'feel' them.

thanks for your input

[Crasherfromwayback]

and often the bloke in the tyre shop says "shit mate, you ride fucken hard don't ya"

No, I'm not blowing my own trumpet, just pointing out that assumption is silly.
I only ever raced on slicks once; mainly I raced proddy bikes.

Bollocks. You mention later in this thread that the slicks you've fitted are more 'stable' too.....more bollocks.

[idleidolidyll]

Bollocks. You mention later in this thread that the slicks you've fitted are more 'stable' too.....more bollocks.

the cut slicks i fitted are definitely faster steering and make the handling lighter.
they are also much more stable cranked over in a corner (they don't move around like the road tyres did).

both are facts

[Crasherfromwayback]

Tui...........

[kiwifruit]

interesting reading

[idleidolidyll]

Bollocks. You mention later in this thread that the slicks you've fitted are more 'stable' too.....more bollocks.

come on crasherfromwayback, i'm waiting.............

you've dived in dumped a 'bollocks' without any rationale, anyone can make a declarative statement and not back it up

please explain why you think my subjective testing is 'bollocks'

The tyres that came off were a BT020 rear and a Pirelli Scorpion Sync front (the matching rear punctured in the 1st week).

The BT020 never gave me any confidence, i'll never buy another. The std Scorpions were OK but the Pirelli Dragon slicks are better than both.

As I said, they steer better making the bike feel lighter and they are stickier and more stable in corners.

So please be specific, what exactly is 'bollocks'?

[LilSel]

.............