STOP Being afraid of Your Tires

Summary

In a video by CanyonChasers, viewers are encouraged to overcome their fear of tires by focusing on tire maintenance and understanding. The video stresses the importance of correct tire pressure, choosing the right tires, and understanding tire dynamics. It highlights the role of tire pressure in crash data and explains the science behind tire grip and temperature. CanyonChasers advises bikers to practice 'trust but verify', using smooth, progressive inputs on controls to maintain confidence in their tires and ensure safety on the roads.

Highlights

• The importance of tire pressure cannot be overstated. It's crucial for preventing accidents! ⚠️
• Matching tires are essential for maintaining balance and confidence while riding. 🏍
• It's not just riding style, but also terrain and weather that affect tire performance. 🌧
• Smooth and progressive throttle and brake inputs can prevent skidding! 💨
• Regularly inspect your tires for wear and aging to ensure they're trustworthy. 🌡

Key Takeaways

• Check your tire pressure before every ride – it's your bike's unsung hero! 🚴‍♂️
• Choose the right tires for your biking style to avoid unexpected slips! 🔄
• Tires wear down with age; keep an eye on their condition to maintain grip! 🔄
• Remember, race tires and street tires are not interchangeable! Adapt for your needs! 🚦
• Use the first and last 5% of control inputs to safely test your grip with 'trust but verify'! ✌
• Smooth, linear inputs can help you prevent accidents and enjoy your ride! 🛠

Overview

CanyonChasers provides a comprehensive look into tire management, a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of biking that can significantly boost a rider's confidence. They break down how improper tire pressure is frequently a factor in crashes and discuss selecting the appropriate tires for your specific riding needs. The video emphasizes the critical role of tire condition, urging viewers to pay close attention to aging tires that may lose their grip over time.

The video delves into the science of tire grip, explaining how tire warm-up is achieved through acceleration and braking rather than mere swerving. It clears misconceptions about race versus street tires, illustrating why it's crucial to use the correct tire for the intended purpose. Key insights on managing tire pressure are provided, explaining how temperature, weight, and pressure interact to affect tire performance and safety.

The latter part of the video offers practical advice on how to cultivate trust in your tires. By using the first and last 5% of control input time to gently engage with brakes and throttles, riders can verify grip safely before proceeding with full confidence. This method not only helps prevent mishaps due to unexpected road conditions but also fosters a safer and more enjoyable riding experience, ensuring riders can fully enjoy their biking adventures with peace of mind.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction to Tire Pressure The chapter emphasizes the importance of maintaining correct tire pressure. It mentions that regardless of other considerations, incorrect tire pressure can significantly impact performance, as illustrated by a big slide observed by the speaker.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Understanding Tire Composition The chapter starts by acknowledging a common fear among riders: the fear of slipping when entering a corner. It emphasizes the importance of understanding tire composition to prevent such instances. The discussion focuses on how riders can take proactive measures to prevent slips and what actions they can take if they do encounter a slip. The chapter aims to provide riders with the confidence and knowledge needed to handle their bikes safely when braking or cornering.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Choosing the Right Tires This chapter delves into the complexities of tire technology, emphasizing its significant role in enhancing the riding experience. The narrative humorously recalls past debates on the best 'wood' for grip, underscoring the evolution of tire technology over time. The chapter focuses on three key factors within our control that can either negatively or positively impact tire performance.
• 05:00 - 07:00: The Importance of Tire Pressure The chapter titled 'The Importance of Tire Pressure' emphasizes the critical role tires play in ensuring a safe and confident biking experience. It highlights the common problem faced by many riders who struggle with confidence due to poor tire conditions. The author, drawing on extensive experience, underscores the importance of maintaining reliable tires as they are the first line of defense in preventing accidents. A key takeaway is that trusted, well-maintained tires are crucial to rider safety.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Grip and Tire Dynamics Tires age even when idle due to UV light, humidity, pollution, and oxygen, breaking down rubber, making it hard, cracked, and less effective.
• 09:00 - 12:00: Heat Generation and Tire Temperature This chapter discusses the importance of using the correct tire size and type for your vehicle. It explains that using a tire size that doesn't match the width of your wheel can deform the tire, either stretching or pinching it, which can lead to less grip and, consequently, less confidence when driving. Additionally, it highlights the potential issues with mismatching tires from different manufacturers, using a hypersport tire on the rear and a touring tire on the front, which might work but is not guaranteed to be safe. The chapter underlines the importance of ensuring that the tires match to maintain trust in their performance.
• 12:00 - 14:00: Trust and Verification While Riding The chapter 'Trust and Verification While Riding' discusses the importance of selecting appropriate tires for different applications. Contrary to popular belief, race tires are significantly harder than street tires because they must endure harsher conditions and withstand more heat. Slick tires, despite being much harder, offer exceptional grip, demonstrating the necessity of choosing tires based on specific functional requirements.
• 14:00 - 15:00: Conclusion and Riding Strategy The chapter discusses the differences between racing tires and street tires, including the necessity for racing tires to be preheated to a specific temperature using a tire warmer before use. It also warns that using a touring tire on a racetrack at racing speeds can lead to the tire melting, emphasizing the importance of selecting the right tire based on how and where you ride.

STOP Being afraid of Your Tires Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 if your tire pressure isn't correct then nothing else we talk about here [Music] matters I don't know if you could see that on camera but I just had a pretty big slide entering that
• 00:30 - 01:00 [Music] corner thank you kind driver you know I just can't stop thinking for a lot of riders a a slip entering a corner is a huge fear right so what can we do as Riders to prevent slips and then what are some of the things that we can do when we find ourselves in a situation like that so we all want to be able to go to the brakes or tip into a corner and just know that our tires are going
• 01:00 - 01:30 to grip right tires are crazy complicated things far more complicated than we give them credit for and nothing has really enhanced the riding experience like the insane improvements in Tire technology since I was a new Rider you know back when we would debate about which type of wood provided the most amount of grip obviously Pine for track days and Oak for touring duh now when it comes to tires there's a whole lot of things that we do have control over that can make things a whole lot worse or a whole lot better so here are three things that we can do to to really
• 01:30 - 02:00 enhance our confidence in our tires let's get to it no really I promise this is how the garage looks every day so this may sound obvious but if you want to be able to trust your tires you have to make sure you have tires that you can trust so I've been doing this for a long time and worked with a lot of riders who've had the same struggle and often times I'll go look at their bike and it's no wonder they're struggling with confidence in their tires their tires are just awful tires are arguably the most important part of your bike they are the first line of defense against landing on our head head they wear out
• 02:00 - 02:30 they age out just by sitting modern tires are still about 25% organic rubber from rubber trees so UV light humidity pollution and even just oxygen causes rubber to break down crack get hard and less grippy so what tires are on your bike right now do they match and how old are they by reputable name brands buy the correct size tires for your bike yeah a 200 width Tire looks sick right
• 02:30 - 03:00 but the correct size tire is determined by the width of your wheel when you run a narrower or wider sized tire than you should it deforms the tire it'll stretch it or it'll pinch it and change the shape which results in less grip less grip means less confidence and and make sure that your tires match running a hypersport tire from one manufacturer on the rear and a touring tire from another manufacturer on the front it might be fine but it might not trust isn't built
• 03:00 - 03:30 on might be so run matching tires you also want to choose tires for your application despite what you may think race tires are not softer they are sometimes 10 times harder than street tires because the environment they have to function in is far more abusive they have to be able to put up with a lot more heat than a typical Road tire the slick tires provide an incredible level of grip but to do this they're around 10
• 03:30 - 04:00 times harder than normal street tires so because of this they need to be preheated to a running temperature they have a tire warmer it's like an electric blanket at Grandma's house preset to 90° whereas on the flipside if you try to run a touring tire on a racetrack at race Pace it can no kidding sometimes melt so be honest about how you ride and get a tire for your application there's a whole lot to how exact exactly tires work and how tires
• 04:00 - 04:30 intended for different purposes have wildly different construction and if you want to know more about this you can look up hysteresis but suffice to say the majority of Street Riders will be happier with what's typically called a Road tire they tend to last longer because they often times will have dual compounds in the rear which means the the center of the tire will be a more durable rubber where on the sides of the tire it will be grippier look in this light you can totally see the two compounds here's your harder compound in the center and then a softer grippier
• 04:30 - 05:00 Compound on the edge there's actually a definitive line between the two compounds now we're going to talk quite a bit about the importance of warm tires here in a minute but the important part here is in order to be able to trust your tires you got to have tires worthy of trust what is the tire pressure on your bike right now not not what it should be set at but where are your tires set actually and how does that contrast with what the manual says your tires should be set at and why is tire
• 05:00 - 05:30 pressure so important it's crazy how often incorrect tire pressure shows up in Crash data if your tire pressure isn't correct then nothing else we talk about here matters the air in the tire is actually what holds your bike up so the amount of air that should be in your tire is very specific to your bike and how much weight you have on it luggage or a passenger or whatever else this is why just running the max PSI stamped on the sidewall isn't always going to be the correct pressure your owner's manual
• 05:30 - 06:00 will give you the correct number for your bike yeah we can absolutely tweak and deviate from these numbers based on a number of specifics but we want to start with that number despite what Noob Master 69 had to say about it on Reddit he there is there a project you're working on I know more than you all right remember your bike was developed by expert Riders and professional Racers they know more than the kind guy on the internet now we have to take a second to cover the basics of how tires work we
• 06:00 - 06:30 all want our tires to grip right well grip is made up of a few things and air pressure plays a big part in this the first is molecular adhesion this is basically the rubber's ability to deform and conform to the road this is sometimes called keying this is affected by the hardness of the rubber often called the compound What's called the carcass of the tire is basically how many and how thick the metal or nylon
• 06:30 - 07:00 bands are inside the tire and then finally the temperature of the rubber obviously warm rubber is more pliable than cold rubber right the second is called pressure by sciency folks now that's not to be confused with tire pressure pressure is how much weight we're putting over a tire when we when we go to the brakes and slow down weight goes over the front tire we're loading that front tire we're putting pressure over that front tire when we accelerate we're loading the rear tire where the weight it's shifting to the the back of the motorcycle we're putting pressure
• 07:00 - 07:30 over the rear tire this increase in pressure or weight over a tire it deforms it it makes the contact patch bigger it it's pushing the the tire it's pushing the rubber into the ground causing the rubber to deform into the shape of the road remember remember keying so basically what happens is when we load a tire we basically have more Tire on the ground this is part of why grip is constantly changing on the exact same bit of Road a cold Tire with no weight over it will provide a very
• 07:30 - 08:00 different amount of grip than a warm Tire with weight over it there's a lot more to it than just this but these are the basics now one way a tire generates heat or gets warm is from flexing the sidewall now you've seen Formula 1 guys do this they swerve the car side to side to flex the sidewall of their tires but motorcycle tires are different we don't really generate heat from swerving side to side the best way to get our tires and our sidewalls to flex is through
• 08:00 - 08:30 acceleration and breaking so why does this matter well most street tires are designed to work between 60 and 70° C or about 150° F race tires are designed to work upwards of 95 to 100° C over 200 Freedom degrees so keep this in the back of your head because we're going to come back to this so back to the importance of tire pressure too much pressure can our tires Flex enough to get warm we leave our driveway and lean hard into
• 08:30 - 09:00 the first turn out of the neighborhood did your tires get warm in that half block of riding or was the pressure so low that the tire feels like it's actually rolling out from underneath you according to Yamaha champ school one of the biggest reasons Riders crash is cold tires so next time you go for a ride as soon as you stop put your hand on your tire is it hot to the touch or just warm or worse is it cold to the touch do you remember how warm your tire should be
• 09:00 - 09:30 but what else affects Tire temperature riding in the rain or in the cold black Asal in the Sun versus white Concrete in the shade riding at a steady speed in a straight line for a long time doesn't hardly Flex the carcass of the tire and if you talk to a lot of the long-distance touring guys like the guys who do the Iron Butt rallies a lot of them have real time tire monitoring systems and they'll tell you they can watch the tire cool down just from riding down the freeway at a steady
• 09:30 - 10:00 speed that pressure number is so important not only for how the bike handles and how much weight you can carry but as the tire gets hot the pressure increases and it manages it determines how much the sidewall will flex and this is all done to get the tire into the correct operating temperature if you want to have faith in your tires you need this number to be set correctly so now that we have quality matching tires with correct pressure and we know they're nice and warm we can just send it right I've been
• 10:00 - 10:30 coaching at tracks especially for a lot of years and it always surprises me if it's a hot day the middle of the summer the track is hot and sticky that means conditions are just perfect for having a lot of crashes like like the crash truck will be running all day long now if it's a cold day early season or it's overcast or whatever we'll have almost no crashes what can we learn from this ironically it's when Riders don't trust their tires
• 10:30 - 11:00 that they tend to crash less so what is the solution here what can we do to reconcile I want to be able to trust my tires and no trust how do we how do we Square these two contrarian ideas trust but verify you know that time that the the Empire trusted without verification is how the rebels were able to get past that blockade it's an older Coda but it checks out so how do we trust but verify that everything is going well with our tires we can use the first and lasts 5%
• 11:00 - 11:30 of how we interact with our controls to get inside that Circle of trust if we grab the brakes and hit the throttle we'll blow right past that first 5% diving right into blind trust before we verified maybe it works 100 times in a row but this time we neglected to check our pressure the sun's out but the road's still cold because it was a it rained last night or for whatever reason we have less gript than we did in that
• 11:30 - 12:00 last corner now that abruptness has caught us out the tire slips and we fall down and we tell everyone including ourselves it was the crappy Tire's fault but whose fault was it really if there was snow on the road or it was raining we'd never Hammer any control right we're downright delicate with how we squeeze The Brak or roll on the throttle when we know it's slippery well we need to bring a little bit of that distrust into all of our writing we trust but
• 12:00 - 12:30 verify ease into the front break we sneak the throttle on the first and last 5% of how we use a control is the most important because it's our opportunity to verify that we have grip it gives the tire time to adapt to what we're asking of it it gives the tire a chance to let us know if something isn't right well there's still time to correct with the knowledge you've been given you are now on the inside of what I like to call the circle of trust smooth linear inputs for
• 12:30 - 13:00 that first and last 5% of a control is like asking our tires a lowrisk question to make sure to verify that they're listening look this is the the magic sauce about how this all comes together we make sure we buy good tires and we make sure we set our pressure correctly and and we go easy we do our accelerating and braking while we're straight up and down to warm up our tires then we verify everything went to plan with smooth linear Progressive
• 13:00 - 13:30 inputs for gas and brakes and even steering inputs we want to be able to sneak up on our available grip everything that we do here everything all the ideas that we present to you are all based around a strategy that that gives us choices and options to deal with things when they don't go to plan when we feel things start to slip we'll feel it because it'll feel differently and we're going to be able to back off whatever control we're using like with that slide at the beginning part of the
• 13:30 - 14:00 video I felt it start to slip I was able to ease off the control the tires regained traction and I was able to finish my corner and finish my ride with a big smile on my face if we're abrupt with big fast movements we'll blow right past our available traction and land on our head before we can even blink but when we follow these basic steps what you're likely going to discover is that your tires have far more grip than you may have ever
• 14:00 - 14:30 realized guys thank you so much for watching if you like this video or if you thought I missed something use those little thumbs up and down buttons down below um you can leave a comment I'll try to get to them or you can come hang out with us over on Discord where you can ask us questions and and tell me what I missed there if you like this video and you'd like to learn more about tires check out this other video guys thank you so much for watching ride on and ride well [Music]