Wet road, lower pressure?

yorky Wrote:
Don wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
In the dry I use 7 bar front 8.5 bar in the rear. When the road is
wet
the front tyre struggles for grip so I lower it to 6 bar and then
it is
more balanced. I also lower the rear as the brakes work better
when it
has 8 bar in the rear in the wet.

At the risk of inciting a religious debate :-) wouldn't this
increase
the tendency of the tire to hydroplane in wet conditions?

I know that given the size of the contact patch and the loading of
the
wheel, it's almost impossible for a bike tire to hydroplane, but if
you
lower the tire pressure and thus increase the size of the contact
patch,
wouldn't hydroplaning be more likely to occur?

Not starting a religious debate at all, hydroplaning doesn't happen on
a bike (see http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ho-z.html#hydroplaning)

Bryan

I'm just quoting what I have experienced. If my front wheel is too
hard the bike doesn't turn in to a corner very well. Similarly it is
much easier to feel when the rear is going to lock with a bit less air
in it.


--
MichaelB

'quoting an experience', i'zat like citing an anecdote? Pretty useless


"MichaelB" wrote in message
...


I'm just quoting what I have experienced. If my front wheel is too
hard the bike doesn't turn in to a corner very well. Similarly it is
much easier to feel when the rear is going to lock with a bit less air
in it.

Doug Huffman Wrote:
'quoting an experience', i'zat like citing an anecdote? Pretty useless

/

The handbag is out! Making such a statement is also pretty useless so
why dont you say something more usefull yourself!

Take it from me lower tyres pressures in the front may not ultimately
give you much more grip but for all intents and purposes you will get a
bike that turns in to a corner much better in the wet. We soften the
suspension on our race cars when it rains because it makes the car less
sensitive to steering input and small changes in grip and effectively
cures understeer. With a bike you only have the tyre so softening this
has a similar effect.

Quoting an experience like this is quite usefull actually because when
it rains I test my bike and I always find more confidence with a softer
front tyre. How else are you going to learn without using past
experience Mr Smarty Pants ?


--
MichaelB

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 05:05:55 GMT, "Andrew Price"
wrote:

Watching the club criterium last weekend; rain had stopped but road was
still wet but they held it anyway (probably Not A Good Idea) - in 10 laps
there were about 6 flats and someone remarked that if you dropped tyre
pressure say 10/20 lbs the chance of a flat was reduced on a road which was
clearly giving up its glass fragments in the wet.

True or false, and does it compromise the handling/stability to reduce tyre
pressures in the wet?

Wet sharp things will puncture the tire more easily than dry sharp
things, as noted elsewhere. Lowering the tire pressure will increase
the chances of a snakebite flat, but will not make much (if any)
difference in tire punctures relative to running at a higher pressure.

As for traction in the wet, while there's no danger of aquaplaning
with a bike tire anyway, reducing the pressure will increase the
contact patch size and reduce the ground pressure per square inch.
That latter effect may reduce the side force required to break
traction, so reducing the tire pressure in the wet is a bad idea all
around.
--
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