Getting rid of chicken strips on the road

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

How old are you muffles?

Dude, he prolly has lost his virginity .... so your fat-bird mate has lost out I am afraid!!

To prove the point .. these are my ROAD chicken strips (ignore the puncture)



Do I give a feck they are 3 miles wide????? .... no ...

Why? ... coz I now know it is meaningless!!

Jesus, a thread about chicken strips has evolved into Muffles virginity, or lack of

I have some huge chicken strips i need rid of. I regularly keep my pressures checked etc, so its nice to know the angles you can push to.

Over the week end (you may have read else where on here) I had a play with the suspension set-up. Basically before when I pushed the bike in the corners it wasn't stable (twitching a lot), when I put the power on the front felt like it was pushing wide and the back wasn't settling down at all.

So I added a little rebound dampening on the front as I came to realise the return was too fast and violent when returning from a compressed position. This helped a lot, fixed the front pushing wide issue but when I put the power on in the corner it was still not feeling right. So I added a little Dampening on the back shock (its a cheap one... only problem with the falco so only one dampening adjuster) and after a little fine tuning I got it to the point of when I go on the power it lean't in further and felt almost perfectly stable. Ill be getting a new rear shock soonish I think (peske) and see if a little rear ride height will help further.

So basically play with the suspension make it suit you and you can ride so much faster if you want and so much smoother. Infact its made such a difference that the edge of the tyre (there is are numbers and tiny michelin on the michelins) is almost bare of the number markings and the little michelin man... after just 150 miles with the better settings.

I had managed to get to the edge of the tyre before I did this but now it does it NO PROBLEM!

So have fun and take care!

Yes you can get rid of your hoops on the road. You're on BT016s so this should be fairly easy on your Gixxer - they have an easy profile. It may be your riding style, tyre pressures, getting on the power earlier but please don't compromise your safety by trying to get rid of the last few mm. FWIW...I have 015s on my 600rr and got rid of the strips in the first 150 miles but this is due to the profile of the tyre.

Different tyres will exhibit different strips wear (road). I've have 015s with 0 strips rear, 3/4 inch strips front. On Diabolo Corsa IIIs - 10mm rear - 2-3 mm front. 2cts - 0 strips rear 3-4mm front - same bike same riding style.

Originally Posted by muffles

Yeah it's the back I'm on about....I gather the front generally requires further lean compared to the rear, so that you can't out-lean the front first?

Careful now...don't want to lowside pushing the front!!!!! Your 016s should have a huge strip on the front compared to the rear - its the profile of the tyre. I've seen the same on Blades, Gixxers, Ninjas with 016s.

Originally Posted by muffles

Still got standard pressures at the moment, happy enough with them but don't know any better!

Don't drop your pressures because someone says you'll get rid of your strips or its the best thing for grip. It depends on loads of different criteria...your weight, has your suspension been set up correctly, your riding style etc. You 'can' lower your pressure on road but you need to understand whats happening. e.g. at lower pressures your riding style may make the rear feel wallowy whereas someone else may feel totally planted.

IF YOU MUST drop pressures... only drop by 1 or 2 psi at a time and get used to riding with it for a while. If it feels better then you may be on the right track - if not then go back to std. Don't mess with the front pressures. Keep to the std - 34 or 36 psi on your bridgestones. I'd also get on the Gixxer forums - you'll get good advice there from people who know your bike. As good as the advice is on here it's limited for your bike.

As an aside - I run 34-34 now but this is only after loads of riding and only small adjustments were made to get there.

Originally Posted by muffles

My chicken strips do matter to me, I won't deny that, but not massively. It's just something I personally would like to get rid of, it's not for anyone else (i.e. pub talk!) it's just me

IMO there are far more important things than getting rid of chicken strips. Enjoy the ride dude. In time and experience they will disappear.

[mister c]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

what tyres you got ? As Stu says, it depends on the profile of the tyre sometimes to.

I managed to get right out the edge of a rear Michellin 2CT, but I cant get near the edge of the rear Diablo III.

I was the same with my Dunlop D208. Couldn't get near the edge, but on the AM45/46 no strip at all.

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Even as an OK (i.e. not necessarily the fastest) rider in the novice group, you will shred your tyres (as long as it is a hot day) no worries on a full trackday ...


Ok, so, unless you are totally disillusioned, you know you are not going to be challenging Rossi for the title next week, but you actually have shredded tyres .... oh hang on .... that doesn't actually mean I am fast does it then ...

Once you realise it really means nothing, it will mean nothing to you

Like I said, its a right of passage ... like a kneedown or losing your virginity, so do a trackday, sh4g a fat bird and get it over and done with and move on ... only at this point will you actually concentrate on trying to get faster and trying to nail a fit bird!!

OK, track day it is & get rid of em!

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

How old are you muffles?

27. Does it get more difficult with age or something?

Originally Posted by stuartyboy

Yes you can get rid of your hoops on the road. You're on BT016s so this should be fairly easy on your Gixxer - they have an easy profile. It may be your riding style, tyre pressures, getting on the power earlier but please don't compromise your safety by trying to get rid of the last few mm. FWIW...I have 015s on my 600rr and got rid of the strips in the first 150 miles but this is due to the profile of the tyre.

Different tyres will exhibit different strips wear (road). I've have 015s with 0 strips rear, 3/4 inch strips front. On Diabolo Corsa IIIs - 10mm rear - 2-3 mm front. 2cts - 0 strips rear 3-4mm front - same bike same riding style.


Careful now...don't want to lowside pushing the front!!!!! Your 016s should have a huge strip on the front compared to the rear - its the profile of the tyre. I've seen the same on Blades, Gixxers, Ninjas with 016s.



Don't drop your pressures because someone says you'll get rid of your strips or its the best thing for grip. It depends on loads of different criteria...your weight, has your suspension been set up correctly, your riding style etc. You 'can' lower your pressure on road but you need to understand whats happening. e.g. at lower pressures your riding style may make the rear feel wallowy whereas someone else may feel totally planted.

IF YOU MUST drop pressures... only drop by 1 or 2 psi at a time and get used to riding with it for a while. If it feels better then you may be on the right track - if not then go back to std. Don't mess with the front pressures. Keep to the std - 34 or 36 psi on your bridgestones. I'd also get on the Gixxer forums - you'll get good advice there from people who know your bike. As good as the advice is on here it's limited for your bike.

As an aside - I run 34-34 now but this is only after loads of riding and only small adjustments were made to get there.



IMO there are far more important things than getting rid of chicken strips. Enjoy the ride dude. In time and experience they will disappear.

Ahem - it's a C90...

OK so you reckon it is quite easy to get rid of them on the road? I'm not going to ride in a manner that I'm not comfortable with, but this is the question I had at the end of the day - is it something that is realistically possible or not (there'll always be a few that can get rid of them on the road, but in general...do people get rid of them on the road)?

The chicken strip thing is really just a load of willy waving!

As Blue said, on the road its meaningless.

Even on the track I didn't get right to the edge of the front Road Pilot 2CT. It all depends on the profie of the tyre. The rear was sha99ed though!

Originally Posted by Jester666

The chicken strip thing is really just a load of willy waving!

As Blue said, on the road its meaningless.

Even on the track I didn't get right to the edge of the front Road Pilot 2CT. It all depends on the profie of the tyre. The rear was sha99ed though!

I don't want to get to the edge of the front, lol - just the rear. I suppose in most cases it looks like people just want to get rid to be able to say they go rid, but that's really not why I'm doing it/want to do it - it's a 'measure', I think Blue put it quite accurately in that it's a milestone, maybe afterwards you don't care any more, but before you have it's something you do want to achieve.

Btw I thought he meant meaningless anywhere? I.e. doing it for the sake of doing it, on road or track, is (often) not conducive to fast riding? I haven't been ignoring my lines for example - I was practicing those before I was trying to get to the edge of the tyre - still wanna do it though