How To Rate A Tyre In The Wet

Hi all,
I've read many times about tyres being 'great in the wet' and all... but how exactly do you that have made statements like that, come to your conclusions? (Without binning several bikes in the process)

* With my OE Dunlops, I never rode them hard enough in the wet to know where the limit was, being relatively new to biking.

* My next tyres were the Bridgestone 020s, now these I felt were generally better at the time, but looking back, they never felt 'planted' in the wet or dry, and always felt like they would slide out at any moment, but never actually did!

* My next (and current) tyres are Pirelli Diablos. With these they feel so much more 'stuck' to the road that I love them to bits in the dry, however once it comes to wet riding, I hear that they're not so good, so because of that, I don't ride them anything like I do in the dry, but have found it's limit the other night while doing a tad over 80 (KM/H officer ) round a moderate bend, and caught a small patch of lying water and the back wheel flicked out a little, enough to let me know that I'd found the limit in the wet.

My dilemma is that I can't remember if I would have had the same twitch from the back tyre with the 020s (or indeed with any other 'better in the wet' tyre) going through a small patch of lying water or not, as it never felt grippy enough to risk going as fast in the first place.

So how do you all work out whether a tyre is better in the wet over others?

Do the same sorta run on different tyres, ie. your run to work. I tended to find my 020s gave way a bit but gave me some notice, my Qualifiers just give way in dry when they are cold now , not too great for me in the rain but i think that is cos i have run the tread right out lol. Nowt left on em now.

When we say a tyre is good in the rain it usually means how well it will allow you to ride towards your dry riding in a sense. Grip, lean angles, notice before tyre lets go and how quickly the tyre warms up before you can put it through a corner at a good speed.

I remember starting a thread about wet riding, does anybody change their style, some say yes, some say no, this could be down to ability(not sayin anyone is a bad rider)/confidence, tyres and how bad the conditions are.

Personally i am crap in the wet and could prob ice skate more comfotably than my riding.

Don't forget the road surface can also contribute. My BT014's are awesome in teh UK but when I went to Germany teh back end was sliding out on every bend due to the difference in road surface/lack of drainage.

IMO thats not tyres, more sorta road surfaces, i find any set of tyres i have had cant deal with one or two roads surfaces i know, or maybe your right and i just dont have the confidence to tackle them to test.

My wet weather riding comes and goes. Sometimes I can be brave as you like and have been as brave/stupid enough to get kneedown in the wet (on the Nurburgring mind) other times I ride bolt upright and very cautiously. Most of the time I give myself much more of an error for margin in the wet plus as soon as I see drops of diesel I go very steady, most of the time on my commute as it's a bus route.

The standard Dunlops D220's on the SV were okay but not great in the wet. I ofund they lacked feedback and just felt (to me) as if I was not sure how much grip I had, or indeed didn't have. When I changed to BT014s they were much more responsive and even the softer 010's on my Ninja seem to cope with wet weather very well (in this country at least).

[G]

Although I'm totally happy to ride in the rain I'm 110% more concious and just take my time.

You can have the best wet tyres in the world and be cornering at a reasonable rate of progress, but if the level of standing water running across the road changes whilst your giving it some lean you cant adapt to that, you go down. Soaking wet roads with standing water and to some extent just wet roads hide a magnitude of sins from oil, diesel, white lines and road surface changes.......More than happy to ride in it but would never attempt to test the wet limits of a tyre, its asking for trouble.

Asked too much of one of mine back in March, that wasnt fun. Was just been silly and optimistic at the time, trying to test them too much. Live and learn.........

[northwind]

I just do it by repetition- there's a roundabout at the end of my road that I've gone round about 2000 times in all weathers so even I can figure out where the limits are on that one and then I just compare results. I've got a few spots I do this at for all sorts of mods, my wee test track.

Good surface and wet is good and your own confidence will probably be the limiting factor with todays tyre compounds. Add some diesel and a few bad repairs and no tyres will grip properly. So its swings and roundabouts time....too many variables to make an accurate judgment. You really do have to ride on the same surface in the same weather conditions/temperatures to have a good idea of the differences.

I take note from tyre testing by the magazines. They do push tyres to the max so give a good indication of limits that we will mostly never achieve! Let someone else do the testing for you!

Did I join a racers forum?

Is it just me or does it seem totally insane to push your bike like you're riding in the dry when it's raining? The only two groups of people who need amazing grip at high speed in the wet are racers and police riders. I may not own an SV yet, but when I do I won't be trying to be the next Rossi down the A446 in the middle of November.


Good grip is important, but pushing yourself "to the limit" in the wet, or on public roads, makes you no more of a sensible road user than the BMW / Volvo driver not checking his mirrors, or the white van changing lanes as he wishes without looking or indicating.

Maybe I should get a moped instead...

EDIT: If your tyres can't cope with the road surface or conditions, it's not their fault. THEY'RE NOT CONTROLLING THE THROTTLE.