Hydroplaning

Anyone ever hydroplane their bike?

Whats it feel like? Would it be like a tank slapper? or do you just go down instantly? I was riding in he rain the other day with a pretty bald front tire so I was pretty worried about it.

It is hard to hydroplane a bike as your contact patch is very small.

That said, Do yourself a favor and buy a new tire for that thing before something bad happens. A front flat is not an easy thing to deal with.

+1. Flat rear tires are a nuisance. A flat front?

I have hydroplaned on a bike, but only for a fraction of a second. It scared the crap out of me and I slowed way the f*** down.

Crashing sucks.

Rancho

Pretty difficult on a bike, most of them are too narrow, a car with fat tyres that are fairly worn is interesting in a bad kind of way.
Stewart

I've done it on the rear.
Fishtailed from one side of the road into the other, across all lanes.
If there was other traffic, I'd be dead.
about 70mph in a downpour with 1/2" of standing water on the road.


...I'm stupid.

Is this considered a form of hydroplaning?
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=9435140

Very doable. Used to do it on my dirt bike a lot. If you're going fast enough and can keep your weight back you can go for a long way before you sink. Don't try to turn.

On asphalt: I avoid it, though I often ride in the rain. I have topped a couple of smaller puddles at speed. Keeping it loose, keeps you up. Haven't hit anything deep on the road yet. Hope I don't.

You're not trying hard enough.

I've done it a few times. It feels like going through sand when the front end planes.

Done it several times with the rear wheel on my ST1100. Tach went up but speed didn't:huh :eek1

I slowed down.

Hydroplaning can be reasonably predicted by tire pressure. 10.3*(sqrt tirepressure)=MPH. Say your tires have 36 psi, sqrt of 36 is 6, times 10.3 you get ~ 62 mph. Higher tire pressure allows you to go faster without hydroplaning. For dynamic hydroplaning tread depth/design and contact patch size are pretty much irrelevant. With >0.2" standing water greater speed than calculated you WILL hydroplane.

It is hard to do on a street bike (I've never managed it and I've done lots of fairly fast riding in heavy rain). On a dirt bike its not all that hard. I've crossed some huge puddles/small ponds in a flooded out harescramble race by planning accross the top. It was very smooth and uneventful, but can go very wrong if the front end drops down into the water - keep the weight back and the power on. My KDX200 totally tapped out in 6th would stay on top long enough to get to the other side. Much better than picking my way though deep water with large, invisiable rocks underneath (those who did often ended up drowning out as portions were quite deep).

Something is missing from the hydroplaning equation - surely tire construction, weight bias and wather depth will all play a part in real life. Also, I've ridden though very heavy rains at 80+ mph on my TL with around 36psi.

Yes you need water depth. Most roads are designed not to have standing water in the first place so it isn't surprising that you can go 80 or 100 without hydroplaning. If you were to encounter a low spot in the road with improper drainage or some significant ruts in the pavement from heavy continuous truck traffic and heavy rain then you better keep it under 60. If water isn't deep enough to make a glassy smooth pool in the road (not just wet pavement) you won't dynamically hydroplane.

Yes on my wing and it scared the shit out of me... :eek1

Heavy rain and standing water that I could not see. I hit the long stretch of water at about 60 and felt the bike literally raise up, I rolled off the throttle and it settled back onto the road.

Me, too. Did it last month, on an interstate (asphalt surface). the heavy
trucks depress "ruts" in asphalt, which can easily get 1/2"+ deep. i was
changing lanes, and hit the deep water (with new avon venoms) and the
front end felt like i hit soft sand, big time... thankfully, i was crossing the
lane, and got out of the deep water quickly.

my advice. 1) ride in another vehicle's tracks, if you can tell that they
are cutting a semi-dry trail on the pavement... and 2) if need be, stick
close to one of the painted lines, so you're not in the asphalt ruts of
normal truck traffic.

on concrete pavement, not nearly as much risk.

I've done it at about 80 on my K1100RS on I-5 in frog-strangling rain where some deeper puddles had formed. I just stayed relaxed and it wasn't much of an issue.

You need surface water or really bald tires to manage it on a bike.
I know 100kph and 8" of water will do it on a bike with trials tires on ....

I havn't gone down, but I've made some spectacular saves. I'd rate it was worse than ice - for a start i's usually only one wheel goes aquaplaning so you usually notice much later - and I've been going much faster. Also on ice - partly because of the speed you can dab a foot to stabilize the bike - I've never had time to do that on water.

No magic in surviving it, just try to keep the rubber side down and avoid hitting shit. I've never had time to pray , but that might help.

Pete

The formula is only accurate if you are using the exact same conditions. Change tires, add wear, alter load, etc. and expect different results. If you use it and plan to ride up to the limit you are asking for trouble. Remember these are expected hydroplaning speeds. Even the NHTSA states 'hydroplaning could occur' not will occur.

I am not disputing that the effect of tread depth and pattern may be minimal, but they have been acknowledged as having an effect. The speeds at which hydroplaning can occur are well within the speeds expected for daily travels given the tire pressure range in most bike tires.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

Granted, the topic is 'hydroplaning'. And as good as the formulas are, they are not very close to real world in certain respects.

Lets surmise that your tires are in good shape and properly inflated. Its raining and/or there is enough water (puddles?) on the road to warrant slowing down to prevent hydroplaning as per our posted formulas.

There could be a worse condition that is unknown in the mess. Silt and other debris can collect in these conditions. Almost any speed may be too fast for such a condition.

Even if you should come upon a slightly flooded underpass and managed to hydropane across it, how would one be able to handle the slime dragged up the other side by previous traffic?

Anybody got a WAG stats on how often a street rider might sucessfully skip across puddles before one upends a rider? I sure as heck would not like to be leaned over or braking when the tire skips.

Some people know a bad idea when they hear about it....

And some people are slow learners.

Ooh! Me! MEEE! (waves hand)