New Tires are slippery....AAARRRRGGG!

Threw some new tires on my Triumph Scrambler before heading North on a short trip. Didn't even make it out of Honda's parking lot before the bike slid out from under me as though I was on a sheet of ice. Combination of new tires covered with silicone, a newly seal coated parking lot, and an 865cc motor. Fortunately I was going slow but seeing my beautiful Scrambler sliding on the pavement nearly broke my heart. Not to mention the friction burn I received on my right knee from me sliding with it. Went straight to the store and bought a new pair of jeans. What happens on this forum stays on this forum right? Wife never needs to know (she'll just worry). :)

And of course....after the fact everybody wanted to give me advice on being careful with new tires.

Don't forget, be careful with new tires
Glad you didn't get hurt worse.

I get the guys to give them a scrub with a wire brush. Seems to work ok.
Glad you are relatively ok.

I wash them with a stiff nylon brush, but have never used a wire brush for this.
Nylon + Simple Green has worked for me.

I just put them on and ride...

I now use my angle grinder and a coarse wheel, and give them a good buffin on the balance stand. Then I balance it. Seems to work, only takes a minute. Just to make sure I head for a nice gravel road, and ride about 10 miles. Good practice for the street anyway.

Rod

This spring I left my mechanic's shop after he had put new Metzlers on my ZX6R. Just after leaving his shop there's a nice fun hard right hander. Wasn't thinking and goosed it a little (or maybe a little more than a little) coming out of the corner and the rear end stepped out on me a LOT more than I was prepared for. :eek1 Managed to keep it upright - but I was pretty darn circumspect the rest of the way home!

I have gone through 4 sets of tires in my short riding career and have yet to have any issues. I don't know.

Glad you're OK....

Took my son to a SuMo track day. He had on brand new tires. I told him to take it easy the first couple of laps because new tires are slippery. He came back in after the first lap to get the bike reteched and himself checked over... because he discovered that mom was right.

I got my tires changed at the local dealer once and they had the bike sitting in a puddle of oil and gas. I almost went down walking to the bike!

..."Not to mention the friction burn I received on my right knee from me sliding with it. Went straight to the store and bought a new pair of jeans."

So, a new pair of COTTON jeans eh, no armor, just jeans huh? Have a slow learning curve do you?

Considering I ride on really aggressive knobby Michelin MC10 tires, which have a contact patch the size of a fingerprint on pavement, I'm always careful on my tires... :)

I've never understood the lengths some guys go to to pre-scrub their tires.. Just ride the damn thing and dont be stupid for 30 miles.. youll be fine.

I am pretty sure that modern tires don't use release compounds any longer. At least not in the last 12 years or so. We don't even take the stickers off our race tires. Just heat 'em up in the warmers and take your sighting lap. You can hit T1 as hard as you want.

You would know better than me since you were there, but my guess is it was more slippery surface than slippery tire. What kind of tire was it? You can probably go right to the distributor to learn if their new tires are slippery and need to be scrubbed in.

Some people have trouble with 'don't be stupid for 30 feet', let alone 30 miles.

.... and behave myself for the first few right/lefts.

I just ride the bike like I'm riding in rain.

When I worked at a shop I'd always scrub the tire before we sent the bike out, and the techs were supposed to ride the bike a few miles before handing it over.

Sorry to hear about your bike. And get some armor.

My recent tire purchases seemed a bit slipperly to the touch, but I don't know if it was actually "release compound".

I prefer the gravel road method myself, but I can't seem to convince my buddy with the R1. What a sissy.