Jdrentarol

Yes, it is possible. If you hit a mud or oil patch traveling at >20 mph, you may hydroplane for a second or two. I have done it 3 times, and it is scary.

andr0id

I hydroplane all the time. You just need to dial in 400 watts to do it.

markjenn

Look up hydroplaning. What you're talking about is not it.

- Mark

Jdrentarol

1. Aquaplaning or hydroplaning by the tires of a road vehicle, aircraft or other wheeled vehicle occurs when a layer of water builds between the wheels of the vehicle and the road surface, leading to a loss of traction that prevents the vehicle from responding to control inputs.
   
   
   
   Hydroplaning IS possible, but it takes speed. Going over 20 produces a risk to hydroplane, and sudden contact with water or oil causes the vehicle to 'float' for a split second then lose control.

Needles

I've been riding motorcycles for about 45 years, and bikes longer. I've never seen ,heard of, nor experienced it on a bike, even with slick tires. On motorcycles? Maybe, though it's never happened to me. Nowadays, with rear tires so wide, I guess it could happen. The guy on the BMW? Maybe, momentarily, since he highsided. A highside is caused by losing traction in a curve at the rear wheel, then regaining traction, which makes the motorcycle want to stand back up straight--- not good in a curve, and very hard to pull out of. If you're not standing on the pegs like a dirt rider when it happens, you get tossed off.

markjenn

You're confusing a simple loss of traction due to a slipperly surface with hydroplaning. The key thing about hydroplaning is that you have to be going at a speed where the water between the tire and road surface cannot be evacuated quickly enough and the tire actually leaves the road surface and planes on top of the water, not unlike how a speedboat rises up out of the water at a certain speed. This is not the mechanism where you suffer a loss of traction simply due to the coefficient of friction of a wet or oily surface being too low to maintain tire traction. And the "hydro" in hydroplaning stands for water, not oil.

It takes speeds WAY over 20 mph to hydroplane, on a bicycle with high PSI tires, more like 100+. That's why bicycles don't hydroplane - they can't go fast enough. They can certainly suffer a loss of control due to wet or oily surfaces at much lower speeds, but this has nothing to do with the tire "floating" - it has to do with the wet/oily pavement being dramatically more slippery than dry pavement.

- Mark