Originally Posted by brunop
before last night my skiddin' skills were rudimentary at best. for some reason (maybe jesus loves me after all
), as i was ridin' to the liquor store last evenin', i just unweighted the rear tire, locked, and executed a perfect skid with that beautiful skiddy sound. so i rode around some more and did all sorts of skids--around corners, straight up, fast, slow, long, short--all on dry and various pavement surfaces. it was weird--all the sudden i became expert at it. i think i could even smell my tire burnin'. there was no real progression from bein' barely able to skid to bein' able to mad skid. weird. i could even almost control the line of the skid--make ess's and loops and all sorts of stuff.
the only thing is, i really can't stop on a dime as it were skiddin' as even at relatively slow speeds, my skid takes a bit to come to a complete stop. maybe my tires are too slick? or maybe i need to throw my weight back after the initial skidding commences? whatever. i can flat lay down some creative skiddin' and before last night i couldn't. again--no progression, it was just all the sudden. anybody else had this experience?
your tires aren't 'too slick.' it's slick tires that get the best grip on pavement--more contact area. the deal with skidding is that the more of your weight is on the front wheel, the longer you skid, because the weight on the rear wheel increases the friction--and stopping power--of dragging it. don't go around throwing your weight around on the bike, but lean forward enough to start the skid, and then move your weight back.