Originally Posted by
TimothyH
You do if you are paying attention.
Motor vehicle tires let you know audibly. They squeal. Turn the radio off.
A tire begins to slide prior to completely breaking traction. The slide can be felt.
Good racers are able to push a vehicle slightly past the limits of adhesion so that the vehicle (car, bicycle, motorcycle) drifts slightly. I've done it with sports cars and have felt a road bicycle begin to drift when cornered hard. MTB and cross riders know how to ride past the tire's limit of adhesion and they do so on purpose. Then there is the whole "Drift" racing thing, which I don't really get, but their entire reason for existence is to drive past the limits of adhesion at all times without crashing.
Lots of examples of people who know the limits of adhesion without crashing.
-Tim-
You're watching guys who've already mastered their craft. That doesn't mean they didn't wipeout more than a few times while learning. No question you can improve and become a decent rider without pushing the limits, my approach by the way, but if you want to be competitive on technical courses spills are going to happen.
Driving a car and getting it to slide or drift a little on a corner is not the same as trying to improve lap times on a course filled with a variety of corners where you have to pick the right time to go from full throttle to 100% braking and pick the perfect line while keeping the car balanced. Get anything wrong and it's not hard to slip off the track.