kill.cactus

I'm coming home from school, which entails an initial drop of like 200 feet or so pretty quickly. I'm riding my commuter hybrid and building speed down a moderately steep hill that eventually I will need to turn off of. I start to take the 70 or 80 degree turn around the high 20s (in which I always use proper fast-turn technique - allowing the bike to dip beneath you while you lean to keep as much weight as you can pointing down instead of going sideways with the bike's frame into the pavement (if that makes any sense)).

Them something amazing happens: my rear wheel slides out as if I had locked it in the turn and the slide (drift) lasts for nearly the entire turn (total covered distance probably nearly 200 feet or so). And I recover with no effort.

That was a really cool experience. The only other times I slide out and recover are when I'm on the mtb doing descents or when I'm locking up my rear wheel for fun.

Cool!

prendrefeu

You're doing this on typical road tires, right?

Check your tires for wear.

Creakyknees

Wow... that could have turned unpleasant in a hurry.

I've never drifted on pavement, but on wet grass like golf course with road tires it's tons of fun. Good CX practice.

RT

The Fast and the Furious: Ann Arbor Drift

Seedy J

Cool!

Battle Magazine (the best drifting mag here) used to run a section called "Charidori" (bicycle drift) on the last page. It had pics of people doing bike drifting and sometimes listed their setups (usually tongue in cheek). It got big enough that URAS, a drift parts company actually made "drift-specific" bicycle brake pads .

deadly downtube

not possible, you took too much LSD before riding...

AEO

hmm, you usually get a ton of gravity working at the base of a hill.

maybe you put too much weight on the front? Was it dusty? did you hit road paint?

jccaclimber

I would agree with you had I not done it myself once. I was riding through an S turn that had been ground down for resurfacing and swept, but not yet repaved. It was a rather cool experience that I suspect I'll never repeat and really I don't want to repeat as I'm sure the Brooks side wouldn't still be pointed up if I tried it again. fwiw This was done on what is now a 37 year old Raleigh with what may have been the original brakes and pads, so the brakes had nothing to do with it.

kill.cactus

My rear tire is "commuting specific" which means it has minimal (but pronounced) tread on the center and sides. Also it was like 8 dollars from my LBS which probably means it is pretty non-sticky rubber.

I wouldn't have thought it possible unless you were on wet ground or used your brakes to lock the wheel. But no - the wheel was turning (as in continuing to try to move forward) and slipping out to the side!

Pretty awesome :0

GuitarWizard

I had my bike drift on me at 42 mph on a descent before.....it was really windy out that day, and I hit the bottom of the descent, and a reallllllly strong crosswind hit me.

That was a white knuckler, but not quite as bad as going over the 20 feet of black ice a couple winters ago at night, at 25 mph with two cars (literally) right behind me. Just stopped pedaling, kept the bike as straight as possible, and hoped for the best. Getting run over would've sucked.

I somehow stayed up both times.

JMT114

Wow! That could have really sucked. I wouldn't recommend trying that again.

veggiemafia

You should hang out with these guys. They even have Initial D music so you know it's for real.

platypus

Be careful on the rear wheel drifting. You could easily get into a highside just like a motorcycle, and that'll ruin your day real quick.

Stevie Boy

sounds like you were this close to sliding out. I've done that in my garage testing out maximum turn speed. "Drifted" through two turns, and then the next one had me drift off the wheels, onto my thigh and into a pillar. Count yourself lucky, or you could go and try it again.

I'd be surprised if a bike could high side...

waikikihei

yes, you would certainly be surprised as it launched you. and, the description of what you did "in my garage" is quite mysterious.

as for the highside, its easy to do. just dial it up to 400 watts, lean into a turn (perhaps in your garage), lock up the rear brake, slide the rear out and release the brake - midslide. as you can imagine, your rear tire will immediately gain a lot of traction and severely upset your slide. wear some pads.

to the op, 200 foot slide? i find that very hard to believe.

mattm

here's a great bicycle-drifting vid, btw: https://www.metacafe.com/watch/163511/bicycle_drift/

ridethecliche

I had to do that around a turn in a race once when a guy in front of me messed up the turn and almost went into the curb and took me with him. Sheesh.