snow/slush riding and tyre pressure?

[tramp]

this one goes out to out northern friends [you have more snow than us southern softies]

well riding to work and home tonight proved very intresting again and got to thinking is it worth deflating the rear tyre and front for more grip/heat in tyre ,like riding in sand, but at higher speeds say up to 60mph [ I live dangerously]

Dont have anakees just Distanza and tourance tyres fitted use plenty back brake and engine braking but feel all the grip I can get is best on the motorway and side roads.

[StumpyFingers]

It is recommended to reduce tire pressure in snowy conditions for a larger contact area.

[Steve T]

Me, I keep the pressures set as recommended by Mr Honda.

Reason - the smaller the contact patch with a given weight / mass, the higher the ground pressure = more grip (or something like that based on some physics that I don't understand).
You'll be hard pressed to generate any usable heat in any dual purpose tyre when riding on frozen / slush / snow covered roads.
As for riding at 60mph in those conditions - fine if you've got a straight line of road in front of you along with good visability, but I tend to give myself more time to get where I'm going, rather than "push the envelope" when grip is an unknown or in short supply.

Just my ramblings.

Steve T

[tramp]

cheers all,
looks like I`ll be needing a winter hack then as my tansalps too nice to throw down the road unnessasary like.

might try to find a dominator [ cheapish and not in excellent condition] and fit some nobblies amd could always use it fot the "sailsbury plain stuff"

[Paul-S]

Russ

On track in the wet we'd run tyre pressures 18-20 psi to get that footprint but the beads are better and will stand the sideways movement

On the road the standard tyre pressure would be better as you'd never be riding hard enough for road compound tyres to generate that level of heat and you'd end up with a poorer handling bike

As such despite the recent weather I have left my tyre pressures as normal even on the enduro's that I'm running

[Curzon]

Definately do not reduce your tyre pressures for riding in snow & slush. Whilst as conventional wisdom says, you increase the contact patch by doing this. You also distort the tread pattern in contact with the road surface, closing up the negative lands, (grooves) in the tread. significantly reducing the water dispersing ability of the tyre.

Should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in an RTA in such conditions, one of the first things any traffic accident investigator worth his salt will check will be the tyre condition and pressures of the vehicles involved. Reduced tyre pressures may be deemed to be a contributory factor in any such accident, potentialy invalidating your insurance, or reducing any insurance compensation.

Stick to vehicle & tyre manufacturers reccomended tyre pressures for road use. They are there for a reason!