Some of you guys who are hardcore winter riders need to learn to ride with the rear wheel without traction.
This may sound odd, but i ride more "skilled" in winter then any other season, and i started riding like this couple years back.
I got sick and tired of the rear loosing traction as most of you also experienced and then panicking and stumbling. Then over time, i intentionally made my rear loose traction. What i came to notice was, one, it was fun as heck, two, all you had to do was shift into second and slightly drop the trottle so the rear starts spining, and over time you gain so much control over this and you loose that fear of the rear kicking out on you.
eventually i got to the point where i can ride like that on cold tires, in the dry or rain, around corners or straights, with very low temperatures....but do not try that in the snow offcourse.
what i also noticed was, that doing this once or twice leaving my house, warmed up the rear tire to the point it would bite hard into the road regardless of if it was dry or wet. I actually am so used to it that when the tires get so warmed up, it will not even slip in the wet anymore and that starts to annoy me, because i find it easier "tiny" drifting around corners and exiting.
The only down side is, by the time you hit mid summer, your rear tire will need to be replaced asap. but imo its worth it, don't have to go all out like i do, just one or two times, second gear throttle drop "lightly" in a straight will warm up the tires, but you have to remember the colder it is the longer it will take to heat up the sides of the tires even after some rolling tire spins.
This works really well if you have a 600cc sport bike, you're sol if you ride a scooter, a 250, or anything that is not powerful enoght to sping the tires super fast in the cold.
For all you supermoto rider, you know what im talking about, plus you guys have the advantage of putting your leg out on corners too.
btw if you are the type of rider who is having downshift locking problems in winter, you might be a good rider but your not yet an elite rider. In winter you should be shifting after slowing down using both front and rear brakes SMOOTH just enough and then shift down just before you would feel your about to lock the braking system, because that would mean you have slowed down enough where the revs have dropped enough where its safe to down shift to a lower gear and let the revs go up slightly and then apply pressure more again on the braking system till you feel its slowed down enough where the braking system is about to lock again, downshift and so on, when you get to that feel the braking system is about to lock its because the revs have dropped so low that there is no engine friction momentum left to stop so the tires would lock since its wet or cold road so you would downshift just before this point to eliminate any bad downshifting problems as well like locking and not shifting when the revs are to high for the surface, not like in summer where you are downshifting "engine braking" to slow the bike down and barely any brakes because the heat of the asphalt and tires is removing that slippage. downshifting rear locking is a sign of your bad braking to shifting bike speed travel velocity coherency, winter is where you find all your cracks and faults of your riding style.
Winter is probably the best time to learn how to really ride! GL be safe out there!
