Skid Patches - educate me?

General Fixed Street
1

I cant’ work that shit out.

There’s 6 or 7 skid patches with a ratio 43:16 how in hell do you work that out. I figure you’d only have two available patches, those being pedal at 6 o’clock and pedal at 9 o’clock. Due to the fact that I don’t think you’d be able to skid with the pedals at 12 o’clock and/or 3 o’clock.

I was having a chat with a fixed Gear rider at Milton this morning and the conversation turned to Skid patches. He asked about it and I just had to say “Meh, I don’t know.”

What’s the go with skid patches and are they important or is it just some “cool” thing to talk about?

2

Scroll down.

3

Been there, read that, still don’t get it.

4

It’s not too hard… Turn your bike upside down, mark tyre, turn cranks and count the number of places the mark stops at the same crank position.

Or use a formula: skid spots = cog / gcd (ring, cog)

For “two leg” skids it’s the same or double.

For more info read this: Why Skid Spots?

Or don’t worry - it rarely matters.

Note: Sheldon’s formulas are incorrect, but again it doesn’t really matter

5

Oh my, King Sheldon is wrong! Fuck me, next off the LHC will cause a blackhole. But what we are talking about is just a method of fucking up your tyres. Mind you there is a Courier in Brisbane that is very good at the skids. I see him steering with the back wheel…

Thanks ndf.

6

heh no worries. Sheldon is not entirely wrong - just on his bit about “two legged skids”. I just re-read that article and maybe should add the following in case anyone wants to actually try the skid patch demonstration at home:

Skid patch demo or “how I showed my friends how many skid spots I have without maths”

You will need chalk or a pencil to mark the tyre.

1: Turn bike upside-down.
2: Rotate cranks forward until right pedal is forward and cranks are horizontal.
3: Place a mark on the tyre where it crosses the chain stay. If there was already a mark on the tyre stop.
4: goto step 2

Count the number of marks on the tyre -> thats’s the number of skid spots.

Try it - you will love it :slight_smile:

7

I tried to skid this afternoon after our conversation. Skid Patch or no, I can’t do it.

8

just use odd number for cog and chainring i.e. 49 x 19, 49 x 17…etc.

9

This site is pretty handy…

http://software.bareknucklebrigade.com/rabbit.applet.html

Helped me make a bit of sense of the whole thing!

10

45:15, 51:17, 38:19 …

Vee Dub, perhaps …

11

general mathematics…49 is a odd number and so is 17…
of coz 45:15, 51:17, 38:19 are also odd numbers.

Prehaps you should read my post carefully, I said “…etc”.

Honestly I did do some research for my gearing and skip patch. You sounded like as if I stepped on your tail or something.

12

heh no - I’m more worried about you stepping on your own foot :wink:

13

Thanks for the concern…

14

That calculator thing was wrong for me when I tried it ages ago…it said I would have 7 or 9 or some small number, but I actually tested it with rotating the cranks and marking with chalk and I ended up with 16 or so.

15

Get a 17t cog and a Randonneur tyre… you’ll be laughing.

16

That RULES! Thanks! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

17

especially if you have a 51 or a 34 on the front :wink:

18

Just saw the Randonneur in white, but, advice, don’t get a white tyre for the rear! I had a Vittoria Zaffiro Pro on the rear, lasted maybe 2 months, and I don’t skid as much as I used too. Blew the bastard out on Sunday on my way back from BSC with a new Vittoria Rubino that I just bought. Lucky.

I heard white tyres have a softer compound due to the process of getting them white. No good for skids.

19

The most common use [70%] of carbon black is as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life

20

I knew he wasn’t telling porky pies. Thanks for the info. :slight_smile: