Burned out on burnouts

[E-HP]

I think I'm just getting old. I can picture myself in a few years, yelling at kids to get off of my lawn. Luckily I retired recently, so I should be able to unwind more, but things like grocery checkers in long conversations with customers, while their checkout hands sit idle, still irritate me, even though I have plenty of time. I still put on what my girls used to call dad's grocery store face. A sort of emotionless stare, sort of neutral, and just short of looking irritated, while the checkers yakked away. It's gonna take a while.

But on burnouts. A lot of the ebike related YouTube videos seem to have to have a burnout at some point. Guy lifting up on the back of the bike while twisting the throttle, either on pavement or gravel. I'm trying to figure out the point. (Like this one) I could practically do the same with a pedal bike. OK, the burnout stuff was pretty cool when I was younger. For drag racing, there is a purpose, to get the tires sticky. Has a purpose and looks impressive. Practically every superbike or GP bike race I ever went to had a burnout competition during one of the practice days. Not the race bikes, but street bikes owned by spectators. That was cool too, but I learned to stay about 75 yards away or otherwise you'd be engulfed in a thick cloud of acrid burning tire rubber smoke. The winner always went all the way until the tire burst (I always wondered how they got home afterwards, but one year I saw the winner bringing his bike to one of tents that sold tires to get a new rear ). Also impressive and entertaining. Virtually all NASCAR races have the winner doing a big burnout in front of the crowd. Fun to watch the celebratory burnouts.

What is it about the ebike burnouts that's irritating me? I can't figure it out. The irritation has been below the surface, but today I watched a YouTube video of someone with an electric scooter doing one, LOL. Then I pictured in my mind, some dude pulling up to a stop light in his car, and a couple of his buddies getting out and lifting up on the back bumper so he could do a burnout. Cool? Impressive? I guess it would be entertaining. Like I said, I think I'm just getting old.

On the other hand, I saw this lady on her 3 wheeled e-wheelchair this afternoon. It was impressively fast. Now if SHE did a burnout, that would be cool and entertaining, LOL.

Anyway, that's my rant. It would be interesting to see if others feel either way about ebike burnouts, to see if there may be an age correlation; or maybe I'm the only one .

 

[amberwolf]

I'd be impressed if I could do a burnout on my fully-loaded SB Cruiser (would probably be half a ton or more) on good grippy warm pavement. (I'd guess the tires would probably spin on the rims first and rip the tubes off their valve stems, though, before there was enough torque to break the tires loose from the ground).

But...yeah, I'm not really a burnout kind of person.

Burned out, yes; burnouts, no.

 

[Eastwood]

I must be getting old too. Yes people doing burnouts on Ebikes aggravate me as well. Especially when they don’t even have much power, and they have to lift up on the rear just to get the tire to spin lol it’s completely pointless and nonsense. Like you said, burnouts have their place in drag racing to heat up the tire and make it more sticky.

I can remember back in my street bike days. People would always tell me to do a burn out at the red light and I would shake my head NO, then I would say are you going to buy me a new tire? Lol

 

[Oldboy]

I'm 60 and I like a good burn out for sure , particularly when it's something that's got heaps of raw power and you just hit it and it lights up effortlessly and continues for ages that in my books is a real burn out . Might not be what other think but that's just my thoughts on burnouts I guess

 

[Adrian_]

I have a 12kW stealth bomber clone built for straight red light racing. When it's wet outside like it rained recently or a mist, I'll do a 2-3 second burnout at the red light to dry off my rear tire for launch otherwise at launch the rear tire will lose tracation and the bike will start crab walking forcing me to reduce power, doing a burnout before a launch allows me to full throttle launch with minimal traction loss.

I also run into a lot of teens who yell at me to do a wheelie or a burnout, sometimes I cave in most of the time I don't. To me standing still burnouts are not that impressive probably because they require no skill, hold front brake and full throttle. To me rolling burnouts are more impressive, they look cooler and actually require balance, brake controls and throttle modulation to do it, too much brake and you're skidding the front tire and falling over, too much throttle and the bike will hook and take off.

 

[litespeed]

I have a 17KW hub powered ebike with Shinko 241’s on it. For the life of me I can not get it to burnout on rough concrete due to traction. I have a 220 front brake and it just pushes the front tire but the rear doesn’t break loose……probably from the weight of the motor, the 20s15p pack and the physical mass of the bike weighing the rear end down. That said, if I place the front tire against a wall with the brake on, a nice smoky burnout happens. Leave the front brake off and the front end climbs the wall. These Shinko 241 tires are the best things to happen in electric bikes….they last forever and stick like glue. I think a burnout can be fun sometimes…..just not every time!

Tom

 

[amberwolf]

The Shinko SR714 16x2.25" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00274F0G6 I use on SB Cruiser's rear wheels are very sticky, too--before I started using them I could drift my turns and lane changes, but that's VERY difficult to do now under dry conditions.

 

[Eastwood]

I have a 17KW hub powered ebike with Shinko 241’s on it. For the life of me I can not get it to burnout on rough concrete due to traction. I have a 220 front brake and it just pushes the front tire but the rear doesn’t break loose……probably from the weight of the motor, the 20s15p pack and the physical mass of the bike weighing the rear end down. That said, if I place the front tire against a wall with the brake on, a nice smoky burnout happens. Leave the front brake off and the front end climbs the wall. These Shinko 241 tires are the best things to happen in electric bikes….they last forever and stick like glue. I think a burnout can be fun sometimes…..just not every time!

Tom

Yeah the Shinko 241 is a great ebike tire. I used these for a short period on my Enduro build when I had 19” rims. I ride strictly off road now enduro style so they’re not sufficient, but for street use or light off-roading, I love those tires!

What winding do you have, Probably 3T?
What’s your voltage and amps?

My QS 205 is a 6t winding on 16” rim and I can smoke the tire while leaning forward with no front brake but that’s with a knobby tire. I was racing my buddy the other day on his side-by-side and I spun from 0 to 30 mph fishtailing back-and-forth but again that’s with a knobby tire which does not have good traction on the street. I don’t think I could spin the rear tire like that if I was running a Shinko 241, they grip!

 

[E-HP]

I guess I should have clarified that I can still enjoy watching an impressive burnout, or ones with a purpose; I just don't understand the silly one's. But I admit that even the silly ones may have some entertainment value.

 

[Theodore Voltaire]

Burnouts don't really bother me much, although I kind of feel sorry the tire. What's more concerning is wheelies in traffic, and on city trails. Never mind that I'm not good at them. It seems like it's becoming an epidemic, but mainly for only one brand of bike.

 

[Eastwood]

Burnouts don't really bother me much, although I kind of feel sorry the tire. What's more concerning is wheelies in traffic, and on city trails. Never mind that I'm not good at them. It seems like it's becoming an epidemic, but mainly for only one brand of bike.

Sur Ron?

 

[Eastwood]

here’s a completely pointless burn out, non E bike related. The method of which he tries to put out the fire is just mind-boggling. The man tried to blow the fire out
Then, when that didn’t work, he tried to throw some dirt on it

 

[DogDipstick]

I like rolling line locks on my bike. Feather the front brake and go full throttle. 20 30 feet with the back wheel smoking. its fun.

I woulndt be happy with a bike that could not do that.

It smokes on the pavement.. Throws rocks and digs four inch deep ruts in the stone driveway... in the grass there is nothing stopping my rear wheel from letting loose. Covered in mud in about 20 seconds. Completely destroy my back yard in ten min. Lol.

4T. I have to lean on the brake to get started. 19" rim.

I have taken vids of this and its not as impressive as it is fun.

 

[gogo]

Spinning the back wheel of my 1975 RD350 at the dragstrip was a strategy for the quickest takeoffs. These days, I'm much more impressed with electronic traction control. You almost never hear vehicles on the street even chirp their tires, anymore.

 

[marvin78]

I think I'm just getting old. I can picture myself in a few years, yelling at kids to get off of my lawn. Luckily I retired recently, so I should be able to unwind more, but things like grocery checkers in long conversations with customers, while their checkout hands sit idle, still irritate me, even though I have plenty of time. I still put on what my girls used to call dad's grocery store face. A sort of emotionless stare, sort of neutral, and just short of looking irritated, while the checkers yakked away. It's gonna take a while.

But on burnouts. A lot of the ebike related YouTube videos seem to have to have a burnout at some point. Guy lifting up on the back of the bike while twisting the throttle, either on pavement or gravel. I'm trying to figure out the point. (Like this one) I could practically do the same with a pedal bike. OK, the burnout stuff was pretty cool when I was younger. For drag racing, there is a purpose, to get the tires sticky. Has a purpose and looks impressive. Practically every superbike or GP bike race I ever went to had a burnout competition during one of the practice days. Not the race bikes, but street bikes owned by spectators. That was cool too, but I learned to stay about 75 yards away or otherwise you'd be engulfed in a thick cloud of acrid burning tire rubber smoke. The winner always went all the way until the tire burst (I always wondered how they got home afterwards, but one year I saw the winner bringing his bike to one of tents that sold tires to get a new rear ). Also impressive and entertaining. Virtually all NASCAR races have the winner doing a big burnout in front of the crowd. Fun to watch the celebratory burnouts.

What is it about the ebike burnouts that's irritating me? I can't figure it out. The irritation has been below the surface, but today I watched a YouTube video of someone with an electric scooter doing one, LOL. Then I pictured in my mind, some dude pulling up to a stop light in his car, and a couple of his buddies getting out and lifting up on the back bumper so he could do a burnout. Cool? Impressive? I guess it would be entertaining. Like I said, I think I'm just getting old.

On the other hand, I saw this lady on her 3 wheeled e-wheelchair this afternoon. It was impressively fast. Now if SHE did a burnout, that would be cool and entertaining, LOL.

Anyway, that's my rant. It would be interesting to see if others feel either way about ebike burnouts, to see if there may be an age correlation; or maybe I'm the only one .

View attachment 331451

I guess for me it totally depends on where. If you're doing burnouts out on the public streets it's usually not something I will admire. If you got an ebike and are doing burnouts on the dirttrack, the trail crew probably won't like you but I probably would.

I do think it's a bit of an age thing, if you asked me this question when I was in my late teens / young 20's I would have said that burnouts are awesome everywhere.

Burnouts don't really bother me much, although I kind of feel sorry the tire. What's more concerning is wheelies in traffic, and on city trails. Never mind that I'm not good at them. It seems like it's becoming an epidemic, but mainly for only one brand of bike.

I have less of an issue on city ( bike? ) trails, as long as they aren't crowded. Just as I don't mind it when you're doing donuts on parking lot, as long as I'm not parked somewhere in the middle. In short: do your stuff OUTSIDE of traffic. Not only the cops will thank you, so will the hospital staff and frankly that last one is most important.

.. I'm better at manuals then wheelies