Working on getting the bike lower during turns. Someone tell me how my chicken tread looks. Is there still tons of room for lean?

Less than I've got.

I have 2 friends who do track days, and one guy has a BMW and is also a motorcycle cop...I've seen him with nothing but shredded, burned rubber right to the edge,  and more burned pieces of rubber stuck to the rest of his bike.  His skills are awesome.

Keep practicing, listen to the more skilled riders, and let your confidence grow along with your skills.   

Using the entire tire is easy... using the entire tire up with proper riding technique is not so easy.

Let a friend from out of town borrow my wifes 600 this summer, he had never reallly ridden twisties even though he rode an R1 normally.
He struggled to try and keep up with my riding buddy and I. We used only about 60% of our available tire, He was to the very edge on both sides of the tires.

After working with him on form and technique he did better the rest of the ride, I was worried about him wadding my wifes bike up because he was on the very edge of it the first 90 miles, but her tires looked really awesome.

Chicken strips are wisdom strips on the street, anyone who seriously makes fun of you for having them especially if you're just a street rider, sucks giant green donkey hose nozzles.

Yeah, I started to write a similar post to this last night, but then stopped because I thought I was sounding like a smart ass, but now that someone else has said it, I don't put too much on what chicken strips look like on a street bike. People I used to ride with always made a big deal about it, but I've always ridden way too fast, never had a problem keeping up with anyone, and I have always still had strips of unused rubber on the sides of my tires.

I always felt like the people who didn't have any were intentionally going out and trying to wear them off, and probably weren't leaning how they should have been. All you have to do is keep your body more upright in a turn, which forces your bike to lean over more. I always tried to shift my weight more than the bike. It's the same as people who talk about dragging their knees on turns while they're on the street. It doesn't mean they leaned over properly, most of the time they probably just out throwing their knees and hanging off their seat as far as physically possible just to get a couple street-cred scratches on their knee pucks

I remember "worrying" about my strips when I was a noob....

now that I'm a more experienced rider, I could care less.  When I started concentrating on my riding SKILL and not getting rid of my strips, I discovered that my strips have shrunk on me. Now I've got about 1/4" left the last time I really looked (about a couple months ago)

And I thought I was sounding like a sanctimonious duck for berating him for being worried about his strips.

thanks for speaking up tt_four.

I know guys who can wear their tires all the way to the edge in a parking lot. Any competent street rider will still have them, unless they run trackdays...

Last time I rode with a buddy I looked at my tires and reaized I was rubbing the Michelin men off I asked my partner if my form sucked that bad, his response was no you're riding way too damn fast.

The amusing part is, with all the bike nights and group rides I've been on, it's rarely the young kids that are picking on people for their chicken strips. 95% of the time it's some 45 year old guy that wanted to spend the majority of the night inside the bar with his helmet right next to him hitting on young bartenders.

That's why I never really cared.

haha. Oh man. Apparently I've struck a GStwin nerve. Let me rephrase my original question with a few amendments.

1) I'm not a squid, I'm not a newb. I wear AGATT.

2) I understand riding form. I'm constantly working on my rider skill. I took the MSF and one day I'll take the advanced MSF.

3) I've done a trackday (I'd do more but they closed down the local track. I recently moved near Jennings GP-perhaps one day in the future). I understand that leaning off the bike, riding position etc can reduce the lean angle on the bike and thus increase chicken tread of chicken tread. Chicken tread != rider skill.

Let me rephrase my original post.

Recently my daily commute has changed. I now take 2 on-ramps onto highways to and from work. These ramps provide me the opportunity to take turns with high lean and high velocity. Each day I lean farther and farther and get more and more confident with the bike's ability to grip the road. Yes I'm aware I don't have to lean the bike so much, but I find it exciting. Very exciting! I'm not on a track. I'm not interested in leaning off the bike on daily driving.

So my question was, "With the amount of chicken tread left on the tires how much farther can the bike lean over?"

in theory, a cautious "yes".   Assuming road conditions are ideal, the tires are the right size tires, the tires are not old, and assuming you don't have any GSTwinner's grandmothers riding Buddha Loves You.  I've seen my friends' tires after track days and they are worn HARD all the way to the edges.   Bike engineers have been doing the math for 100 years now, they know what they're doing.

As I live in south Florida and there are NO curves anywhere (I think they are prohibited by law), I do the same thing on entrance/exit ramps (...or cloverleafs or traffic circles or whatever may be available).   I took one tonight and felt a bit of oil or something because the back tire gave up traction ever so slightly.   

Chicken strips equal emergency reserves, the closer you are to using the entire tire the closer you are to running out of rubber on the road. When I ride on the street I choose to keep a little something in reserve and this has served me well. Throttling up at apex and theres something in mid turn... whoops when you are all the way on the outer edge you have nowhere left to go but a slide out. My riding partner and I have had lots of rides where theres nothing obvious in a turn but the whole bike starts coming from under us in the same turn It's kinda weird seieng the aftermath in the slide patterns on your tires when you stop for gas.

I assume you are familiar with suspension tuning, getting tires to proper heat, pressure rise and other factors on tire pressure and traction. Always leave a little in the bag on the street. Save the 100% effort for the track. Thats how fast riders get to become old riders.

No sore nerve just saying the street is not the place to utilize your entire vehicles handling capabilities, if your even 1/2 way competent as a rider I suspect using that much tire on the street you're probbaly easily running 2 to 2 1/2, maybe even 3 times the posted ramp or curve speeds.