Are motorcycles at risk of hydroplaning ?

I've hydroplaned once in a car, never on a motorcycle.

My thinking is that it will depend a lot on the tire and tread pattern.

Tires with a lot of rubber and few small spaces have less grip in the wet.

Hydroplaning is usually a result of speed, so it's possible with any tire or vehicle. When the water cannot be evacuated from between the road surface and the tire, the tire will ride on the water.

That rock hidden in the deep puddle did do some damage.

Scratched, bruised and sore.....with a broken fork stop and a nice hole punched in my pristine antique gas tank.

Motorcycles are at risk of hydroplaning. They are at a higher risk because they are lighter than cars and have a much smaller tire footprint, so it takes a whole lot less water and speed to make the tire roll up onto the water - hydroplane.

there is a very good reason they put grooves in a rear's surface. Look at motorcycle racing. In the dry they use slicks, in the wet they ride with grooved tyres. The edges of the grooves work as scrapers & scrape the water off the surface of the road & into the grooves where it gets expelled sideways out of the way.

A work smooth tyre will aquaplane, however in a car you may not notice it unless you try t obrake or change direction. On a bike you'll be dumped instantly.

It's called; "ROAD FEEDBACK".

Motorcycles hydroplane all the time on wet surfaces. Delicate control inputs, reduced speed.

When you pass by a motorcyclist going 40 mph in the rain in your automobile going 65 mph, its not that he is trying to stay dry....it's as fast as he can safely travel.

Bikes won't aquaplane unless they have broad road tyres BUT they have less than 40% of the surface area contact of a car (That's the bit of rubber in contact with the road) less friction.

They also have less mass so therefore less gravitational force holding them down.

They also have a much higher power to weight ratio which makes acceleration quicker.

Total all that up and they have less mass, less friction and more acceleration.

It's a wonder they stay on the road at all, add a little water (lubrication) and they're death traps

If your tires are worn, yes. Last year I was caught in a heavy downpour for about an hour. My Burgman 400, which is not a heavy bike, did well, the tires were barely worn at the time. I purposely rode in the wheel paths on the road too. Of course I wasn't speeding (it was hard to see too).

You mean aquaplaning.

A dirt bike into a pond at 40mph is hardly a reallife demonstration, bike tyres are round in profile so they are much less likely to create the cushion of water under them, grip is reduced in heavy rain, obviously.

Basic principal for biking.

When it's wet slow your F-N @ss down.

The friction pad on most bikes is about the size of your palm (no, not the tree growing in your yard).

Ridden thousands of miles in the wet, still alive and never 'planned'.

Yes, just like a car but on only two wheels. Much more dangerous.

An infomercial. The National Enquirer is more believable than any of them.