can you smell burning rubber?

I've just had a non aggressive race with a fairly sporty car, up hill and then along a long straight just before my street turning. I stayed with him all the way up the hill at about 70mph when he had to slow up for traffic, when I tried to continue past him he moved into the middle of the road to stop me passing. I passed him anyway and gave him a wave as I sped off into the distance, about 90mph and continued almost flat out until my turn off.

I settled into my street and back-pushed my SW into the garage and switched off. Then I thought I could smell oil, no...a hot engine....then I realised it was hot rubber.

Is this likely to be the drive belt or my rear tyre? I've never noticed this smell before even after some hard riding.

It's a trivial topic I know but what's that smell?

you should have gone to your knees and used your nose to figure out what smelled where.
You smell the tire only if it has low pressure and gets too warm.
Normally after heavy load and a fast stop the engine smells because of the heat what vaporizes some of the oil and grime on the engine. The belt only smells it it got too hot because someone forgot to clean the air intake filter on the CVT.
stay safe and tune in to doc Campbell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJqSdmNNwW4

after that visit Betty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpN_jOiXYRE

Are you suggesting that I have Corona virus which is affecting my sense of smell? It was defiinitley burning rubber!!

I sometimes have to check my shorts when someone cuts me off.

Silverwing, the scooter rider's method of burning rubber.  

Yeah, but that's just a euphemism

Sepp
That linkon the Dr was so good to see and understand,thank you.

Did you check your shoe soles for signs of melting? Perhaps, your feet were touching the pavement for better balance at high speed.

I've experienced a similar thing after an enthusiastic ride up the Hartside Pass over here. In my case it was clutch due to the repeated (and wantonly unnecessary) hard acceleration out of each hair pin bend.
Damned good fun though :-)

Well first off, rustysdream....wearing shoes while riding is very inadviseable but I have checked the soles of my boots and even gave them a good sniff....I don't think it was them causing the problem.

Hot clutch? could that create a similar smell? I suppose it might, particularly when combined with the usual 'hot engine' smell.

Well I did say this is a trivial matter and I'll make sure I give my SW a good sniff-over after riding, I just hope I don't find myself cocking-up one leg and pis****ing all over my rear wheel

Could be the Belt rubbing on something !

Well I don't get any belt slap and everything seemed to be running clear when I ran it without the cover on. I still think I'm overthinking this topic but I've never smelled it before so it could be worth another look.

As an aside, I was once asked whether I smoke after having sex. I replied, "no, but I do get a smell of burning rubber"!

Loosemarbles wrote:

Well first off, rustysdream....wearing shoes while riding is very inadviseable but I have checked the soles of my boots and even gave them a good sniff....I don't think it was them causing the problem.

The only person who ever found my sense of humor entertaining was myself.
I should have said "flip-flops" instead of shoes to make sure nobody's taking my comment seriously.

can you smell burning rubber?
yes you can just visit a tire fire and smell it, than compare with the smell you had in mind.
If they are identical look where it was burning!
There are different smells for warm rubber, hot rubber, burn out rubber and burning rubber.
If your nose is not up to the task, a TVOC meter will be useful.
You can actual scan the different areas of you bike with it and see where the smell comes from most.

Loosemarbles you have a new avatar. Keep burning the rubber. Ride ON.

I could smell rubber on all the SWs I've had as well as my BMW C650GT after a bit of spirited riding. It seems to be a combination of belt and tire mixed with a bit of brake pad. Runninhg hard will make the belt smell a bit. It's going to heat due to the amount of power it's transferring from the power plant to the road. There's always more energy used by a CVT system than a more common gearbox. That's one of the main reasons the few cars in the 60s that used CVT systems couldn't match the mpg of more conventional systems.

You can get that smell if you ride it hard and then shut it off, from some of the coolant hoses because you generated a lot of heat then turned the engine off and the coolant isn't moving.