Wet Pavement / Rain

[Jer]

Great info.

Yeah I dont want to be paranoid. And books like Proficient Motorcycling, while great, leave me thinking that I'll explode if I cross an oil patch.

Its better to be over cautious than under cautious I suppose.

But good to know that the bike is designed to be able to cross these things as long as you arent attempting maneuvers over them.

[Jenny]

I had my first wet roads experience last week. I left the house for work on a gorgeous, sunny day, and an hour later it started to rain. It rained all day. I contacted my partner (who had also biked to work) and asked that he please meet me in the parking lot after work for moral support. Before we pulled out of the parking lot, he made me sit through the "how to ride safely on wet pavement" speech again (which is fine, I'd rather get that drill several times than no times). Oh, and there is at least one instance where this applies to the type of riding we were doing but might not apply to other times (we were doing residential streets).

Here's what I got:

1. Wait until it's rained for a little while (which wasn't an issue in that instance).

2. Make sure that the bike is sufficiently warmed up so that you can turn the choke off. This stops your bike from having any unexpected power fluctuations.

3. Take turns less sharply than you might on dry pavement.

4. Accelerate and decelerate less suddenly. You can ride at the same speeds (we were going to be on 25-35 mph residential streets), but you need to get up to speed and slow down less severely. He did say that the acceleration wasn't an issue for my bike because I don't have the power to accelerate very quickly from a stopped position. He said that if I ever got a more powerful bike, that's when I would worry about that more, but at the speeds I am currently able to accelerate (I still haven't done that sprocket change over), he said that wouldn't be a problem. So coming up to a stop sign, if I would start slowing down a certain distance from the sign, I should start to do so sooner.

5. If the bike does start to skid on wet pavement, try not to panic. That being said, straighten the bike up (if it's in a turn), hold the handlebars firmly but don't fight with them, and do NOT slam on the brakes.

6. I'm pretty sure that I'm missing something. I don't remember what, though! Bad me!

[Dupo]

I remember my first pucker moment in the rain.

Rounded a curve a little too fast while it was still wet/drizzling ... felt the back end start to give. Thank god i remembered to just ride it out and ease off the throttle. Did a wonderful powerslide through the turn and recovered without sliding across the oncoming intersection. I do think i soiled my underwear, but it looked like i knew what i was doing.

[Jer]

O_o O_o O_o

[roncg41677]

Would it be a practical idea to do parking lot practice in the rain?

I'm usually pretty relaxed when I ride, but my first one in the rain I was a wreck (thankfully I didn't have one ). At every curve I didn't trust the tires to hold traction, I tensed up if I went over a spot of water more than a few mm's deep, every black spot on the road had me visualizing the worst. I was riding behind a couple of VERY experienced riders, and they were as relaxed as ever. They gave me much of the advice given here. My next ride in the rain was actually fun! I enjoyed the feel of the cool rain, and the smell. The key for me is to stay relaxed and be more conservative in all of my actions. Sounds weird, but having faith in your tires is important too.

P.S. I am in no way an experienced rider. I'm just sharing the lesson I learned in my few hundred miles, so take it with a grain of salt :whistle: .

[alanmcorcoran]

I think it might have been the Proficient guy, but somewhere the concept that the tires have X amount of traction. Normally the traction is used to make the bike go and stop. When you are turning, a percentage of the traction is used to mke the turn (that's why you don't want to brake in a turn - you "run out" and down you go.)

The big problem with rain is that you lose traction, but it's not consistent. I don't like riding in the rain. Regular wet pavement is not usually a problem - it's the X factor stuff, like, leaves, and paint, and grease and other stuff. Some of these things reduce your traction to zero and if you happen tohave the bike leaned over when you hit them, good night!

I would say the most important thing is to be vigilant when approaching and performing turns.