Post by anon on Feb 17, 2007 12:55:28 GMT
From: rowlf Sent: 8/1/2002
As a former m/c courier and 'all weather' biker I found that there are 4 main things to be wary of, especially relevant to rain and bikes. Apart from aquaplaning in real downpours, grip in MOST rainy conditions is much better than most people realise, as long as you are using are decent set of all purpose tyres and are aware that they will take longer to reach optimal temperature and thus maximum grip. I had very good results (as in, I am still here, walking, after 20 years) with Macadams in later years. I have never dropped a bike in the wet (grasping table leg firmly as I type this) yet more than half of my riding has been in 'foul' conditions, even snow (not that I would recommmend that to any biker).
1) Other road users. Car drivers tend to lose visibility and observation skills badly. Wet windows, mist on the inside and an amount of 'misery' makes them even more careless and less observant of bikes. Conversely, your own reduced visibility with a wet and misted visor, wet parts of the anatomy and feeling a bit miserable can make you far less aware of other road users, this is a VERY dangerous combination !Especially so for couriers and 'long distance' riders, who can go into a sort of 'trance like state' so plenty of breaks to warm up are essential. There is even less margin for error in the wet.
2) Greasy roads. A longish hot spell leaves a deposit of dust and traffic film and a sudden shower makes the roads very greasy. This is the weather conditions that lets most bikers down, LITERALLY ! as opposed to the obvious hazards like manhole covers, white lines etc. In these conditions, any bend can become an ice rink !
3) Tyre wear and profiling. Tyres on a roadster or touring type bike like the Diversion, mainly due to the type of use, tend to develop a flat, er spot ?. For control of a bike 'leaning' is obviously crucial. As the smooth 'roundness' of the profile goes with wear, more subtle control of the bike is lost as in order to 'lean' the bike it has to 'climb' over the artificial ridge created by the wear. (Sorry, I don't know how to describe it any better). I found in my earlier days (dim distant memory ... sigh!) I was so afraid to lean the bike that I was always in the 'flat spot' which made it hard to ride smoothly and control the bike. Most bikers immediately slow down too much and are afraid to lean the bike at all. Although slowing down IS a good idea (especially in 'greasy' conditions as described above) doing so too much can actually make things harder. By this I mean that being afraid to lean the bike at all puts you in the awkward 'flat spot' section with no subtle control, your confidence goes and you run the risk of some impatient idiot in a car overtaking in a dangerous manner. Therefore confidence in your ability and bike can play an important factor !
4) Visibility. Look at the road ahead, especially in town, keep a lookout for manhole covers, white lines etc and diesel spills.
The answer to the first two is easy, TAKE CARE and actually be aware of the type of wet weather conditions. The answer to the third is to practice, but have a good look at your tyres first, a well rounded profile is what you want. (This applies to many things but I am talking about tyres here, OK ?, you know who I mean !). If they are 'flat' and you are serious about learning to ride safely in the wet, change them ! A lot cheaper than a new exhaust, fairing etc, not to mention bits of your anotomy. A smooth, rounded profile will allow a nice gentle change of lean angle and smooth control of the bike, this is what seems to be most important, SMOOTHNESS ! If they are brand new obviously be ultra careful the first 100 miles or so in ANY conditions. Once you have gained that confidence, riding on part worn tyres is less of a problem as you will 'lean' over the 'ridge' quickly without noticing it so much, although having good tyres on in the wet is always good ! Of course if you are the kind of rider who wears his tyres evenly, the point about profiling will not apply.
At least you have the right attitude to practice first, but remember to have a look at your tyres. An ideal would be a good set of 'all round weather' tyres with only a few hundred miles on and a well rounded bottom, pun intended :-)
Safe riding.
A follow on with some more tips
TYRE PRESSURES
Tyre pressures are critical on a motorcycle and you are probably aware as the tyre is used the friction generates heat and the tyre warms up. This increases the internal air density and thus tyre pressure. However, when it comes to wet weather riding there are a couple of problems. The outside temperature is generally colder and to an extent the water cools the tyre and this leads to lower operating pressures than the tyres are designed for at a time when they need to be, if anything, slightly higher.
Remember, always measure tyre pressures when the tyres are cold !
Because grip in the wet is hugely affected by the tyres ability to dispel water this lower pressure is quite a problem. Firstly the 'softer' tyre has a larger contact area with the road and this can lead to aquaplaning. Secondly the tread patterns can 'close' slightly (best way to think of this is if a piece of rubber has several cuts in it, if the rubber is flat you cannot see the cut, if you 'roll' the rubber with the cuts on the outside the cuts open up) and this closing makes it harder for them to remove the water. I don't know how much this affects them compared to the increased contact area but you will see that having the correct tyre pressures is especially important in wet weather riding.
Because of the reduced pressure due to the temperature and water cooling and because tyres tend to lose air naturally over a period in time the first thing you should reach for when it starts to rain is your tyre pressure guage, not your unbrella. Having the pressure at the correct recommended pressure is important for safety in all weathers but especially so in the wet. It might be worthwhile asking the tyre manufactures if they have a recommended pressure for wet cold weather riding (in theory a slightly higher pressure to compensate would be better but I don't know if they do). A representative from Avon tyres recommends an extra 2 pounds in the rear as a starting guide.
It would be irresponsible of me to suggest you use a higher pressure without advice from the particular manufacturers but at least make sure they are set correctly and NEVER lower than they recommend when it is wet. Bear in mind most garage guages are innacurate so get a good one and ideally have it checked. I actually preferred to set my tyre pressures to the higher level in the wet (high speed or two up riding) as I found the bike felt more stable and more responsive. Having a bit more confidence in my bikes ability can actually prevent panic and avoid a crash (see later).
REAR WHEEL BRAKING
Avoid locking the rear wheel. The rear wheel is directly attached to the frame of the bike and thus about 75% to 80% of the gyroscopic force keeping the bike upright at any time is generated by the rear wheel rotating. Stop this rotation of the wheel and you and your bike will turn from a stable, well aimed (hopefully) well oiled piece of gleaming machinery into 350 kilos (or so) of metal and soft fleshy bits. It will almost certainly hurt !!! so keep the rear wheel spinning. If the rear wheel lock don't panic simply release the brake until it recovers.
Under controlled (mainly dry) conditions a bit of initial rear wheel braking is quite good. It has the effect of stabilising the bike by increasing the distance between the wheels and lowering the centre of gravity (try it in the dry and you will see the bike initially 'squats'). However, a big problem is that many bike riders drive cars too and the tendency is to go into 'panic mode' in any real need (i.e. need to slow down) and over apply the right foot. This will lock the rear wheel, the bike will immediately lose stability and again, will almost certainly hurt ! Therefore the rear brake is best left completely alone in the wet. It was only when I stopped using a car for about 2 years that I actually learned to use the rear brake safely by losing the 'lead foot' syndrome.
SMOOTHNESS AND WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION
Coming back to my 'smoothness' comment in my last posting. This really applies to throttle control and braking. As soon as you start to slow down most of the weight distribution rapidly shifts to the front wheel of the bike. If you think about how a bike is designed the rear wheel is far wider and thus generates much of the grip (about 2 thirds) and as it also generates about three quarters of the gyroscopic force keeping you upright (leaning or not) you will see that you do not want the weight distribution to suddenly shift to the front !! Therefore, when you approach a corner being too tentative and slowing is a bad idea, yet this is often the case with inexperience. Approaching the corner a bit slower and then SMOOTHLY applying enough power to keep the speed CONSTANT is the way to go as it will keep the weight distribution where it needs to be, at the rear.
It is a good idea to lean foreward under braking. This actually reduces the centre of gravity as your body dip and by relaxing your arms you do not apply even more pressure (or weight) to the front of the bike.
The front tyre will grip much better in the wet than most realise. A t a reasonbaly high speed it is almost impossible to lock the front wheel but as you slow down the front is more likely to slide so be ready to ease off pressure if it starts to slide. Apply more pressure to the rear brake as you slow down Practice when you can, better to know the capability of your bike (and you) before you need to 'really' find out.
CONFIDENCE
Confidence has another factor which is less obvious. If you think about what happens when a car skids the first thing a car driver is taught is to steer into the skid, i.e. move the wheels into the direction the car is sliding. If you think about it a bike does this automatically when the rear wheel slides, the rear wheel comes round, increases the steering angle into the direction of the skid and voila! automatic self correcting skid control. Therefore assuming the rear wheel is doing most of the work, gyroscoping and gripping nicely, a small skid on a white line, manhole cover is only a problem if you panic. The bike will nearly always find a grippy bit of road just after the white line etc, and correct itself if you let it.
The problem is, the first thing most people do is panic, ease off the throttle drastically or even worse brake. This will immediately shift all the weight to the front away from where you actually need it, .i.e. above all that grip and gyroscoping force. Another thing is to grip the bars too tightly and steer the bike the wrong way in a panic. Most crashes like this are caused by the riders reaction to a small slide as opposed to the slide itself. Left alone the bike will usually correct itself. !
Driving cars for 5 years before coming on to bikes I had a VERY near miss in my early days with a 'lead' foot. I locked the rear wheel, the bike lost all gyroscoping force and started to fishtail wildly. Fortunately, as the bike fishtailed voilently I lost my footing on the brake, the wheel started rotating again and the bike miraculously regained stability with me hanging on (as opposed to riding) but able to apply the front brake enough to stop. Which was kind of fortunate as I was approaching a busy T junction at the time, phew!. At the time I had no idea how I had escaped that one but later knowledge shows that I had left the bike alone (not much else I could do at the time) and it had corrected itself. Clever things bikes, it is the rider that normally lets them down, not the other way round ! Anyway, I had learned a vital lesson at minimal cost (nothing bent or broken, just a change of underwear)
ROUNDABOUTS
Roundabouts are by far the hardest objects to negotiate in the wet, so need the utmost care. Changes of direction and changes of weight distribution as it is often necessary to brake in order to avoid some cretin in a car pulling out in front of you or cutting across in front. Also as cars are often experiencing high G forces on roundabouts in one way or another by accellerating to pull out, braking (to avoid someone pulling out) and cornering at the same time, they often spill petrol or diesel in the main driving line i.e. where us poor bikers want to go. Generally speaking if they spill petrol on an open road it is 'flung' outwards, away from where us bikers are cutting the corner, so is less of an issue.
Most car drivers (unless they have ridden bikes) often apply pressure to bikers by driving too close behind becuase, a) half of them are stupid and b) the other half are stupid. Therefore what I learned to do was to carefully place my bike in the centre of their line of sight in the approach lane i.e. in front of their eyes as opposed to one metre from the left of the road. This is where a nice large, highly visible topbox comes in handy ! I fitted extra LED brake lights to the top of my box (£10 from M&P) purely for this reason !. As I approach the roundabout I slow quite a lot, look carefully for a gap in the traffic then accellerated towards the last few yards of the approach. You have to time this well so it takes a bit of practice but it gives you some 'breathing space' from the d*ckhead behind and allows a nice smooth entry (into the roundabout !).
This 'pre'-slowing also works well in the dry, as a lot to do with safe biking is manipulating the car drivers reaction to you. If the car driver is especially stupid and tries to over or under-take at all costs, let him ! 50 yards further up the road you will pass him and 30 other cars in a jam or waiting at lights so be patient.
Anyway, hope the above helps someone !
Rowlf
From: ahalin Sent: 7/22/2003
Add high visibility gear to your list. The iridescent vests with reflective stripes are particularly good in the dark and wet. [You can take it off when you get to the pub and still look cool in your black leathers!] If you wear a backpack, rig up something similar for it too.
Green lights and "right of way" mean proceed with caution, not go [ie always look left and right].
Oh, and ALWAYS assume that you are invisible to other drivers.