Hey all its not much of a story... i wasnt doing anything stupid or going fast... i was turning right in a round about... and i'd been through there much faster before... it was about 1245 on saturday night and i was on my way home... i flicked the bike over to the right as i usually do and my wheels started coming out from under me... its amazing how clearly you think when the shite is about to hit the fan... all my options flashed through my mind in an instant... i considered just laying it down...but thought...stuff that..i just spent ages painting it.... so i dont know what i did but i got it back upright and ended up almost going on the other side of the road <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: --> ... luckily there are no cars around my area at that time of night so i was alright.... rode home really carefully and tamely with my heart pounding 5 times faster than it should.... now im not totally sure why i lost traction so badly... i thought it'd have to lay it down for sure considering the angle i was on... has anyone had any experience with cold or frosty road? or maybe cold tyres? i had only been riding for about 10 minutes when it happened.... simon
Most of the compounds used in Australian delivered street/touring tyres (the ones they put on ALL 250's <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!-- s --> ) take about 5 minutes of average riding to heat up the core to a decent temperature; however it's highly possible if you were just straight line commuting that the outer edges of the tyre were still stone cold and not very grippy at all. After just swapping over to the newer version of the Dunlop Arrowmax on the front (still got an old Arrowmax on the rear)... i've discovered that they take a little longer to warm up than the older ones.
I nearly slipped out in the third last corner on the way back to my place, thought the tires would be warm enough, I was riding for a while (around 85% of the time was straight line commute) and so I thought I'd take the 3rd and 2nd last corners a bit faster and get some better lean into them (you can see ages down the street going through these corners) and felt the bike slip a little, which made me slow a little for the 2nd last one. Also, a while ago, goin pretty leisurely round a long bend, felt my front tire hit a rock or something, that scared the sheeeiiitt outta me, but gladly I didn't go down.
I dont know if its the same where you all are but here in the UK the roads these days are not really made for bikes, they are bumpy and uneven so if you are going round a bend and your wheel goes over the wrong part of the uneven road when your at an angle then you can have big problems. I have nearly come off a few times because of it.
Yeah Simon, you sure do get a fright. You handled that situation very well. I have had that happen to me a couple of times (those just abouts), but that was through rider errors. I've learnt that I cannot let concentration lasp for a moment , EVER. Tyres, oil slicks and other road hazards will catch you unawares, for sure, and all us riders ever want to do is, STAY UPRIGHT.
Except around corners! <!-- s:rofl: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":rofl:" title="Rofl" /><!-- s:rofl: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> Yeah, I've been through some really bumpy, crappy roads, in fact last night I hit a bump and got a bit of air off it (not the bike, but me off the bike) <!-- s:-? --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_Eyecrazy.gif" alt=":-?" title="Eye Crazy" /><!-- s:-? --> That was interesting. <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: --> <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_roll.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling LoL" /><!-- s:roll: -->
i had that happen once. but i was going to quick to do anything about it. It resulted in a trip to hospital and 4 weeks off the bike. <!-- s:???: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_confused.gif" alt=":???:" title="Confused" /><!-- s:???: -->
