Give me some tips for riding in the rain!

[Zapf]

I have had many RWD cars before bikes and I feel a lot more comfortable with the rear losing grip. This whole front end losing grip is new to me, it's nothing like understeer in a car as such.

But my rear was wiggling all the way as I came to a stop. I subconsciously apply more rear brake than front. The rear even went out a bit far enough to buck me off and back down, mini highside. Need more practice believing in the front brake I suppose.

My background does include 500hp RWD cars. I have been riding since 2005 and have had many bikes since and some 150hp ones and 50hp ones.

Amount of Friction for stopping is a function contact patch and force (downward). The heavier you press down on a rag, the harder it is to pull it out from under you.
Same thing with the braking using the front, you progressively load up the front suspension as you brake harder (smoothly) and the amount of friction will increase proportionally.
As the bike weight & your weight (as you fight the deceleration) is transferred to the front, the amount of friction in the rear decreases.
You want to now apply a touch of rear brake.
The function of the rear brake at this time is to stablise the rear, and also to create a small amount of drag by braking the rear wheel so that it less wants to over take the front.
Your fingers (front brake) has much much finer control than the foot (rear) brake, by modulating the 2 you can achieve some pretty awesome control.

DO NOT lock up the rear and have it wiggling as you have done prior. You WILL harm yourself and your bike.

The above braking method applies to both Dry and Wet

When it is WET. You simply do everything a bit slower. Brake further out from corner, accelerate slower... etc

While cornering in the WET, keep the bike more upright. But lean yourself out more into the corner, put your weight onto the pegs thru your leg. Practice changing the lean angle of the bike with weight on different pegs.

Go for a long long ride in the WET. By the time you come home you will know how to ride in the wet.

[biketimus_prime]

Thanks you guys, I've taken to using the front more now since all this advice and am practicing progressively loading the front. I have surprised myself in how well I can brake the front too. I still use the back brake to help progressively load the front, but much more of my braking is done on the front now than before. Probably 90% now rather than what used to be like 60%. Also going to bleed the front brakes this weekend as I've put in new pads but I didn't do the fluid. Should be another learning curve after that!

Will report back if things go horribly wrong or something but so far so good!