Emergency braking practice - in the wet

[Devil]

Hey mowgli,

That bike has HH sintered EBC pads in it (along with EBC pro-lite rotors). They dont like being cold. The combination of wet and cold will make the braking performance shithouse until they warm up (doesnt take much). I had that combination of pads/rotors because of playing on the track. Good for summer, not quite so good for winter.

If it becomes an issue for you throw in a set of organic pads next time. They work a bit better at lower temperatures.

For a demonstration, find a nice dry downhill set of tight twisties and watch the braking performance dramatically increase as they warm up.

[george formby]

I feel a tad guilty reading about diligent riders here making the effort to practise & find safety limits. I have been riding for quite awhile & just jump on & go. I also know that my reaction time & concentration has suffered over the years. I should follow this good example but an incident about year ago demonstrated that once you have got the skills you keep them. About 11pm on a pi##ing wet night, sat at a hundy, I slowed slightly in preparation for being dazzled by an on coming 4wd when bugger me, the trucks lights lit up a dirty great dog asleep on the road right in front of me.
Squeeze on the front brake, a little pressure on the back brake to keep the bike stable & then a fistful of front, ploughing the forks down. Their was no way I could stop & had to release the brakes enough to swerve round the dog & not put myself in front of the truck. I used enough front to chirp the tyre but obviously scrubbed off enough speed to make the swerve. None of what I did was conscious, it all happened way to fast.
My point? I have ridden bikes for years on & off road & practiced locking the front on grass, sliding the back, smoothly unloading the forks to turn as I come off the brakes etc, basically playing & becoming a better rider. If I had had to think when I saw the dog it would have been to late for me. The first part of safely riding away from this incident was slowing down when I knew that I would be dazzled, to increase my reaction time.... Practice your braking but more importantly in my opinion, develop your roadcraft so you can maximise your bikeskills. I still consider myself very lucky to have got away with it though.

[sinned]

Reminds me of the "hand grenade theory"

During my army basic training, we had grenade training. We had practice throws with dummy grenades to start.... with throws measured for safety aspects. Then we were given our first "live" grenade. This was usually found to be another "dummy" ... but usually got thrown an extra 5 metres or more.

When its for real ... practice helps, but adrenalin helps too, when its for real.

Watching where it landed before ducking for cover was the scary bit.