Riding in the rain....

[Motu]

Yeah the temptation is always there. Trouble is, if you sucuumb to it, you end up finding more and more reasons to take the car until the bike becomes just a fine weather toy, brought out a few times a year on Sundays. You get soft and end up a poser like Motu.

I don't know why guys like that bother to ride bikes,sign of the times...image is everything.

[NordieBoy]

Hmm, there was a time I was stuck at a land-slip in the Kawerau Gorge (on the way to Queenstown) in the pissing rain on my old H-D, no heater, no windows to wind up, rain trickling down my neck, no stereo to listen to - yeah, then I thought "those dudes in their cages have got a sweet deal right about now" - luckily 15 minutes (and 15 litres or rain)later I was on my way (but slowly due to traffic).

Went to a 10am job on the mighty Savage in heavy rain.
Finished at 11:30.
Got 400m away before I came upon a slip was covering about 50-60m of road and 1.5m thick on the outside and 5-6m thick on the inside.
Hmmm...
No cell phone coverage out here.
Finally got out at 6pm.

[Madmax]

i think the new bikes like the 10s etc
suck you in to a feeling of it feels fine i will
be alright (wrong) i rode my ZX10R home in the rain
New gear all round but was still bloody full of good fun
shit,(some guys did not even get home from the shop
without binning them in the dry)I think the guys at the bike
shop had a bet about it,so i went back the next morning
to the parts guys and bought some new kit (shit they even had the
parts list out) spent about 2000, stuffed them though

[Lou Girardin]

OK, I'm sick of the rain now.
What's with the fricken cagers that slow to 50 k's on the bridge and won't pass trucks because it's bit wet. If I can do 80 on a bike, they can do it in their boxmobile.

[scumdog]

OK, I'm sick of the rain now.
What's with the fricken cagers that slow to 50 k's on the bridge and won't pass trucks because it's bit wet. If I can do 80 on a bike, they can do it in their boxmobile.

Come down here, clear (but frosty) sunny day. No rain since Sunday.

[Wolf]

It sounds like you are braking to late and you are into the corner. If this is correct then sooner or later you will bin out. Not for me to tell you how to ride but brake hard if need be before you lean and power out, or use the engines reves to slow down in the bend.

Skyryder

I think you missed the bit in my post where I said "in my early years" - that was all back when I was blatting around on the RX125/TS125/RD350 and being ten-foot tall and bullet-proof.

They were lockups on the straight, not on corners - so I think Ixion had it pegged with his assessment: I didn't highside because I was upright.

Usually happened owing to panic reactions to sudden emergencies - like cagers coming from behind and cutting in front. One time I was already slowing for a stop light well in advance, going through the gears and augmenting the slowing with gentle pressure on the rear brake, twat speeds past in the right hand lane, cuts across my bows, misses me by three inches so I pushed harder on the brake, bike fishtails and twat flys around the corner to the left (mindless of who might be coming through the intersection from the right), I release the brakes, stop fishtailing, resume more sensible braking, stop far away from intersection, park up on the footpath, have great difficulty getting the sidestand down and experience difficulties lighting cigarette owing to hands shaking in different directions.

These days I use the front brake more than the rear and don't lock either up. Thanks to the Zundapp with its trailing link front suspension - it taught me not to fear the front brake and I developed good braking habits while riding it - enough to counter the bad braking habits I had developed riding other bikes.

I've always engine braked (better on a 4-stroke than a 2-stroke, obviously) as my father and mother (both professional drivers) always drilled into us the lesson: "don't rely solely on your brakes". I still cringe when I see people - especially cagers wrapped in nearly a ton of metal - come flying up to the intersection and jam on their brakes at the last minute. Total fucking morons. Should their brakes fail they leave themselves no room for alternative stopping methods and they have sufficient momentum to do serious damage (far too much momentum to stop safely with a handbrake).

[scumdog]

I still cringe when I see people - especially cagers wrapped in nearly a ton of metal - come flying up to the intersection and jam on their brakes at the last minute. Total fucking morons. Should their brakes fail they leave themselves no room for alternative stopping methods and they have sufficient momentum to do serious damage (far too much momentum to stop safely with a handbrake).

Likewise W. I see so many people approach Give Way (or even Stop) signs at a speed that shows they are thinking "I probably won't have to stop" instead of "I might have to stop".

And then when you have the right of way and they have to slam on the anchors they give you a dirty look 'cos you inconvenienced them (except when I'm in the 'work' car - then they look away or look embarrassed)

[inlinefour]

Although the CB handles pretty well in the wet, I tend to take a very timid approach. If I'm riding A 2-stroke, then its like riding on ice if I'm silly enough to get it into power band

[Lou Girardin]

[QUOTE=scumdog]Come down here, clear (but frosty) sunny day. No rain since Sunday. [/QUOTE
OK, I'll be there by 7.00, warm up the rum.

[Wolf]

(except when I'm in the 'work' car - then they look away or look embarrassed)

Can I have a large BMW motorcycle in your "work colours", please?

[Waylander]

Don't go to Tauranga. Apparently it's flooded enough for kids to be released from schools. Might go there this weekend feel a bit like home. lol

[Pwalo]

Come on chaps. There's only one way to improve your wet weather riding and that's to get out there and do it.

Keep everything smooth, watch the road markings, pot hole covers, don't ride in the middle of the road (where most of the four wheelers dump their oil etc), and relax.

Oh and get some decent wet weather gear, clean (pledge outside, washing up liquid inside) your visor, and fit quality tyres. No need to be uncomfortable.

You will get more confident with more practice. The bike is always at risk of moving around under you in the wet, but just follow the first law of biking. Look where you WANT to go, and that's where you'll end up.

As an aside I'm sure that small slides always feel worse in the wet because you're all keyed up.

[XP@]

Come on chaps. There's only one way to improve your wet weather riding and that's to get out there and do it.

Keep everything smooth, watch the road markings, pot hole covers, don't ride in the middle of the road (where most of the four wheelers dump their oil etc), and relax.

Oh and get some decent wet weather gear, clean (pledge outside, washing up liquid inside) your visor, and fit quality tyres. No need to be uncomfortable.

You will get more confident with more practice. The bike is always at risk of moving around under you in the wet, but just follow the first law of biking. Look where you WANT to go, and that's where you'll end up.

As an aside I'm sure that small slides always feel worse in the wet because you're all keyed up.

And in answer to your previous question...
That is why you ride!

[250learna]

man hole covers and cat eyes and the white(&yellow) lines of satan are out to get you as soon as the rain comes...other than that take it easy, dont twist the throtle too much, and leave racing for a dry day

if you are anything like me, than youll be taking the corners bloody slow at this stage, but it didnt take long for me to build confidence and realise just how much grip you actualy have in the rain

[Zapf]

man hole covers and cat eyes and the white(&yellow) lines of satan are out to get you as soon as the rain comes...other than that take it easy, dont twist the throtle too much, and leave racing for a dry day

if you are anything like me, than youll be taking the corners bloody slow at this stage, but it didnt take long for me to build confidence and realise just how much grip you actualy have in the rain

yep... there is a bit of grip for sure... as long as you don't push it... on the back roads I tend to hang off my bike more when its wet so that I don't have to lean it over so much.