Tips for a newbie in the rain......

[ZeroIndex]

dry spells after rain are the worst, cause your subconscious forgets about the ground being wet.. being a gn, it shouldn't be 'too' bad in the wet.. commuter style bikes work pretty well on wet roads.. (own personal opinion)

[rwh]

I'm another learner who hasn't had to face the wet yet.

... if you lean off the bike or not (leaning off the bike means you can corner quicker in the wet than you would without leaning and losing traction quicker).

You mean hanging your backside over the edge like a racer? I had assumed that only makes a difference once you run out of usable tread (or footpeg/stand clearance), and that the whole treaded area of the tyre had about the same amount of grip; is that not the case?

Cornering is something that you will get used to with time. Most tyres will give a little twitch when you are close to the cornering limit but in saying this avoid white lines and pianted areas like the plague when turning or braking.

Paint is relatively predictable - how do manhole covers compare? They're what scare me, since I'm less likely to guess where they are - and my headlight is one of those that points forward, being fixed to the fairing, rather than where I'm going ...

[ZeroIndex]

I'm another learner who hasn't had to face the wet yet.



You mean hanging your backside over the edge like a racer? I had assumed that only makes a difference once you run out of usable tread (or footpeg/stand clearance), and that the whole treaded area of the tyre had about the same amount of grip; is that not the case?



Paint is relatively predictable - how do manhole covers compare? They're what scare me, since I'm less likely to guess where they are - and my headlight is one of those that points forward, being fixed to the fairing, rather than where I'm going ...

personally, i don't think you should be doing 'knee-down race-styles' on a gn250, especially in the rain..

stay off paint as much as possible, and stay off manholes, especially when the bike is in a 'lean'

[N4CR]

if you want to havefun give it as much throttle as possible when turning on the paint and oiley intersections and shit drifting is a great way to learn nice bike controll but it roots your tyres. but don't drop it so yeah probably not the best thing to do sorry

if you have a gn 250 i wouldn't worry about the above though...

Just don't lean too far and as beyond said if you are ina sticky situation just get off the bike and it will have less lean and a higher speed than if you leaned it without in corners of course.

[Quasievil]

Well my advise is look out for the shiny patches on the road, where the Tar has lifted to the top, thats worse than white paint and as bad as ice.
Other than that im not to worried about a hell of alot more, just ride to the conditions

[DEATH_INC.]

A GN is on crossplys, most are not good in the wet......Repeat the paint and smooth shiny patches warnings and smoothness is the key. Try to do ONE thing at a time, accelerate OR turn, brake OR turn etc , not both at once.....

[Maha]

Found that the factory tyres on the GN didnt like the wet to much at all, but never got into any trouble, the odd wobble, would have change the tyres on my one if i kept through another winter, but sold it......

[raster]

my 2c:
Just button off when cornering by about 20%.
Reduce front braking slightly, don't want front lockup especially when cornering.
Remember car drivers brains short curcuit when it rains and do things they normally wouldn't.

[rwh]

personally, i don't think you should be doing 'knee-down race-styles' on a gn250, especially in the rain..

I wasn't saying anything about putting my knee down, I was responding to beyond suggesting more traction could be had by 'leaning off the bike', and wondering if this was true (and mine isn't the GN, but I don't suppose that matters)

stay off paint as much as possible, and stay off manholes, especially when the bike is in a 'lean'

Sure. But in the dark, with my headlight not pointing where my wheel is going, I'm bound to hit one sooner or later, and am interested to know how bad they really are - at normal traffic speeds. Is my front wheel just going to disappear and leave me on the ground, or will it just do a little twitch and I'll be over it before I've had time to do anything about it?

[Ixion]

I'm not quite clear about the "headlight not pointing where the front wheel is going". A headlight illuminates quite a wide area of road. Admittedly with a fairing mounted light the direction is not exactly that of the front wheel, but at any sort of speed there's very little in it.

Bike don't normally steer by turning the bars like a steering wheel (sh, I know about countersteering, but I'm keeeping things simple here. And trials riders don't count) so the front of the bike is normally pointing in the direction you will travel.

Manholes aren't THAT bad. You'll almost always have some warning, straighten up and cross them vertical if possible. Otherwise, just keep things smooth and gentle. I find them worse when braking, than for steering. The only bad ones are the honking great metal plates 6 or 8 foot square that they put over roadworks holes. But you'll always have some warning of danger in those circumstances.

If you DO encounter one and the wheels slip (front or rear) DON'T make the newbie mistake of grabbing the brakes. That IS guaranteed to bring you down. Just correct the slide and ride it out.

[RantyDave]

Is my front wheel just going to disappear and leave me on the ground, or will it just do a little twitch and I'll be over it before I've had time to do anything about it?

I've ridden in the rain quite a bit in the last few weeks, what with commuting in Wellington. I've had one or two little wiggles off the back but it's as you say - over before you've had time to really do anything about it. It is, however, your first warning of an approaching lowside and you do need to have a bit of a think about how fast you're going and what may have caused it.

On the plus side I went into a corner a bit faster than I thought was really advisable the other day .. in the wet, in the dark .. and realising that braking and cornering at the same time would almost certainly see me shiny side down I grew a pair and just went round it faster. There was no problem. A bit of a sphincter loosening moment for sure, but the bike wasn't bothered at all.

There's more in reserve than you think. Well, if you ride as slowly as me there is, anyway.

Dave

[apteryx_haasti]

Hi - to answer the question about the tyre - I've been told in a thread I started to switch the front tyre to a Pirelli (sp?) City Demon (I think...goes to see if can find it in previous thread...)

...some time later....ah, here we are:

[quote TWINKLE "If you've got the money its really worth changing at least the front tyre to something better. The stock tyres that come on the gn are really really slippery in the wet, and if you need to do an emergency stop chances are the front wheel will lock up and you will go down.(only been down once but locked it up plenty ) I got a pirelli city demon fitted yesterday and it is heaps better. I tried heavy braking in the rain on the way home and the front stuck very nicely, no sign of slipping at all(and only been worn in 10ks)...end Quote]

[beyond]

Ok, hanging off the bike queries??
I'n not talking about knee down full race mode here. If you get off the seat and hang off the bike more on wet corners or dry corners for that matter, your bike will corner faster for the same radius corner than if you weren't hanging off. This also means that if you are riding slower, you can corner harder, which also means in the wet, traction limits are not reached as quickly when you are hanging off. So, its safer to hang off the bike without the knee down to get your weight on the inside of the turn to give you more cornering traction in the wet. It doesn't actually increase traction but allows you to:
A: Go through the corner with more speed than you could otherwise.
B: Corner harder than you could otherwise, which means:
C: Gives you far more of a safety margin if you corner at the same speed but hang off your bike.

Example: Bearing mind that cornering traction limits are not a constant and change with bike, rider weight, suspension setup and tyres etc. But say a corner has a traction limit of 35 degrees in the wet while you are sitting on the bike. Thats your limit. If you go at the same speed at a 35 degree lean you have no safety margin at all. Hang off the bike and for the same corner and same speed your lean angle is now 25 degrees which means you are 10 degress off your margin of safety and thereby way safer. Hope that helps??

Painted lines are lethal: believe me. You get no warning of slippage. It's grip one second and none the next. Wet manholes aren't as dangerous as paint but pretty close do to it. Avoid them all when cornering or braking in the wet.

Example: I got a little lazy in heavy rain riding from Auckland to Napier a while back. Just before Taupo was taking a corner at around 160kmh, a lefty and inadvertantly crossed the left should line on a sweeper. Both tyres let go instantly on crosssing the white line. Life got pretty exciting from there on in. The tyres regripped as soon as they hit the seal, but by then I was sideways, crossed up. I steered into the slide and crossed up the other way. This happened about five times and must have looked bloody good. Never crossed the centre line but nearly needed to wash out the leathers.

Relaxing the grip on the bars brought her into line but I reiterate. Avoid painted markings in the wet like the plague.

[Filterer]

Another thing to think about while driving around the city is that when you come up to lights/stops/give ways there are white lines and words etc for africa so think about slowing down 4m shorter then you normally would....

Actaully give ways intersections are hell at the moment becasue they have replaced the "Give Way" words with silly triangles so you have white paint and have erased white paint EVERYWHERE at these intersections

Oh another note how much are those new tyres on the front that were reccomended, i Have no idea how much a bike tyre costs? $50? $200?

[beyond]

Tyres are going up with the fuel increases. 30-40% some reckon.

My front tyres are around $260.00 to $280.00 but that's for a 1400. Yours would probably be around $150ish??? or cheaper.