Hoo boy; that was fun.

[squarebore]

Good story -thanks. I prefer the stories where you get away with something. You have lightened my day

[mblosch]

Originally Posted by rb608

Well, as much as I'd like to graciously accept your constructive criticism, I have to instead say FU. You're incorrect. Hey, I thought I'd simply offer an interesting and cautionary tale; but you gotta be the judge and jury based on the little bit I offered. Fine. But go **** yourself.

Sorry you have to take this to name calling. You posted the facts. I simply stated what I could see you did wrong.

Originally Posted by rb608

Seems as though I've been doing a lot of wet riding lately; and I'm a damned safe rider in those conditions. Even with the new rear tire, curves require a much lower speed and attention than on the dry. Stopping distance? Leave a lot.

So I step out at luchtime to run a quick errand. Yeah, it's still wet out due to a persistent fog. From the road next to my office, two lanes turn left onto the interstate, and since the light is green, I make an instant decision to go that way. Almost as quickly, the light changes.

Now, I really wasn't going fast. Really. But I figured I could just roll through the stale yellow behind the two cars in front of me again, safe riding speed and paying attention to road conditions and traffic? You assumed the other cars would run a light and you would just "roll on through"? No acceleration, no speeding up, just coast slowly arount the turn. Then the lead cars in both lanes stopped for the yellow. No problem, I have plenty of room, and I brake front & rear. That's when the funny thing happened. Nothing. I felt the rear tire slide out a bit, and the bike just skated forward as I kept her upright.

I'm looking at the 350Z in front of me & thinking, "I really don't want to hit that." as I slowly slid closer. Ultimately, the 350Z managed to stop; but the Shadow seemed to be loving that wet oil slick and kept on sliding. Wheeee! I kept it under control and split the lane between the two cages and ended up in front of them before I stopped, because locking up the brakes was a very bad idea right there.
Sounds like you we're not going s safe speed

The lesson learned is that you never know. I was going at a very sensible speed with plenty of stopping distance for a wet road, but not for that particular intersection. again you said you were riding safe then contradicted yourself. It's a very heavily used pair of turning lanes, and I did not anticipate how much residual oil was on the road there. Pleased with myself for not panicking and losing control; I don't even think my heart rate went up. Still, it coulda been worse.

So again, I just responded to what you posted. Didn't call you names, bit I did question your skills.

[Sgoatley]

If I remember it right the worry is that if you let off the back brake and the tire catches while your sideways it will throw you over the top....instant high side


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[vito]

Originally Posted by rb608

But I figured I could just roll through the stale yellow behind the two cars in front of me.

Excellent post and an even better reminder about intersections.

This is the take away from your post.....Don't trust even a tiny bit of your safety to others.
Your decision to depend on the two cars in front of you was the root cause; the oil just added to everything after your decision to go. Deciding to stop would have taken the two cars out of the equation for you and you would have let up and started braking a bit sooner....but you may have still did a slide anyway.....such is riding. Overall.....you dealt with it pretty well and no one was hurt.

I've done something similar myself but not in the rain. (I am what you call a rain p*ssy.)

[coreenleann]

Originally Posted by Sgoatley

If I remember it right the worry is that if you let off the back brake and the tire catches while your sideways it will throw you over the top....instant high side


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Yeah I think you're right, that sounds familiar.

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[Amos Iron Wolf]

Sounds to me like it was one of those super greasy spots where even trying to add speed or break is going to get you slipping. Knowing you had some distance and just kind of going with the flow made sense. As the OP stated, he had plenty of room even in the rain, except when he went to slow down there was no slowing. Sounds like barely any traction.

In Fairbanks, Alaska in mid winter when it's between -10 and -40 degrees at stop signs moisture from tailpipes settles onto the ice that is the road surface by then and it creates an incredible type of slickness. It's a bizarre thing to be at a complete stop in a rear wheel drive truck and not be able to go anywhere because no matter how lightly you try to start moving again the rear tires just spin. They don't even make a friction noise, they just spin like they are in an oil bath. I had to have a few guy get out and help push me to even get moving. There is slick and there is SLICK.

I had to run something on the bike up to the wife that she needed a few months ago and the rain had just came in and lightly dampened the road. Just enough that it was like riding over oil on Teflon. Fortunately the whole rid was about three miles, but it was a butt clenching three miles. I already had riding in some toad stranglers down and I'd rather ride a hard rain where the road slick has been washed off than ride those just sneezed on roads.

[ZackDaniels]

Why does every 'had an underpants filler' devolve into 'way to be a retard'? We all make mistakes, and recognizing them and sharing them helps others avoid them without having to make them themselves. Chill out already.

Anyway, it sounds a bit like you hit some oil that surfaced and made for a fun stopping experience. Mind the middle of the lane in wet conditions as it collects there much more readily. Good on you for largely committing to the stop, and only adjusting slightly when stopping wasn't working out so well. You probably could have stopped in time if you kept hard on the rear and feathered the front until it found some traction, but you had time to move and room to do it and stayed vertical so all in all it sounds like you did just fine.

When I was 16 I crashed my car doing exactly what you described. Pushing a light and counting on the person in front of me to go through it, but I accelerated to race through it. Then they changed their mind last minute. Then at that very moment my brakes on my high school beater car failed.

Never again have I counted on anybody to be predictable around intersections. That goes double when on a bike.

[O'Larry]

kb608!!!!!! KUDO'S, and dead on with your reactions to the bike and the critic!!! LOVED IT!

[rb608]

Originally Posted by deadshadow

What would you do different Bc of this??

That's a good question. While all of the circumstances are fresh in my head, I've been trying to see what went wrong and how to avoid a similar experience. In fact, I think my expectation to coast through the yellow was correct. Clearly I'd have had trouble stopping anyway, so it's not as though that was unreasonable. I was moving slowly, yet was easily going to clear the intersection before the red; and there is no cross traffic there to increase the danger, just the turn lanes. Both vehicles ahead of me were close to the intersection and moving. It is almost a fluke that both stopped and blocked both lanes. The foggy weather may have led them to err on the side of caution. (Lots of old folks around here.)

In retrospect, I hit the brakes the instant they did. I didn't miss that reaction. I was a very reasonable distance behind and should have been able to stop. The only fly in the ointment was that intersection. It's a fairly heavily used pair of turn lanes, and clearly the surface was much slicker than I anticipated. I'm sure I'll be mentally aware of that next time, and that may give me the extra half second or ten yards I'll need. Then again, maybe not.

[CrazyDave]

Originally Posted by ZackDaniels

Why does every 'had an underpants filler' devolve into 'way to be a retard'? We all make mistakes, and recognizing them and sharing them helps others avoid them without having to make them themselves. Chill out already.

Anyway, it sounds a bit like you hit some oil that surfaced and made for a fun stopping experience. Mind the middle of the lane in wet conditions as it collects there much more readily. Good on you for largely committing to the stop, and only adjusting slightly when stopping wasn't working out so well. You probably could have stopped in time if you kept hard on the rear and feathered the front until it found some traction, but you had time to move and room to do it and stayed vertical so all in all it sounds like you did just fine.

When I was 16 I crashed my car doing exactly what you described. Pushing a light and counting on the person in front of me to go through it, but I accelerated to race through it. Then they changed their mind last minute. Then at that very moment my brakes on my high school beater car failed.

Never again have I counted on anybody to be predictable around intersections. That goes double when on a bike.

Every time one posts something on a forum such as this there will always be someone willing to offer not only an opinion but a criticism.. right or wrong.