Rode home from work the other morning in a gusty downpour, made for a nerve wracking ride. The wind doing it’s best to blow me around in my lane, drivers around me celebrating their decreased visibility by making extra phone calls, am/fm adjustments and applications of make-up.
Riding in the rain is an area where I have next to no experience, and it occurs to me I am giving the rear tire MUCH less credit than it deserves in its ability to hold the road even in the rain.
Next rainy day I’ll ride out to work and practice cornering in one of the empty lots at increasingly higher speeds, until I feel more comfortable with it.
Yes, on asphalt itself, the holding ability of modern motorcycle tires is surprisingly good. What’ll get you is ‘lubricants’ on the road (e.g. oil slicks at intersections, puddles, wet leaves) or non-asphalt surfaces (e.g. manhole covers, painted lines, gratings, &c.).
If you’re planning to work up your confidence levels in a parking lot, perhaps you could take a few pointers from gymkhana riders (riding street legal bikes on standard tires). Here’s a performance that demonstrates what current (street) bike tires are capable of in the wet …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wowIzosna6I
This is the difference between “knowledge” and “experience”, I KNOW that rear tires gonna hold in the turn at so-so speeds, but I FEEL like the whole bikes gonna skip out from underneath me. That FEELING scews everything up, and I start making a mess of the whole business, throttle control, steering etc etc etc because suddenly I’m trying to turn while upright, instead of properly.
In the past I’ve ALWAYS skidded cars around in the rain, intentionally testing the limits of the tires so that I’ll have an appreciation of their capabilities when I need it. Developing this same appreciation for the tires on the bike is key, but is probably best left to a time where I haven’t just finished a 12 hour night shift on 3 hours sleep.
-GRIN-
Practice practice practice….. need to cut some tennis balls in half and set me up a course.