Noob rain question....

[Katastrophe]

It rained hard yesterday while I was at work, for about 10-15 minutes. I've never ridden in the rain before (at least not on the street, used to love to ride in the mud as a kid). So, off I go, (after the rain quit) remembering to keep my inputs smooth, not get crazy with the throttle, and ride in a gear higher than normal to keep the bike tracking smoothly. It was like riding on a layer of axle grease. Almost no traction all the way home. Took it slow, and made it fine, but dayum! Is it me? Is it the stock Macadams? The tire pressure is in spec.

Hints? Ideas? Do I need a swift kick in the arse? Thanks.

[skasner]

From what little wet weather experience i've had... i'd blame it on the Macadems and the road surface.

I never had TOO much trouble on wet pavement but I did have a couple of sliding stop incidents that got my attention.

From what I've heard the macadams are crappy all-around tires, especially in the rain. Whenever you get the spare cash I highly recommend new tires.

I have Pirelli Diablo Stratas and I love them. They are exactly the same IMHO as the Metzler Roadtech Z6's everyone raves about (same manufacturer, tread, etc.) but a little bit cheaper.

[wittymonkey]

if it didn't rained in a while it might be that all the oil in the road came up ....

otherwise ... yep the tires !
G.

[loudnlow7484]

if it didn't rained in a while it might be that all the oil in the road came up ....

otherwise ... yep the tires !
G.

Absolutely. If it doesn't rain enough to wash everything off the road, then it just succeeds in making it really slippery. The oil and grease that normally just lay in spots on the road end up all over the place. And yeah, I'm sure the tires don't help either.

[SweetLou]

Get some real tires. Those Macadams are Crap!!!!

[Tito750]

When it doesn't rain for a while the streets get dusty and dirty, this causes rain to form a slipper layer. Becareful with that!

[zleviticus]

i ahve road successfully on wet roads without issue on my crapadamians... must have been the road...

[Katastrophe]

I dunno, z. Tried to ride in the rain last Saturday, and the bike got squirrelly as hell on me. I was in Austin, on a different road. Would suspension settings affect stability in the wet? I don't have any trouble at all with stability on dry pavement, and I've been on just about every type of road surface I can think of...

[md86]

Maybe your tires suck . My Stradas have seen LOTS of rain , and they don't get very squirrely on me unless *I* do something stupid .

[Katastrophe]

Yeah, maybe so... I still can't count out the "Noob Factor" here... The Macadayums and inexperience are rearing their ugly head, I think...

[skasner]

I just went for a 2up ride last night in the middle of a huge downpour, just for sh1ts N giggles, and had no problems at all on my Stratas w/ using stock suspension settings in the rear and the highest setting on the front end.

I even went down a road that was paved all of a couple of days ago. The only time I slipped was on a big left turn arrow, which is to be expected. It was quite the experience... and my bike is dirty as heck... but i'm much more confident about wet weather riding now.

Get some new tires...

[WildKat]

My macs have sees ALOT of rain and always performed well, I'll give em that. Not had any issues of lack of traction. They arent the best, by any means, but they've done decent in the rain for me and I seem to get stuck in the rain alot.

The aboslute worst time to ride is just after it starts raining..as the others mentioned..all the dirt and oil on the road hasnt had a chance to wash away yet and even the best tires can lose traction.

ride slow if you have to till you get used to it. if you can wait till after its been raining for awhile before you ride, you'll be safer that way.

be careful about keeping higher rpms as you can lose traction if ur not careful by spinning ur rear wheel on the wet roads.

[katman05]

Same here I have the macadams on my bike and have no problems in the rain, how many miles you goy on them? Could be they are a little too worn?

[Black_peter]

maybe not enough wear??

[Katastrophe]

The tires only have about 400 miles on them (new bike)... I ride all the time, but it's mainly the 2 mile ride into work, with one 200 mile thrown in there... The "newness" has been scrubbed off really well, and my chicken strips aren't all that huge for a noob (some twisties took care of that on the 200 mile ride)...