Wet Roads

[DIGGER]

Unusual warm weather in Houston area recently.  Got up into low 80's couple days ago so I went for a ride...got in 160 miles before I had to get back.......

Now to my concern....weather forcast was 0% rain.....sprinkled rain first 40 miles...just enough to get my pants wet from knees down from road spray.....poor ole weathernan.....

I dont like running the slick asphalt 2 lane curvy country roads when they are wet.  If my tires are 35 lbs on my elite 4 tires I have nearly 0 stopping power.   I also dont feel safe in the curves.  I go very slow in wet curves.  If a car is crowding me on a wet curvy road I try to find a safe pull over and let them get on their way.  I try to leave a lot of distance between me and other vehicles for wet road stopping distance.   While I was riding I had a situation where I had to make a quick slow down....not a crash stop.... just a qhick slow down.    Rear tire immediately broke loose and got squirrely and I had to let off brake on again iff again to slow down.   Its like I didnt slow down at all at first.   I hate that feeling.   I had plenty of stopping room between the car in frontbof me who was turning left so I was never in trouble.   It just makes me uncomfortable when I tap my rear brake and the bike starts sliding without even slowing down. 
I try to avoid wet roads but you have to ride on wet roads occassionally. 

[f-Stop]

Glad you were able to stay right-side-up!   

I pretty much do not use my rear brake on wet roads.  70% of stopping power comes from your front tire in dry conditions, I figure that front tire stopping power jumps up to at least 90% on wet roads.  Basic physics comes into play when you think about it.  All that weight shifting forward as you slow down renders the rear tire almost useless as it tries to lift off the pavement.  Just tapping the rear brake will stop tire rotation.  The results are obvious.

I always felt comfortable on the Elite III's in wet weather...racked up way too many miles on slick roads with those tires.  They always stopped and cornered fine.  To date, I have not gone out in wet weather with the new Elite IV. 

The Michelin Commander II's and Commander III's use a "silica reinforced rubber" that really sticks on wet pavement.  Reviews indicate that Michelin's wet weather performance claims are sound.  Unfortunately, Michelin does not make that tire for the our Valkyries!  Dang! 

[turtle254]

Unusual warm weather in Houston area recently.  Got up into low 80's couple days ago so I went for a ride...got in 160 miles before I had to get back.......

Now to my concern....weather forcast was 0% rain.....sprinkled rain first 40 miles...just enough to get my pants wet from knees down from road spray.....poor ole weathernan.....

I dont like running the slick asphalt 2 lane curvy country roads when they are wet.  If my tires are 35 lbs on my elite 4 tires I have nearly 0 stopping power.   I also dont feel safe in the curves.  I go very slow in wet curves.  If a car is crowding me on a wet curvy road I try to find a safe pull over and let them get on their way.  I try to leave a lot of distance between me and other vehicles for wet road stopping distance.   While I was riding I had a situation where I had to make a quick slow down....not a crash stop.... just a qhick slow down.    Rear tire immediately broke loose and got squirrely and I had to let off brake on again iff again to slow down.   Its like I didnt slow down at all at first.   I hate that feeling.   I had plenty of stopping room between the car in frontbof me who was turning left so I was never in trouble.   It just makes me uncomfortable when I tap my rear brake and the bike starts sliding without even slowing down. 
I try to avoid wet roads but you have to ride on wet roads occassionally. 

Get a car tire and that wont happen!