Low speed crash - lost rear tire traction

[Peteg]

So yesterday I slid down the road with my bike and my wife. All things considered, it was pretty uneventful, probably going 10 mph, 15 at the most. We were on a country road with what I call a tar and chip surface and went though standing water that seemed to have oil and grease in it that got all over the tires and the bottom the engine & tranny cases. We were passing a parked pickup and when I turned back out to the dry pavement in front of the pickup the rear tire broke loose under very little throttle and decided it wanted to be in front of the front tire. We went down and started sliding so fast I couldn't do anything. I guess my questions are if you lose rear tire traction with a Valkyrie does it go down a lot quicker than a V twin. I notice the bike is real quick to turn and handles great. It has an amazingly neutral feel, doesn't lean to the side when you let out the clutch, but in that it also seems to lean into the turns even quicker when I have my wife on the back. It also doesn't have the Vtwin invisible training wheels that come down when your going less than 5 mpg. The other question I have is has anyone seen the problem I'm describing with standing water on an oil and chip road surface. There is also a potential I ran into illegal dumping by the oil and gas drillers. There has been some issue with them dumping drill water tankers in remote locations, but the crap on the bottom of my engine looks and smells like the road surface.

The following video goes into a little more detail and also gets a little into my first impressions and differences with respect to my other bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5dnGMcSBuQ

[Jess from VA]

I've had that happen to me on a Valk and on other bikes.

On the Valk, I got a new front tire with release agent on it, went out in the shop parking lot and did some slow maneuvers (to set new brake pads), and even though slow, I turned too sharp, and down she went.  Bike only slid about 6-8 feet (on the guards), but it pitched me off hard on my back, sliding backwards, since it went down so fast.  No damage to me or the bike (just my pride).

I once did a fast hard turn though an intersection and dumped and slid more like 40-50 feet (motocrosser).  I went out and looked, and there was a great big gasoline spill all over the intersection, which makes rubber tires slippery as hell.  Especially big old knobby rear tires.  Bike fine, bruised my hip where I hit in the fall (but no other injury; suited up in the cold).  

Whatever you got into, it reacted with rubber to become super slippery.  Some stuff stays on the tire longer than other stuff.  It happens.

I slipped and slided and fell all the time on my dirt bikes.  (it's part of the fun)  

Also, the first few minutes of rain almost always makes the roads real slippery, before washed off better with more rain.  

[The emperor has no clothes]

I'm glad you guys weren't hurt. I don't have enough time on V twins to compare the handling characteristics. But compared to the other Jap bikes I've owned I'd say the Valkyrie has no more propensity to go down than them. I think any time you get slimy oil or crap on the tires things can get dicey. I will say running a car tire minimizes it somewhat.

That's an interesting bag stabilizer that someone made up for the Champion bags. That will definitely help in keeping them from flexing. But as you said, they will need to come out further to protect in a tip over.

[Peteg]

The frame under the champion bags came out really stiff, and weights less than 10 lbs. It makes everything work together really well. I think I could put lead bricks in the side bags. My thought was that I just needed to deal with a drop as at 70 years old I didn't plan to slide down the road with my wife. I'll obviously be rethinking that when I do the repairs. The frame just bolts on and off in several pieces, so I'll just weld on the extensions and repaint. The right side is all scrapped up anyway. Even with the frame the right side bag got pushed up about 3/4". I guess I'll just remove it and realign the mounts when I do the repairs. All looks pretty simple. I'm glad whoever did the bike used Honda paint. It's really easy to match.

[hueco]

You could have been like these riders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUB2darr5mU

[..]

The frame under the champion bags came out really stiff, and weights less than 10 lbs. It makes everything work together really well. I think I could put lead bricks in the side bags. My thought was that I just needed to deal with a drop as at 70 years old I didn't plan to slide down the road with my wife. I'll obviously be rethinking that when I do the repairs. The frame just bolts on and off in several pieces, so I'll just weld on the extensions and repaint. The right side is all scrapped up anyway. Even with the frame the right side bag got pushed up about 3/4". I guess I'll just remove it and realign the mounts when I do the repairs. All looks pretty simple. I'm glad whoever did the bike used Honda paint. It's really easy to match.

This guy makes some good decals. I used them to cover up what should have been a repaint on one bag.

https://countryboycustomsstore.com/

[..]

You could have been like these riders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUB2darr5mU

I did a quick search for the video of 2 guys who overtook an RV on Deals Gap and rode off the road. Alas I couldn't find it.

[Peteg]

Thanks for all the input. My body work isn't great, but I already have my scrapes cleaned up & I improved my tip over protection too. Hope to never go off road like the guys in the video. I'm thinking  the road was worse than it looks in the video. I guess as Jessie first indicated the grease I got into just broke me loose. I'm sure I'll be more cautious in the future with standing water and probably unpaved roads. My wife and I went down so easy, and we're still a little sore after 2 weeks.