Power wrote:Alright, so how does the weather effect your riding?
I saw no less than three incidents on my way home from class today and that got me wondering. (It's sleeting here in Northern Virginia)
Witnessed a guy on his Harley Fatboy driving in this mess, nothing happened to him other than he looked quite pleased with himself.
Just before Christmas, I got out my Daytona to go to work as I always do. It had frozen overnight and the ground was frosty. One hundred yards from my house I hit some black ice. You can't see black ice, it's invisible. I wasn't braking or leaning or accelerating, but I was shifting my weight slightly in the saddle. I was doing 10-15 mph. The bike went down - straight down, no chance of saving it. The drop did £2,800 worth of damage (5,600 USD).
The average motorcycle tye makes about one-and-a-half to two square inches of contact with the ground. That's not a lot. That small amount of tyre (x2) has to generate all the traction you are going to get. It doesn't take much to disturb that and when something does, what you have is a hazard.
At any time, wet roads can be slippery and reduce traction. Braking distance doubles in wet conditions. In a heavy rain you could end up hydroplaning where you have lost contact with the ground altogether and are skimming along on a layer of water. You can have a slide and deck your bike on wet metal drain covers and wet white lines - both very slippery.
In the autumn the odds go up. You now have to deal with wet leaves, wet mud, and the patches of loose gravel washed out of the banks by rainfall. Fog is great, because it turns idiot cagers into idiot homicidal cagers.
In the winter, you have frost, snow and most particularly black ice to add to the excitement. You also have loose patches of salt that the authorities kindly lay down to keep you 'safe.' Road surfaces can break up very quickly in winter conditions if not attended to. Is that just a puddle up ahead or a three-inch deep pot-hole filled with rainwater? And then there is the cold. It is easy to get hypothermia on a bike when the weather is cold - it depends on your gear, your constitution and how much fat you carry. As hypothermia sets in, your concentration plummets, your reactions go into slomo, and your safety margin disappears.
Sure your guy on the Fatboy might have been pleased with himself. He might have been pleased with himself all day and the next, but the chances of his not being pleased with himself at some point in time are much greater in frosty or icy weather.
Riding in poor weather conditions can be done; some guys do it for years before they have a serious spill. Yep, it can be done. But when the going is poor you need a well-developed ability to read the signs, a lot more riding skill and a fair bit of luck.