latindane
Learner. EuroPW, NaPS
I actually searched for a related thread in 1Rider but came up, to my surprise, empty. So here goes.
During my most recent Sunday ride, mid-November in Denmark (think mid-December in the Santa Cruz mountains), I was reminded of the beauty of riding on what I guess is best described as "suboptimal-traction weather conditions"... wet roads, collections of wet leaves or pine needles on certain turns, mud tracks across the road, ... you get my drift. For one, nature shows itself from a different side compared to your usual "fair-weather" riding: quieter, more serene, and still beautiful.
That, in and of itself, makes it worth getting past the knee-jerk reaction that so many of us motorcyclists have: "it's raining/ has been raining/ whatever outside, so I'll just have to ride some other time." Get past that, gear up and go out... some of the fondest memories I have of BAR(-F) are from riding around Pescadero and Tunitas creek roads in wet conditions.
But of course, if it was just about the nature then you could make do with driving up to the mountains and taking a long hike (which I can also highly recommend, by the way).
There is a second dimension of benefits of, let's call it, wet-weather riding. It can be riding as the rain falls or simply because the roads are wet, etc. And it has to do with what a less-predictable road surface (in terms of traction) demands from you as the one sitting at the controls of your motorcycle. Your riding skills WILL gain from it.
Now, I cannot talk about wet-weather riding, reminisce about those times I did that in the Santa Cruz mountains, and not at the very least mention Gary J. So let me quote him:
That thread already has a chunk of useful info/tips for wet-weather riding (all of which you should take with a grain of salt... some are incredibly specific and may not apply to everyone's style), so let me just bring up a couple of points of my own, which I think are nicely brought together by one overarching benefit of wet-weather riding:
Being aware of the surface not providing optimal traction will force you into good habits.
What I mean by this is the following: whenever I go out in wet weather, or otherwise meet some conditions that I know will imply suboptimal traction levels, it becomes almost painfully obvious that my brain is telling my body to be careful. The "wrong" way for the body to react to that message is to tense up; that will be absolutely counterproductive to your stability.
First good habit reinforced: Force your body to be consciously loose on the controls.
"They're HANDLE-bars, not GRAB-ONTO-bars" -Doc Wong (if my memory serves me right; he may correct me)
The next thing is that this "be careful", which borders with plain-old fear when it's the first time you encounter those conditions after a stint of "fair-weather" riding, will force you to start at an excessively high level of safety to then slowly and gradually learn what the motorcycle is telling you about traction levels. This is, I believe, a fairly recognized good practice of "faster safer" riding; when riding on the track this gradual process will allow you to relatively safely find the limit.
Second good habit reinforced: Slowly and gradually work up to a comfortable pace, learning from the feedback your motorcycle gives you.
"Using the controls in a smooth, calculating manner is more important the faster you go and will certainly prevent crashes and bike set-up problems [...]" - Ken Hill
Finally, precision with your lines becomes paramount; many times you have to stick to the cars' tire tracks so as to not wander onto wet leaves, mud, and other possible nastiness awaiting, which reduces your "lane" to some 15-20 inches rather to the usual safe practice of "stay in your lane" which is 9 feet or so (you guys owe me a cookie for translating to anachronistic units of measure).
Third good habit reinforced: Be precise with your lines.
When I think of line precision, I think of Keith Code's approach of building your line for a turn in a systematic way using reference points on the track. But the benefits of being precise with your plan in a turn go beyond faster laptimes: you stay in control and can make much calmer and better-informed decisions about how to change a line on short notice (if you spot a cow pie or pot hole, for example) than if you're just "winging it".
I'll close off (not anymore; more after the jump) with a funny story that I was reminded about when chatting about wet-weather riding with two-wheel tramp.
It was in Norway, on my way down to Bergen from Kristiansund. I stopped at a gas station and commented that the road I had just been on was not quite what I expected for it being late April. Suddenly, one of the guys, who had gone behind the counter, yells "hey, that's you!"
Sure enough, that was me. Caught by chance by a road-conditions webcam which refreshes every 15 or 30 minutes and that the locals know to check almost no matter what month of the year it is.
That's what I have for now; we have a wealth of all-weather riders here on barf that I'm sure can add to the list of benefits.
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Edit 11-28-2015:
So I got out again today (see post #34 for a "ride report") and got to think about a few things worth adding to this OP.
First, a pic that prefaces several of my "insights" today:
Fourth good habit reinforced: Do NOT override your sight lines.
You really never can know what is beyond that bend. I'm sure there is a thread addressing this topic on 1Rider. This is also related to flying_hun's more or less frequent, and relevant, complaint about people getting complacent with a road they "know".
In this case, from the far side of this pic, I came from a wet but clean straight going slightly uphill, which turned to the left and went slightly downhill again. As you can imagine, all this [sarcasm]beautiful[/sarcasm] mud was not visible until very late. Had I expected the same traction conditions as just before the bend, and ridden at a pace consistent with that incorrect expectation, I am fairly sure my bike would be wearing some broken plastics right now.
Fifth good habit reinforced: Proper (smooth, progressive, and tactful) application of BOTH brakes.
If traction is really crappy, your rear brake WILL be your friend.
When I saw the mud on the above pic, I used my front brake while I was on clean tarmac but switched to rear for the final bit of slowing down. I also used mostly rear brake when coming to a stop at a spot with a bunch of wet leaves and needles, and used the rear brake as a support to the front brake quite often during the ride (I usually only use front when on dry).
Smooth, progressive, and tactful application of the front brake is a good habit to build that can be practiced on every ride. I would be willing to bet that most of us don't practice such application of the rear brake on dry conditions (OK, maybe when practicing emergency braking, but that's not enough). Nothing like a wet muddy road to remind you that you have two brakes on your motorcycle, and to be tactful in their application.
Sixth good habit reinforced: Proper application of the throttle (smooth, well-timed, progressive).
Think Keith Code, or our very own tzrider, whom I will defer to on this one:
Seventh good habit reinforced: Grab the tank with both legs.
Learned from Gary J; he advised me to hold onto the tank with both knees when riding goat trails (with slow tight turns).
This one becomes a good habit for the whole ride and not just goat trails because of the rain gear I have. My rain textile pants keep the water out and keep me warm with the liners in, but they don't stick to my tank AT ALL, like my leathers would, particularly with the liners swimming inside. The only way for me to keep light on the controls (see first good habit reinforced above) is to grab onto the tank with both legs and use my core muscles to sustain my weight, keeping it off my hands. Quite the ab workout!
I'll finish this bit by mentioning some of the cons of riding in the wet; it's not all pink unicorns.
During my most recent Sunday ride, mid-November in Denmark (think mid-December in the Santa Cruz mountains), I was reminded of the beauty of riding on what I guess is best described as "suboptimal-traction weather conditions"... wet roads, collections of wet leaves or pine needles on certain turns, mud tracks across the road, ... you get my drift. For one, nature shows itself from a different side compared to your usual "fair-weather" riding: quieter, more serene, and still beautiful.
That, in and of itself, makes it worth getting past the knee-jerk reaction that so many of us motorcyclists have: "it's raining/ has been raining/ whatever outside, so I'll just have to ride some other time." Get past that, gear up and go out... some of the fondest memories I have of BAR(-F) are from riding around Pescadero and Tunitas creek roads in wet conditions.
But of course, if it was just about the nature then you could make do with driving up to the mountains and taking a long hike (which I can also highly recommend, by the way).
There is a second dimension of benefits of, let's call it, wet-weather riding. It can be riding as the rain falls or simply because the roads are wet, etc. And it has to do with what a less-predictable road surface (in terms of traction) demands from you as the one sitting at the controls of your motorcycle. Your riding skills WILL gain from it.
Now, I cannot talk about wet-weather riding, reminisce about those times I did that in the Santa Cruz mountains, and not at the very least mention Gary J. So let me quote him:
and link to a thread he started, entitled Real World "Rain Riding Survival Skills/Techniques Checklist"
That thread already has a chunk of useful info/tips for wet-weather riding (all of which you should take with a grain of salt... some are incredibly specific and may not apply to everyone's style), so let me just bring up a couple of points of my own, which I think are nicely brought together by one overarching benefit of wet-weather riding:
Being aware of the surface not providing optimal traction will force you into good habits.
What I mean by this is the following: whenever I go out in wet weather, or otherwise meet some conditions that I know will imply suboptimal traction levels, it becomes almost painfully obvious that my brain is telling my body to be careful. The "wrong" way for the body to react to that message is to tense up; that will be absolutely counterproductive to your stability.
First good habit reinforced: Force your body to be consciously loose on the controls.
"They're HANDLE-bars, not GRAB-ONTO-bars" -Doc Wong (if my memory serves me right; he may correct me)
The next thing is that this "be careful", which borders with plain-old fear when it's the first time you encounter those conditions after a stint of "fair-weather" riding, will force you to start at an excessively high level of safety to then slowly and gradually learn what the motorcycle is telling you about traction levels. This is, I believe, a fairly recognized good practice of "faster safer" riding; when riding on the track this gradual process will allow you to relatively safely find the limit.
Second good habit reinforced: Slowly and gradually work up to a comfortable pace, learning from the feedback your motorcycle gives you.
"Using the controls in a smooth, calculating manner is more important the faster you go and will certainly prevent crashes and bike set-up problems [...]" - Ken Hill
Finally, precision with your lines becomes paramount; many times you have to stick to the cars' tire tracks so as to not wander onto wet leaves, mud, and other possible nastiness awaiting, which reduces your "lane" to some 15-20 inches rather to the usual safe practice of "stay in your lane" which is 9 feet or so (you guys owe me a cookie for translating to anachronistic units of measure).
Third good habit reinforced: Be precise with your lines.
When I think of line precision, I think of Keith Code's approach of building your line for a turn in a systematic way using reference points on the track. But the benefits of being precise with your plan in a turn go beyond faster laptimes: you stay in control and can make much calmer and better-informed decisions about how to change a line on short notice (if you spot a cow pie or pot hole, for example) than if you're just "winging it".
I'll close off (not anymore; more after the jump) with a funny story that I was reminded about when chatting about wet-weather riding with two-wheel tramp.
It was in Norway, on my way down to Bergen from Kristiansund. I stopped at a gas station and commented that the road I had just been on was not quite what I expected for it being late April. Suddenly, one of the guys, who had gone behind the counter, yells "hey, that's you!"
Sure enough, that was me. Caught by chance by a road-conditions webcam which refreshes every 15 or 30 minutes and that the locals know to check almost no matter what month of the year it is.
That's what I have for now; we have a wealth of all-weather riders here on barf that I'm sure can add to the list of benefits.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit 11-28-2015:
So I got out again today (see post #34 for a "ride report") and got to think about a few things worth adding to this OP.
First, a pic that prefaces several of my "insights" today:
Fourth good habit reinforced: Do NOT override your sight lines.
You really never can know what is beyond that bend. I'm sure there is a thread addressing this topic on 1Rider. This is also related to flying_hun's more or less frequent, and relevant, complaint about people getting complacent with a road they "know".
In this case, from the far side of this pic, I came from a wet but clean straight going slightly uphill, which turned to the left and went slightly downhill again. As you can imagine, all this [sarcasm]beautiful[/sarcasm] mud was not visible until very late. Had I expected the same traction conditions as just before the bend, and ridden at a pace consistent with that incorrect expectation, I am fairly sure my bike would be wearing some broken plastics right now.
Fifth good habit reinforced: Proper (smooth, progressive, and tactful) application of BOTH brakes.
If traction is really crappy, your rear brake WILL be your friend.
When I saw the mud on the above pic, I used my front brake while I was on clean tarmac but switched to rear for the final bit of slowing down. I also used mostly rear brake when coming to a stop at a spot with a bunch of wet leaves and needles, and used the rear brake as a support to the front brake quite often during the ride (I usually only use front when on dry).
Smooth, progressive, and tactful application of the front brake is a good habit to build that can be practiced on every ride. I would be willing to bet that most of us don't practice such application of the rear brake on dry conditions (OK, maybe when practicing emergency braking, but that's not enough). Nothing like a wet muddy road to remind you that you have two brakes on your motorcycle, and to be tactful in their application.
Sixth good habit reinforced: Proper application of the throttle (smooth, well-timed, progressive).
Think Keith Code, or our very own tzrider, whom I will defer to on this one:
Seventh good habit reinforced: Grab the tank with both legs.
Learned from Gary J; he advised me to hold onto the tank with both knees when riding goat trails (with slow tight turns).
This one becomes a good habit for the whole ride and not just goat trails because of the rain gear I have. My rain textile pants keep the water out and keep me warm with the liners in, but they don't stick to my tank AT ALL, like my leathers would, particularly with the liners swimming inside. The only way for me to keep light on the controls (see first good habit reinforced above) is to grab onto the tank with both legs and use my core muscles to sustain my weight, keeping it off my hands. Quite the ab workout!
I'll finish this bit by mentioning some of the cons of riding in the wet; it's not all pink unicorns.
- The nay-sayers have a point in that it can get sketchy and a bit butt-puckering at times (that mud is simply not nice).
- Putting on and taking off all the proper gear to stay warm and dry does take longer time.
- Your bike will get dirty.
- You will spend more time and money on chain cleaning and lubing.
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