Re: riding in the wet: Bikefanclub.com

There is no crossover in the sense that the coefficient of friction between grass and asphalt is not even close. But the skills you learn will cross over. Let me elaborate.

A looooong time ago, I was in a bike handling/race clinic. We did lots of exercises on a wet, soft grassy field (for our safety.) We touched our front wheels to the back wheel of the person in front of us. We "slammed" our wheels. We had the front rider "hook" (flick) us at random times. We locked up the front wheels with and without weight shifting to the rear. We leaned (low speed) until we slid out. We pedaled through extreme lean trying to lift the rear wheels. That was hard though b/c we usually slid out on the wet grass first. Slow speed, super tight radius figure eights. Then faster and faster. Slaloms, etc etc. We learned how to react to those situations. We fell alot and nobody got seriously hurt.

Fast forward a bit in time. I started doing the exercises I described to you earlier. The difference is that I was on packed dirt riding a mtn bike with knobbies (pretty good traction). I had no extra protective gear. I was doing a lot of mtn bike racing and was just doing drills. I fell a bunch and got scraped up a bunch. Stupid me never really figured out to get the right protective gear. Anyhow, I learned a lot about how well my bike braked, leaned etc.

So, while I've never actually done what I suggested in the earlier post, I did combine the best of both ideas in this post and hopefully provided a safer, less painful, way to become a better bike handler. I don't believe you can truly be a good bike handler until you find out what the limits are. The grass won't tell you what the actual limits are (unless all you do is ride on grass), but at least you'll have a clue.

The exercises hard to do in the sense that you KNOW you will be falling at some time (many times?) during the day. It's hard to overcome that fear and deliberately put yourself in danger. It may not help you, but I put that fear aside by remembering snow ski drills I did where I crashed all day long and was complete wreck that night. The reward was much better technique, kinesthetics, and a logical/mental understanding.

BTW, I went out on a ride today and the mountain roads were somewhat damp from the light rain we had yesterday. I "smoked" my buddies on the downhill cuz they, again, slowed down due to the wet. I was really really REALLY hoping that I wouldn't crash though because I would have hated to write to this forum and eat crow. ...even though it does taste good when marinated and BBQ'd

I also can't afford to get hurt and miss school for any length of time.

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Skuke
95 Carbonframes Tetra Pro
92 Bridgestone MB-1
90 Moser 51.151

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