Glass Roads and wetting rain - that'll get ya...

On a recent trip from Auckland to New Plymouth, I was surprised by the amount of smooth glass roads on the West Coast. Thankfully, on this trip I was lucky enough to have sunny days for the entire 3 days, but seeing the state of the roads did make me think I wont be travelling this way again until the summer sun returns. When the tar-seal has deteriorated to the point where the tar provides a smooth and shiny surface for your tyres to try and find traction, this is not much better than riding on glass.

Glass roads, or "Tar-bleed" roads and wet weather combine to make one of the biggest threats to a rider making it home safely and unfortunately, they are becoming common in New Zealand. From Rawene to Wellington, I've been seeing so much more neglect in the provincial roads than what would traditionally be be considered normal, or that should be acceptable. Once these roads are wet the surface becomes slippery to all drivers, but especially to a motorbike, so much so that a rider will be faced with the inevitable 'fish-tailing' of their back wheel as it loses traction on a corner or through acceleration, through to 'aquaplaning' which will inevitably lead to a loss of traction, unresponsive steering and braking and quite potentially, serious injury or worse.

For many of us, the riding season will end with the beginning of the rain and the 'sweet ride' will be shedded until the riding season returns, but for those of us that like to ride all year round, we know that keeping safe on the roads has a lot to do with adjusting our riding style depending on the weather - and road conditions. This year, I've noticed there's a lot of new riders joining the parade, some of which may not have ridden through the off-seasons before, so now seems like a good time to discuss some of the things you can do to keep yourself safe in deteriorating weather and neglected roads.

Ask any experienced rider and they will tell you they have a different riding style based on the weather conditions and season. These are briefly some of the changes you can consider to make winter riding more enjoyable:

Throttle control

A habit we all share would be to ride more aggressively in the summer when the roads are dry. When coming through the apex of a corner, nothing feels better than hitting the accelerator early and powering out of that bend, or giving a hard twist when passing that slow driver on the open road. When you're on wet glass roads however, this is more than likely going to result in the back tyre losing traction and 'fish-tailing' until you get it back under control. For new or inexperienced riders, this can be a frightening experience - and one that all riders would prefer to avoid.

The best way to avoid this fish-tailing and keep better control over your motorcycle is smooth throttle control. Keeping a constant speed through a corner or when overtaking will reduce the torque on the back wheel and help to keep traction on the tyre. A much less 'aggressive' throttle when accelerating is less likely to result in loss of traction on the winter ride. Winding that throttle at a more sedate speed is one of the best things you can do to ensure you stay in control until the sunny days return.

Tyre maintenance

Keeping a good maintenance regime with your tyres is vitally important to ensuring you have an enjoyable wet-season ride. The contact patch (rubber on the road) on a bike is much less than a car - and you only have 2 wheels down, so ensuring that contact patch has your full and unconditional support will determine how well your tyres perform for you.

A tyre that got you through the entire dry-season without a problem will often be the first point of fail when the roads are wet. The amount of tread you have left on that tyre will be working a lot harder when it's suddenly faced with trying to disperse water from between you and the road before it can guarantee traction, so always ensure you have more than the legally recommended tread on your tyres before the seasons change.

Keeping a very close eye on the tyre pressure is also recommended - not just in the wet season, but all year round. An under-inflated tyre wont provide a reliable contact patch and will have more trouble dispersing the surface water when you're riding, making every other hazard you face (like glass roads) much more severe and putting you at greater risk. There's no 'golden rule' for tyre pressures, as all bikes, riders and loads are too variable, but following the manufacturers recommendations is always a good idea. There's plenty of writing on the internet to learn more about what tyre pressure is best for what conditions, but a generally rule of thumb for wet conditions would probably be - higher pressure is better.

Tyre choice

This one too can make a big difference to your wet road riding experience - and there's plenty to choose from. Every tyre manufacturer produces a dry-road and wet-road range of tyres, for all models of bike - and they all vary - but the choice you make will have a huge impact on how much you trust your bike on those glassy wet roads.

Last winter I put Cobra Chromes on the Triumph because I was losing confidence in the Michellin tyres to not fish-tail, so my confidence in my bike was decreasing. At the time I figured they were a British made tyre, so they should be familiar with the road conditions we face in New Zealand and their tyres should be good for us as the weather condition between NZ and England seemed comparable. I haven't been disappointed in this choice so far.

Conversely, on the Indian Scout, I changed to a Meteler Cruistec (Cobra Chromes aren't easy to find in NZ) when the original tyres started slipping too much. Prior to these tyres, I had always considered the Indian to be a 'summer ride' due to it's low seat position, light weight and high torque which make it a lot of fun on a dry road, but had led me to not trust the bike as much on wet roads. Although it's still not quite wet enough to determine how much I will trust it in full winter, I've restored a lot of confidence in the bike just by swapping to a more suitable tyre.

CycleTreads in Barrys Point Road (workshop out the back) offer a free tyre fitting service, even if you don't buy the tyre from them, and the guys in the workshop are great to talk to about which tyres would best suit your needs.

Following distance and braking

One of the more obvious things you can do to ensure you're riding safe is still one of the most valuable. It takes a lot longer on a wet road to burn off speed than on a dry road, so simply gapping-out and allowing yourself more road to reduce speed or stop is a great step to ensuring you avoid the tarmac. Especially in cities, we get very careless about following distances when we have so much traffic, so it's always good to keep this one in mind. Utilising road position when in traffic can also give you more reaction time. Riding on the left or right shoulder of the traffic can mean that if you can't stop in time, you can slip down the side of the vehicle in front of you to avoid a collision. Also when stopped in traffic (intersections or traffic jam), sitting to the left or right will allow you an "escape route" if the car behind comes up too quick.

When it comes to braking, there's a common rule of 60/40 which is a good rule of thumb. Relying on the more powerful front brake can become an easy flex on dry roads and quickly becomes habit, but when the road is wet utilising the less effective rear break can avoid having the front wheel lock or slip. The best braking is always achieved by utilising both brakes together, but a front slip is much harder to control than a rear slide so putting near equal pressure on both front and back brakes simultaneously will ensure you stop effectively and safely.

This isn't a 'gold standard' in how to ride in the wet season, it's just a few things to think about to improve your chances of an enjoyable ride. In a perfect world, our roads would never deteriorate to the condition of "Glass Roads" as they are now, or rain profusely when we want to ride, but unfortunately both of these things are unrealistic at this time. Perhaps with a bit more global warming, we can get the second one to improve...

On any of these topics, you can find much more in-depth discussion on the internet, or at your local social riding club.

Ride safe and grow old - we need more veterans on the road.