First, the incident:
It had just started raining. As we all know, or ought to know, this is the most dangerous time for a rider, particularly near intersections. Oil deposited on the road by idling vehicles and Urals (
), being lighter than water, seeps out of the asphalt, but has not yet had a chance to wash away.
I was approaching an intersection at about 70 km/h. The speed limit in that spot is 80, but in risky conditions I'll slow a bit first, until I can determine if I'm going to make the light or not. This particular light didn't have a flashing pedestrian signal or visible timer to tip me off.
Sure enough, it went yellow just in that "sweet spot" where you're too close to make a comfortable stop and too far away to get through before the red unless there are no vehicles waiting to make a turn in front of you. There were. I had to stop.
Still, no worries. I ride in the rain a lot, and it's a 90 km ride to work, so I'm good at this. My speed is down and I still have enough distance to stop safely. I gently apply both front and rear brake - and the rear locks up and starts fishtailing. Damn. Not to panic, though. I've been through this before. I back off the rear brake and give it a little more on the front while applying just a little throttle to straighten out. My speed hadn't come down nearly enough yet, but there's time...
The front is on the verge of a slide, but the back end is under control again, so I again gently apply the rear brake...and it locks up again! Inconceivable. Off I come on the back brake and get hard on the front. The front is now locked and sliding, but it's at least going straight. But the back is now too far off the line and I'm sliding Speedway style into the light.
As I'm fully countersteered trying to keep it upright, I gave it a touch of throttle to get it back in line - my plan at this point is to straighen her out, get on the horn and gas if I have to and run the red. But the ground was just too slick and down it went. I slid about ten metres, but emerged physically unscathed. My speed at the time of the fall was probably about 20-30 km/h.
But what went wrong really? The first thing I did, even before a damage assessment was check the adjustment on the rear brake. It's fine. I've put enough kilometres on this bike to know how much brake it will take or won't. I checked the road for any physical signs of an oil spill, but there was none. It was slick, but no slicker than the thousand other stoplights I've come to in those conditions.
Today the answer hit me. It was the most intangible of all. It was my damn boots! I had just purchased a new pair of boots specifically for wet and cold weather. They are completely waterproof and good to 40 below zero. They are also very cumbersome. I had already noticed the lack of tactile sensitivity in my shifting but didn't make the logical deduction that what I can't feel with my left foot can't be felt with my right foot either. I was probably jamming down on the damn brake, all the while thinking I'm giving it just a touch...
So, in the end.... My fault. I present my shame here before you all, that ye might learn from it. These Bullets are much too pretty to be tossed about like I do.