Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Slide on wet pavement, rear wheel speed, wet pavement

Question
Last night I was coming to a stop at a light and when downshifting on wet pavement my Electra Glide's back tire decided it wanted to be the front tire! The bike was sliding sideways. Luckily I didn't panic and kept the front tire pointing in the direction of travel, tapped the back brake and hit the throttle.
What can be done to prevent this from happening and are there better techniques to recover from a skid like this?

If there would have been anyone infront of me I would have been eating bumper!

Answer
Sorry for the delay in answering this, but notification of your question never got to me by e-mail. I just picked it up while answering another.

When braking, most of the bike's weight is transferred to the front, so the front wheel has greatest traction under braking. You should be braking 75% front and 25% rear on a dry road and about 50/50 in the wet. Apply the front brake a little before the rear.

Most likely, the skid was caused by too much rear brake or while down-changing, you went to a low gear without smoothing out the gear change with the throttle; you need to match engine speed to rear wheel speed to prevent rear wheel lock up. It also lessens wear on the transmission.

Remember that gears are a tool for acceleration, not to be used for braking. They only brake the rear wheel, which is lightest under braking.

Do your braking early, then "block" change to the gear you will require to pull away (or neutral if you prefer).

The general rule for getting out of skids is "stop the cause". Skids are caused by too harsh braking, too harsh acceleration or too much lean angle. Whatever you are doing that cuased the skid, gently stop it and allow the bike to recover. Bikes naturally want to recover because the revolving wheels create a gyro effect that keeps the bike travelling in a straight line. Ever watched a riderless bike going down the track, they will carry on if they can!

So, well done for correcting the skid, but remember front brake first. You won't lock up the front wheel if you are going in a straight line; the suspension takes care of that - unlike on a traditional pedal cycle that would send you over the bars.

Hope this helps!

Regards

Alec
www.alecgore.com
(Power Points to download for free on riding technique)