Lane Splitting in the Rain and the Lessons Learned

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cees:

Read this over again...
>Yup - I saw a friend on a non-ABS K bike trying to do a controlled
>stop on a wet road when a dork changed lanes without any indication
>(we were lane-splitting in a traffic jam on the highway, that's legal
>here in the Netherlands), and she didn't dare to make the stop because
>of the unknown road conditions, so just touched the car. Would never
>happen on my bike, indeed.

>Apart from my '78 CB750 project bike, I'll never ride a non-ABS "main"
>bike again.

I'm gonna put on my riding instructor hat right now...please forgive this.  I
just can't help it.  Character flaw.

Your friend was splitting lanes in conditions where she "didn't dare make the
stop".   What's wrong with this picture?

Rather than "I'll never ride a non ABS main bike again."  Isn't there
something else you might have learned from this experience?  What about the
elephant in the living room that you've neglected to recognize?  Said elephant
being..."Lane splitting is frikking risky, legal or not.  Doing it in the rain
is FAR more risky because of lower traction conditions, ABS or no.  Because of
reduced visibility and more for the car drivers to be thinking about than "is
there a motorcyclist dumb enough to be lane splitting in these conditions?",
another risk is added onto the already large pile of risks.

When you split lanes, YOU need to take ALL the responsibility for your safety.
If conditions aren't right, just don't do it.   THAT's the real lesson here,
not ABS.  Just because you won't get a ticket for riding between lanes doesn't
mean you can do it without scanning for situations like this.   You have to
act with the caution of someone doing something illegal even if it's legal.
The driver may be wrong, but if you're dead or in the hospital, who wins this
argument?

Lane splitting is like speeding...you can safely do it sometimes, but  you
have to consider many more possibilities to survive it long term.

If someone pulls out in front of you while you're going 30 or 50 kph over the
limit over a rise, it's YOUR responsibility....I'm not talking necessarily
about legal responsibility.  You're the guy who's spleen will be hanging from
that Mercedes hood ornament.

If you're splitting lanes and the lane to your left is stopping ahead while
the lane to the right is moving, you'd better know that someone is going to be
trying to change lanes.    Legal means nothing here.  You have to make
allowances or eventually, something bad is going to happen.   The rain just
triples the risk.  ABS or not.

If it's raining, car driver checks the lane to the right and sees that there's
room.  He needs to move over to get to an exit (or his lane is stopped, or
whatever). You're two or three car lengths back when he checks and you're
moving quickly through traffic.   Because of the visibility problem, he can't
see you 3 car lengths back with wet mirrors and windows in the rain, or can't
differentiate your headlight from a stopped car's headlight in those
conditions AND he's not expecting you BECAUSE IT'S RAINING.   He changes
lanes.

I'm sure the "dork" driving the car thinks you and your friends were dorks for
splitting lanes in these conditions.

I'm just pointing out what should be obvious.  Crashing sucks.  Plan ahead.
ABS isn't there so you can take stupid risks.   It's there for emergencies.
You're creating emergencies when you split lanes in the rain when know you
can't stop.   If you split lanes, you have to expect that stuff like this will
be the norm.   If the traction isn't adequate, slow down or don't split at
all.

~This sermon officially over~

ABS is really cool in the rain, though.   I have to agree with you there.

*********

Doug, You're in a hospital now.  I really hope you heal to ride another day.

I think your analysis of the cause of your spill may need a little more work
when you're able and the emotional smoke from the injury has lifted.  Doesn't
make complete sense to me that your front wheel locked while bedding in pads.
I'd really look for another cause for the wheel locking.

******
BRAKE STUFF:

Bedding in brakes involves gentle stops with cool down time in between.  The
stops should get progressively firmer as the brakes begin to conform to the
rotor surface and the gassing of the compound subsides.   If you start out
with hard stops from high speed, only the high spots touch and you burn the
pad material on those spots.  You can warp brakes from high heat in
concentrated areas, or just cause the pads to glaze in the high spots and not
work right.   Bedding in takes longer when you're putting new pads on used
rotors because the rotor surface of used rotors is not completely flat.

By the way, I've found that, if you change from one pad compound to another,
WINDEX or other amonia based window cleaner really works great on the rotors
to remove all the old gunk off the surface before putting on the new pads.
Also works great for cleaning new rotors before putting on the pads.

New rotors come with a thin coat of rustproofing...poison for some pads.
You'll be amazed at the amount of black gunk that comes off of a brand new
rotor if you soak it with Windex and wipe it down.

It seems that most (all?) pads leave a residue on the rotors.  The residue
with some pad compounds is incompatible with the surface of other pads.   I've
had it happen that I've installed some miracle new pad compound on a car or
bike and had all kinds of terrible problems.   This originally led me to
believe that the miracle pads were "no good".   Once I started cleaning the
rotors prior to installing pads, this issue went away forever.

I read about this phenomenon and its cure somewhere on a car list and tried
the Windex treatment.  Have never had another problem.    Symptoms were kind
of a gunky buildup on pads and rotors and a lot of very bad brake noise...no
locking up, though, at least on the pads I've tried on cars and bikes....Cool
Carbon, Pagid Orange, stock Pagid, Ferrodo Race Compound, EBC HH, Metal
Master, Repco Deluxe and the new ceramic pads for street use.

If I'm changing to a new set of the same pads, I don't worry about cleaning
rotors, but if I'm moving from one pad compound to another, I always clean.
Takes about 3 minutes and eliminates a lot of pain if the two compounds turn
out to be non-compatible.

Take care, all, and get well soon, Doug.

- -TB

------------------------------