Had a bit of a surprise this evening, (urban) riding down a steepish hill at about 20mph, following a car reasonably closely in order to make a green light that was about to turn red. Only the car ahead gets past the white line and instead of accelerating across the junction, sees a reflection of some flashing blue lights in the distance, shits himself and slams on the anchors. Caught me by surprise, so I get on the brakes too - and find myself locking up the front and sliding to a stop about a foot clear of his rear bumper. Road was dry, temperature 5C. Didn't apply full emergency stop pressure and didn't expect the front to slide. My other bike has ABS so I've not experienced this before (although felt the ABS trigger a few times). Bike is a non ABS RR6, on 4 year old Michelin PR4s. Tyres should be as good as anything else in low temperatures given their nature, but are they too old? Or is this actually standard and to be expected on non-ABS bikes in winter? I have read that the brakes on this era of Blade are pretty punchy and need to be treated with a light touch. Good thing I didn't have to turn, or wasn't turning when I applied the brakes or it could have been embarrassing.
Temperature, descent, tyre age and lack of time to manually modulate the lever will have surely played a part.
This is what I fear the result of all mandated driver / rider aids will be, folks that experience issues when riding sans these aids. Time to go to a vacant parking lot and practice emergency stops without ABS.
Well - I just went to take the bike out for a ride on slightly more open territory. As Nigel says, lack of familiarity is not helpful, and there's only one way to get familiar... Also tried a bunch of emergency stops - think I've got a reasonable sense for where the traction limit on the front is now, but it is distressingly low in these conditions (I got it to lock up again without much effort). I guess you have to just retrain your muscle memory so when you do have to emergency stop it's not just a slam reaction on the lever. I also discovered how distressingly low the traction limit on the rear is under power - spun up the back wheel twice, on about 1/4 throttle at only 4-5k revs. I knew a Fireblade was going to be fast, but jesus christ! How are any of you still alive?
Dont take this the wrong way but an 06 fireblade is about as stable bike as you can get, its road manors are superb, I suggest a few things are not quite right, road conditions, riders right hand, tyres Consider these Rob
Agreed, and 4 year old tyres are ancient - I wouldn't risk it on a sport bike with 2 year old rubber in 5*C weather.
Took a look at the code on the side of the tyres - 4113, so that’s a late 2013 date of manufacture, 5 1/2 years old not 4. I think it is probably time for some new rubber even though these have barely been used. Tempted by the new Battlax s22s. I’ve got s21s on the 650 and they’re cracking.
Well if that pottering about happens in warmer climes then they’d probably be fine! You serious? (because you’d be welcome...)
I've had two recent back wheel "movements" under normal power - cold smooth tarmac, so not enough warmth for the tyre to get soft and grip, and not enough traction on the smooth tarmac. So bike is going in on Friday for some better winter tyres - as falling off gets expensive
At least I’m not the only one! What are you going to put on instead? (And what tyres have you got at the moment?)
Nah. The majority of my posts are not serious, although I do have a few occasional bouts of intelligence. Thanks for the kind offer though!
I had a similar incident recently, however, I went round the car and straight across the junction. Here in London traffic and car drivers are pretty much as sh*t as you can find anywhere, defensive riding is the name of the game and road position + thinking ahead a few seconds are a necessity. Pretty much every day I travel in to work and it s now normal that there will be some type of incident to which I have to react.
Tyres do harden over time which i think in this instance is probably the reason for the lack of adhesion shall we say. You're lucky the front didn't wash. Probably time for some fresh rubber especially if your doing any other sort of riding other than pottering about. When breaking hard in a straight line and the front end is loaded up correctly it's surprising how much grip there really is, Unless you brake irratically, the front end is light or there is something on the road. Like you say, good job you weren't turning, that'll never turn out well, best to get all your breaking out of the way before you tip it in.....I'm sure you already know that though
Warmed up there's an amazing amount of grip when the lever modulated and the tyre/suspension loaded. It is easy to lock well the surface is bad and during emergency situations but as a matter of I would stick it up on a stand and check the disc aren't warped etc
