Wet Leaves Are Slippy

Wallace1492

Had my first commuting Off this morning....

Down side steet to main road, realised I was going a tad fast for hitting a carpet of leaves... had to pull on brakes, bike went one way, I went the other. Landed on right knee, and skidded a few yards on my right buttock. Amazingly shorts didn't tear, though will get a nice bruise. Small cut to knee, and just that sore feeling.

More importantly though apart from right brake lever being bent in slightly, and scraped the Tricross was fine.

All happened 200 yards from home. I manfully dusted myself down and got on bike. Not the best of weather, but felt happy getting in.

UndercoverElephant

Ouch. Sounds as though it could have been worse, though. My method for wet leaves, diesel spills and ice is to go straight and not brake. It's a bugger if you have to do either of these things. Heal soon.

Wallace1492

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Ouch. Sounds as though it could have been worse, though. My method for wet leaves, diesel spills and ice is to go straight and not brake. It's a bugger if you have to do either of these things. Heal soon.

Didn't have the choice. Its a short steep downhill onto a main road. Will avoid for rest of winter I think.... I used to when it was icy.

shouldbeinbed

Wallace1492 wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Ouch. Sounds as though it could have been worse, though. My method for wet leaves, diesel spills and ice is to go straight and not brake. It's a bugger if you have to do either of these things. Heal soon.

Didn't have the choice. Its a short steep downhill onto a main road. Will avoid for rest of winter I think.... I used to when it was icy.

+1 with UE and get well soon . leaves are as bad as Ice and diesel,

I'm on a more urban route at the mo to avoid a lovely treey heathland with a nice steep sided rocky river i nearly took a header into the other year on leaves

vorsprung

If I avoided all the roads with leaves on them for the rest of the autumn I'd be house bound for a couple of months

itboffin

What's worse is turning a corner on a descent to see nothing but pills of wet leaves where the road should be, time to relax and hope to god you don't need to brake suddenly.

In the end this weekend I actually bailed and cycled along the main road, I felt safer amongst the traffic.

UndercoverElephant

itboffin wrote:

What's worse is turning a corner on a descent to see nothing but pills of wet leaves where the road should be, time to relax and hope to god you don't need to brake suddenly.

In the end this weekend I actually bailed and cycled along the main road, I felt safer amongst the traffic.

+1 I have one proper decent on my commute, along a twisty road which runs through a wood. This morning, after the winds of the weekend, it was a carpet. They haven't really had time to become proper squishy, yet.

Heaven help when they have.

jeremyrundle

I have the sort of tyres on my mountain bike that are knobbly on the sides and for road in the middle (sorry I am a newby so poor explanation).

Would full off road tyres make a difference.

Thanks

attica

Hey Wallace, look on the positive side, it was probably the wet leaves that saved your shorts!

Arnica cream works wonders on bruising.

Hope it's not too painful

roger_merriman

jeremyrundle wrote:

I have the sort of tyres on my mountain bike that are knobbly on the sides and for road in the middle (sorry I am a newby so poor explanation).

Would full off road tyres make a difference.

Thanks

that type of tyre is known as a semi slick, idea being you have a fast slick tyre, that can still take off road if you bank it over in the turns.

would more knobbly tyres be less effected by wet leaves etc? yes but they would also be slower and there are a huge range of mtb tyres, from full on mud spikes to semi slicks, with a range of sizes and rubber compound from very soft grippy to fast and hardwearing.

jeremyrundle

Thats it,semi slick, thanks.

I am one who is not a proper cyclist like others here, I go to and from the shops, about 10 miles a week, so my local shop, (take a look, more than a cycle shop)

http://www.dartmoorcycles.co.uk/

Said these were best, a little more grip in summer but easier cycling.

Should I change them in winter, with all the leaves.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

roger_merriman

jeremyrundle wrote:

Thats it,semi slick, thanks.

I am one who is not a proper cyclist like others here, I go to and from the shops, about 10 miles a week, so my local shop, (take a look, more than a cycle shop)

http://www.dartmoorcycles.co.uk/

Said these were best, a little more grip in summer but easier cycling.

Should I change them in winter, with all the leaves.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'd not worry about it too much, yes you could get a more knobbly tyre, but you'd in all likely hood find them a lot slower and with possibly less grip on wet tarmac for example.

A MTB is much more forgiving of loss of grip.

i don't find them a Issue with tyres like marathon pluses, yes on wet muddy leafy paths the bike does sometimes drift a bit, but it's nothing scarey.

suzyb

Missed this thread yesterday off didn't read about your off until I checked the meetup group, stupid work

Hope you're not to badly bashed and bruised

joshtp

Haha!!!! Sorry, shouldn't laugh.... hope your OK....

But really, man you women!! Maybe it's because I'm used to drifting on wet slate, and claggy mud... but really Leaves are NOT a big deal.... just don't brake hard, and don't make any sharp turns... and don't be scared of the bike sliding and moving under you, let it go, and hold the drift...

Try finding a really big patch of leaves and deliberatelly drifting, apply the brakes and flick the back end out, get used to the feeling of it drifting... then when it happens and your not expecting it, you can just hold it and carry on.... this way I manage to hammer round the town all year, even on ice... I never slow down or change my route... But having knobbly tyres does help I suppose... and being a MTB'er I'm used to the "gnar!"

jeremyrundle

roger merriman wrote:

A MTB is much more forgiving of loss of grip.


Thank you

joshtp

OK, OK... but Having the skill's to ride any bike in the wet, and esp when it's slippy is a good idea.... I have ridden road bikes... and The last time I did so the back end slipped out around a very tight hairpin on a mountain road with a 1000ft drop to the side, going at about 35KPH.... It was wet and greasy.... I still managed to hold it... I'm not bigging myself up, or trying to say i'm a great rider (far from it, im pretty crap by most peoples standards) but having the skills to hold a slide can improve your safety, and help all sorts of things. So sometimes you'v got to man up and just do it!

suzyb

joshtp wrote:

OK, OK... but Having the skill's to ride any bike in the wet, and esp when it's slippy is a good idea.... I have ridden road bikes... and The last time I did so the back end slipped out around a very tight hairpin on a mountain road with a 1000ft drop to the side, going at about 35KPH.... It was wet and greasy.... I still managed to hold it... I'm not bigging myself up, or trying to say i'm a great rider (far from it, im pretty crap by most peoples standards) but having the skills to hold a slide can improve your safety, and help all sorts of things. So sometimes you'v got to man up and just do it!

That's why I drive the way I do.

Wallace1492

joshtp wrote:

OK, OK... but Having the skill's to ride any bike in the wet, and esp when it's slippy is a good idea.... I have ridden road bikes... and The last time I did so the back end slipped out around a very tight hairpin on a mountain road with a 1000ft drop to the side, going at about 35KPH.... It was wet and greasy.... I still managed to hold it... I'm not bigging myself up, or trying to say i'm a great rider (far from it, im pretty crap by most peoples standards) but having the skills to hold a slide can improve your safety, and help all sorts of things. So sometimes you'v got to man up and just do it!

Joshtp, totally agree, and I love a slipping and a sliding on my MTB. I have also saved plenty of "offs" on the road bike, and recovered from slips before hitting the deck. However, yesterdays was not one that you could recover from. It was my own stupid fault - going too fast down a hill towards main road, got distracted by running over something that sounded like I had dropped a light, then realised junction was approaching fast, and had to brake, just as I hit a carpet of very wet leaves. Bike just whooooshed off to the left.... Alternative was to hit main road at 20mph without a knowing if there was traffic - I will take the fall anyday!

Still, decided bike again today . Need to get my 6,000 target for the year somehow.

UndercoverElephant

Good man! That's the kind of dogged determination we like round here!

jeremyrundle

Perhaps "riding in accordance with the conditions at the time" may have helped.

That is what drivers are taught, though few listen.

Wallace1492

jeremyrundle wrote:

Perhaps "riding in accordance with the conditions at the time" may have helped.

That is what drivers are taught, though few listen.

Yes, Yes, Yes..... I hear what you are saying, ride faster you say, ride faster...... :P

I usually ride in accordance with the conditions, but do you know, sometimes sh1t happens, and so it was yesterday. Not too bad in the scheme of things, but enough of a wake up call for me to be far more careful round leaves.

jeremyrundle

My main concern ( I am older than most here) is that (a) had you not seen the man you could have seriously injured him, or (b) yourself or (c) died under the wheels of a car.

Only takes a second .........................

UndercoverElephant

jeremyrundle wrote:

My main concern ( I am older than most here) is that (a) had you not seen the man you could have seriously injured him, or (b) yourself or (c) died under the wheels of a car.

Only takes a second .........................

Erm.. What man, Jeremy? Are you having a senior moment?

Wallace1492

UndercoverElephant wrote:

jeremyrundle wrote:

My main concern ( I am older than most here) is that (a) had you not seen the man you could have seriously injured him, or (b) yourself or (c) died under the wheels of a car.

Only takes a second .........................

Erm.. What man, Jeremy? Are you having a senior moment?

Yes, news to me that I saw a man.... only man involved was me, skidding on my ass!

UndercoverElephant

Perhaps Jeremy had hidden a body beneath the carpet of leaves? :shock:

jeremyrundle

To hit the "main road", not "man in road" sorry, that is the problem with dyslexia, have to rely on spell check etc, if you see my past posts you may see them change many times correcting mistakes.

regards

Wallace1492

jeremyrundle wrote:

To hit the "main road", not "man in road" sorry, that is the problem with dyslexia, have to rely on spell check etc, if you see my past posts you may see them change many times correcting mistakes.

regards

Apologies, did not know you were dyslexic! Did not mean to be mean....

Valy

I would be depressed about bending a brake lever. :P

Almost a free lesson for you there OP, could have been worse.

But yeah - there is a little path I take that goes through a little woods that connects two roads on the way to a shop and there are a few leafs on it - they actuality seem to get cleaned up fairly well, but still - it's downhill and I'm a bit cautious there.

Not sure about you people, but drifting and road bike are a bit like oil and water for me - I've only had a road bike for about 5 weeks so maybe as time goes etc. A bit of topic, but can you people feel when you are about to loose grip when cornering on a road bike? I would imagine that when approaching limits of grip on a road bike you would need to be going pretty fast - so what chance is there if it snaps? In the dry it's not too much trouble - but what about in the wet?

jeremyrundle

I find being dyslexic GREAT, you wodnt believe what I get away with in scrabble