Nearly had an off in the wet this morning...

graeme_s-2

Coming off a roundabout this morning in the wet the back wheel of my fixie suddenly slipped out from under me. My instinct was to stop pedalling briefly, which caused the back wheel to leap off the floor. I started pedalling again and smacked my left knee on the underside of the cross bar, and the jolt from this nearly bounced my hands clean off the bars! I then found myself still upright and heading in the right direction.

I think it was as I shifted my weight to move from going right round the roundabout to leaning to the left to come off. The road was wet, and there's a lot of road paint around there, but I suspect there might have been diesel or something on the road. I'd already eased off slightly while coming round the roundabout as it didn't feel quite right. My first thought was that my back tyre must have deflated, but it looked absolutely fine (and passed the thumb pressure test when I got to work).

Gave me a bit of a shock first thing in the morning anyway. I had a car to my left and one behind me when it happened, so could have been fairly unpleasant.

SickAsAParrot

My route in is has been covered in oil for the last couple of weeks for a good mile and a half, it shows up in the wet it looks like somebodies been chucking bucket-fulls out the back of a van. I have to be extra careful especially on the roundabouts.

sicknewt

There is a roundabout on my commute that's always really slippery, especially when wet. That and a manhole cover on the apex make every journey and adventure...

Headhuunter

I always find the main problem in the wet is the increased stopping distance, I have almost run into the back of cars and other cyclists a few times in the wet... Almost happened this morning when a cyclist in front of me slammed the anchors on...

fossyant

It will be diesel ! Loads of it on the roads at present.

graeme_s-2

Headhuunter wrote:

I always find the main problem in the wet is the increased stopping distance, I have almost run into the back of cars and other cyclists a few times in the wet... Almost happened this morning when a cyclist in front of me slammed the anchors on...

I've been really lazy at keeping the front brake on my fixie in proper working order. On Monday morning I nearly ran into the back of a car in a queue of traffic when I went to switch across a stationary queue from filtering on the right to the lane I needed for the coming junction on the left. Turned left between two cars and nearly ran straight into the back of one of them when I didn't slow as quickly as I expected to.

Have tightened the brake right up now and it's loads better in both the wet and the dry.

UndercoverElephant

fossyant wrote:

It will be diesel ! Loads of it on the roads at present.

+1, such pretty colours on the road surface.