From: alex@csn.org (ALEX MATTHEWS)
Subject: Re: Wet Brakes (was)Re: Fun
Organization: /etc/organization
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:07:30 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.141932.2624@cbnews.cb.att.com> nak@cbnews.cb.att.com (neil.a.kirby) writes:
>In article <1992Dec17.221920.5835@news.columbia.edu> scs8@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Sebastian C Sears) writes:
>>
>>	ObRain> Anyone ever do any practicing with *wet* brakes? 
>
>Before doing this, I humble advise going out and looking at your front
>brake.  If it is a disk with no holes in it, be really careful.  

And if it is a disk *with* holes in it, be really careful.  This holes/
no holes debate died an ugly death here on rec.moto several months ago.
The conclusion was that disks were drilled as much for stylistic reasons
as for engineering ones.  

And if you require a testimonial, consider that on my bikes the limiting
factor in wet and dry braking is the pads.  Both drilled- and solid-rotor
bikes (GS550, GS450) brake well in the rain with stock Suzuki pads, but the
EBC pads are dogs in the rain.  This difference far exceeds any difference
due to rotor, caliper, and chassis design.  

ObOriginalThread:  In some ways I really miss riding in those day-long
East coast drizzles.  A steady diet of dry weather can get tiresome,
and if you're mentally and physically prepared for it rain riding can
cleanse the mind particularly effectively.  Like dry-weather riding, 
if you're surrounded by assholes or if something goes wrong it can suck,
and you may be tempted to blame it on the weather, but when everything
goes right it can be heaven.  Riding in the rain is a very personal
experience -- all the cars have their windows rolled up, all the dogs
are inside by the radiator, the horses have wandered back to the barn,
and the baseball diamonds are just muddy fields with footprints headed
home -- and that, I think, is why it is so attractive to me.  Without
so many distractions I have time to see other detail in the world around
me.  A host of new smells and feelings greets my senses -- moldy leaves,
wet bark, ozone, dirt -- all the things that we learned as kids to 
associate with the word "rain".  

It can be refreshing to polish rusty riding skills, too.  We all have a 
preferred riding style, and there are many riders out there who would 
prefer drifting the rear tire at 70 mph in a dry canyon to riding in the rain.  
Both riding styles offer significant peril above and beyond normal everyday 
riding, and the adherants to one style usually do not see eye-to-eye 
with proponents of the other.  Why?  The skills needed are different, it
is true, but isn't the bottom line the *honing* of skills, the perfection
of execution, the unity of human and bike?  

Even after dismounting I can reap the benefits of rain riding.  When I
exit the rain and enter the warmth of a cafe the occupants do not
perceive me as a motorcyclist but rather as a traveller.  They think
that I must be going someplace important, if I'm suffering the ravages
of Mother Nature on a motorcycle.  The greeting is predictable: "Kind
of wet out there, isn't it?"  But the followup is not:  "Where did you
come from?  How far are you going?"  What a far cry from the dry-weather
response: "Well, my uncle had a bike and he set her down in that really
bad curve back down the road about two miles!"  I neither expect nor
receive pity when I ride my bike, but compassion -- there's a wonderful
thing to find!

I never thought I'd admit this, but I like to watch, too.  Did anyone else
catch the coverage of the WSB event held in pouring rain this year?
The riders that stayed up were having a blast!  One guy motocrossed 
over the chicane curbing every single lap.  His was probably some sort
of one-man protest: "Since you made me race in this stuff, I'm going to
make my own race course.  Nyah."  Was the track Monza?  I seem to remember
that it was a hometown boy (Pirovano?) who won both legs because he
knew the track in the wet.  It probably didn't make a difference in the
points standings, but it's only a matter of time before there's a really
wet year and the championship is won by someone who's really good in the
wet.  How come the factories don't graft ABS onto racebikes for rainy
races?  Oops, I'm off the subject.  I'd better stop here.


-- 
- Alex Matthews  (new address: alexm.csn.org)

  "A typical Grand Prix race.  High noon.  Tension mounts.  Throttles clench."
                        Patricia Zonker, _Murdercycles_
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles