Yesterday was a pretty nice day here. It was almost 90 degrees with a cold front knocking on the door in the evening. I hadn’t been on the bike since my trip to E. Texas and while it is still pretty filthy I thought I’d try to ride a bit.
I guess it just wasn’t my day to ride. I tweaked the tire pressure to get it right and then took off to get a bite to eat. Part of the parking lot is a one-way “strip” or alley. I looked in the direction of on-coming traffic and nobody was there so I started to execute my turn and some fuck-tard was coming the wrong way down the strip. I didn’t hit them (or vice-versa) but there was a brief moment of panic until I made sure that they weren’t going to take me out.
After scarfing down on some food and getting my blood sugar in order I took off and hit some faster sweepers, but it was not to be. There was too much traffic and I had to take it easy. Not a big deal as I don’t need any more tickets.
I made myself get lost on some back roads and was taking it pretty easy as I just didn’t quite “feel right” for some reason. I was coming around a bend in a road at a fairly low speed, maybe 15 ~ 20mph, and just started to lean into the turn when it started sliding out from under me. I don’t mean part of it stepped out, the entire bike started to fall away.
This would be the pucker factor kicking in.
Purely reactionary I stuck my right leg out and caught it and then kept the throttle on just a tad and sure enough it hooked back up. I never saw anything in the road to indicate it was that slick. I wasn’t going fast. My tires were plenty warm. I have no idea why that happened but I decided that I had enough and it was time to go home.
The problem, now, is that I am rapidly losing confidence in my tires. It seems that since I have put new tires on the bike I have had several such “odd” episodes in which the bike has simply failed to perform or respond in a predictable fashion. It could purely be coincidence. The tires I have on it are supposed to be really nice tires with good traction, but I don’t have much confidence in them at the moment.
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