Close call -- Michelin Road 5 performance

[torch]

The other day I was getting off the superslab, around the break of dawn in a light rain. Typical exit ramp -- gentle right hand followed by an uphill left hand to the overpass. Traffic was building, so speed was limited. Visibility was poor -- just shades of dark grey amid the glare of lights on the wet visor and windscreen. As I lightly braked down in the left hand side of my lane, I hit a patch of oil film floating on the wet road. The bike started to wash out, dropping towards a low-side as it slid across the lane. I barely had time to start to react, just starting to release brakes and take pressure off the left handlebar in an attempt to recover when I slid out of the oil.

As soon as they were out of the oil, the PR5s bit. Not just a sandpaper-on-softwood bite, this was a 6" velcro pressed down with a steamroller kind of bite. The left handlebar kicked like a mule as the almost-low-side suddenly tried to turn into a high-side, popping the bike vertical with a speed-wobble like oscillation. My shoulder is still sore, but probably not as sore as it could have been otherwise. I did manage to keep it in the lane and brake down before reaching the car ahead of me.

I'm not certain if the sudden recovery of traction was a good thing or almost a bad thing, but I was really impressed at just how much traction those PR5s have when the road is just wet, not oily.

 

[kieefjr]

Good save and lucky no vehicles intervened and I just mounted a set of 5’s so that’s also good to hear.