How aggressive do you ride in the wet?

[Lord Percy]

When the road's wet I go into ultra-safe mode, mainly when cornering where I barely dare to lean at all.

I'm certain I could push it a bit more but after 10 years of being a skater boy I see wet tarmac and relate it to the loss of grip on polyurethane skateboard wheels, which is far worse than the loss of grip on rubber bike tyres.

Instead of testing the limits myself and risking a crash, I figured it would be best to get some general consensus from BCF.

Not that I want to take the piss and/or kill myself; I just wonder how my reaction to wet conditions compares to that of everyone else.

Thoughts/experiences welcome or just answer the poll.

Cheers

[BrownTrousers]

I clicked 70%.

In the wet I tend to go almost as fast as normal in most places, but I cut back a lot on filtering and overtakes or other manoeuvres that increase the likelihood of something unexpected happening.
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[stevo as b4]

Loss of grip from aqua planing should be more of a worry IMO. On good tarmac free from road paint, mud, oil, leaves etc pure lean angle alone should not reduce grip by much at all over a dry road.

Its acceleration and hard braking or combining these with cornering and big lean angles that you want to avoid.

Ok you can wash out the front tyre from overloading it with say throwing it over in a bend with no throttle applied. But on a neutral throttle a bike should be well balanced, and I've never been scared of leaning over as much in the wet as I would in the dry, as long as your not crossing manholes or other low friction surfaces or debris in the road.

[wots]

I'll take the option not listed, depends on the bike.

MSX125 with City Grip winters, doesn't change much, as it grips all the time. Some of the roundabouts I can go much quicker in the wet, than in the dry on a bigger more powerful bike.

Other bikes, between 50-70% depending on the weather.

My first bike a CBF125, at times 10%, skinny crappy tyres and the first sign of any damp and it became dangerous.
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[B5234FT]

I back off a lot, similar to you through lack of confidence in what the bike will do/the road conditions and through fear of the consequences (a slide in a car is fine, less so on the bike).

I live in the sticks where there is almost always mud/crap/diesel/whatever which exacerbates the change from dry to wet and the unpredictability around the next corner

[Rogerborg]

[tom_e]

If it's just damp/wet from earlier rain then I'll ride around 70% if it's actually peeing down at the time then it probably comes down to 50ish.

[Lord Percy]

[tom_e]

[M.C]

Not aggressive at all, riding in the wet's about being smooth. Less lean angle when cornering and being more caution on roundabout's, although a lot of that's due to having crap wet grip with my current tyres. With decent tyres you can still have fun and not have to take it too easy.

[el_oso]

filtering is probably where I take the biggest hit in terms of reduction in speed. I don't want to be grabbing at the front brake when some tit pulls out in front of me in the pouring rain.

I used to be a lot more cautious. Since getting rid of the gixxer, I've had a lot of fun sliding the 125 and 250 round.
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[Notj7]

Barely any lean angle in the wet. Slow and steady, and no filtering. It's shit, basically.
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[BTTD]

I clicked 70%, although I would say that it depends on the road surface and the type of rain.
Heavy on-going rain that's washed the road clean and runs off the visor is usually less of a concern than a hanging misty drizzle that just lifts all the greases in the road up and turns it into a slippery slick where every pot hole repair and overbanded bump has the bike squirming, and best of all you can't see f'all.
I'm thinking back to one specific winters night ride in drizzly mist where I was just glad to get off the bike. I even stopped mid journey to check the tyres as the bike felt horrible.

[stinkwheel]

I'm terrible in the wet most of the time. Goes back to having truly horriffic tyres on my first few bikes and repeatedly falling off on wet patches on the road.

I carry on fine, and my new tyres are fantastic in the wet. Then something slips or shimmies, even slightly and I totally lose my mojo for the rest of the ride. I comfort brake, 50p corners, run wide, wobble, death grip, feather the throttle, trail brake, hold my breath round corners, grip the bike with my knees etc. Pretty much everything but foot dab (althought I see that's a thing now).
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[Lord Percy]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Depends what kind of "wet". A road pelted with more rain after a day or two of heavy rainfall is imo a lot better than a thin coating of rain on a road that's been dry for ages.
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[Kris]

Voted 70%

That's for when it's proper wet, or damp but drying.

When it's just rained after a long spell of summer sunshine I often reduce it a bit more because greasy y'all.

Modern tyres grip in the wet, as long as road conditions allow. I'm pretty obsessive about spotting manhole covers and white lines rather than slowing down per say.


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[Derivative]

I basically ride the same with the exception of filtering. White lines or no white lines, that's where my handling is affected in a way that has a decent probability of resulting in endeadening.

I tend to be a bit of a squirt in a straight line rider, though, mostly because 90% of my rides are commuting and avoiding hazards on roundabouts at speed is not fun.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

The only change I make is greater braking distances and a lot more gentle with the brakes, a lot more gentle tipping in. Just generally treating the controls like they're made of glass.

I still filter etc in the wet.
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[Teflon-Mike]

I'm 'tempted' to tick 100%... question is too subjective for the scale suggested.

Check wet lap times vs dry in road-racing, and they are usually pretty close, within 10% or so, often less. Maybe slightly flattered in the higher classes where they may run slicks in the dry and wets in the wet; or alternative grades of 'production' tyres; but in the rankings they often don't have that luxuary, and run a control tyre in all weathers, and still stay in that sort of window.

On the road..... shouldn't be riding 'that' aggressively to start with.... Public roads are usually that much crapper and less consistent, and road tyres compromised for life and 'all-round' conditions, AND you have all the added risks and hazards and inconsistancies of pop-up pedestrians, un-emmission control live-stock; uncovered skip-trucks, etc etc etc....

A 'bit' of rain, shouldn't 'really' need to see very much greater degree of caution applied to riding in the dry; if I do apply any, it will generally be due to reduced visibility, in worse weather, than from worries of diminished traction.

It's a variation of the summer vs winter debate, where it's oft asked how much 'slower' you ride in the winter to in the summer, that is to my mind a bit backwards.

Question would be better put the other way about, and slightly re-phrased; "How much 'harder' do you ride; how much more 'blase' are you of the risks in the dry/summer, are you than in the wet/winter?"

Because the reveal is usually how much we let good weather and good conditions over-inflate our confidence, above what is probably prudent, rather than the other way about.
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

I ride like a granny with a full colostomy bag anyway, so not an awful lot different.
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[faffergotgunz]

60-70%

Accelerate in 3rd instead of 2nd to avoid spinning up, be gentle with back brake to avoid locking up, ride slower due to crap visibility and cars with reduced visibility. Mud on road will be more slippery, manhole covers ect...

Will fatigue quicker due to higher concentration (trying to pick the road out at night in heavy rain is shit!), so take more breaks...
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[pompousporcup...]

for me, the wet (even if its just drizzled) makes me scared. I've already had one hard fall and don't want to repeat it. I'm no stranger to falling - i've ridden bmx for years and skated the streets for over a decade but im not getting any younger and certainly dont bounce as well as i used to

its mainly in the corners where i'm cautious. any corner, no matter how sharp i shit myself, death grip, squeeze my knees and pray I still filter in the wet/rain, just a bit slower than usual(which is probably too fast to start with). Braking is obvs done much sooner than in the dry

Teflon-Mike makes a very good point though its amazing just how much my attitude changes to corners on a dry day

[Baffler186]

If wet, or damp, I accelerate out of corners at 50%. I go round corners 30% slower. I don't go any slower in straight lines unless there are hug puddles, which is very rare in the hilly westcountry.

I do find that a very mild drizzle after a dry spell is worse than actual rain - wet enough to make a slippy surface (especially on a bus route) but not enough rain to give it a good wash.
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[recman]

If I ever get caught in a light drizzle, I'll be pushing it on the pavement.