I apologise if this has been asked to death. I had a look but couldn't find the answers that seemed to fit.

As we are fast approaching winter the beatiful English summer sun has now gone and we are getting a lot of grey wet rainy days. Recently my bike seems to have decided that it doesn't like riding in the wet and the back tyre seems to loose traction going round bends.

Unfrotunately I live in Milton Keynes and so have to go over/round at least 90 roundabouts to get anywhere.

Obviously when the roads are wet the wheels are more likely to slide so I should corner slower and at less of a lean angle. What Im wondering is whether there could be any other factors which would be making it much worse.

I seem to be having problems with tyre pressure. I loose as much as 10psi over a week in my rear tyre and about half that in the front. The tyres were new in June/July time and are puncture free as far as I can tell.

I pump them up once a week to the pressure stated in my Haynes manual.

I reguarily check (look at) my tyres to make sure theres no dirt on them, and they are normally fine.

It also seems to slide out a hell of a lot more when i turn right, the worst moments are when going straight on at a roundabout and the wheel slides out to the left... Have had to put my foot down a few times.

I have only ridden for a year and a half. But I ride all year and last winter I didn't have anywhere near as much problems (until I hit some diesel)

It's basically making me quite nervous when I ride, which can't be good.

And Im not looking forward to ice...

Has it done it since the tyres were put on? Sounds like either problems with the valves or the tyres havent sealed properly against the rims (I'm assuming tubeless tyres here - if its tubed tyres I guess only the valves)

it does sound like the tyres haven't sealed right
try squirting some very diluted washup liquid around the rims and see if you get a stream of bubbles

Just out of interest what tyres are they and what pressures are you setting?

When I had Dunlops on mine they used to slide in the wet but since I put Bridgestones on they grip much better

loosing that much pressure means the tyres are not sealing properly, or its dodgy valves. take them back to the dealer that fitted them & get it sorted.
you dont mention what tyres you have on at the mo-do tell.

Yep sounds to me like the tyres havent sealed properly, as for your bike not feeling right when cornering in the wet...are you sure its not down to the scare you had with the diesel spill..if your tensing up too much then your not going to be concentrating on your riding as much as you are about slipping in the wet...your gonna have to try get the Diesel spill incident out of your head mate

ruby has dunlops on her gpz and they are cr*p in the wet, my divie had bridgestones and they were awesome

i had a big moment on the FZR on the second day riding it due to Diesel/wet and it does get to you, kinda makes you over compensate, and hate riding it in the wet now

My Bridgestones are fab in the wet!

Im wondering how much the incident has left your confidence broken? I only mention this as I am really bad in the wet, I hate it, and it is allways a total stress to me to ride in the wet. But Im thinking a lot of my problems are basically psychological as Ive never actually fell off in the wet!

Could it be that the incident with the diesel has made a big impression, well too big an impression? Personally I wouldnt try to give you advice, as I am totally crap in the wet and a bag of nerves as well!

And believe it or not, I came into this Riding Skills to post a thread on this very topic, but I wanted to know how people who had defeated fear of wet-weather riding had built up their confidence up and overcome that horrible feeling that ruins wet risdes, for me at least!

Maybe I will post it anyway but at another time!

I think I have Avon tyres... when I booked it in he said about BT45's (I think) but put these on. Didnt charge me for the bridgestones though.

Occasioanlly when riding the handlebars 'pull' in a direction when I take a corner. Is this down to low tyre pressure? I've always assumed it was.

The deisel spill was, luckily, uneventful... lost the skin on my knees and ended up kneeling in on-coming traffic... but it stopped and I was alright.

As I cant drive cars and work a good few miles from home I ride everyday, so have got used to riding in the rain. Its only been this year that the tyres have started slipping so much (Thinking about it they had bridgestone on before) but they were slipping before the tyre change... but my old tyres had very little tread before the change over.

Oh yeh, I am using 29psi at front and 33psi at back...

Sorry... keep remembering bits I missed.

The tyre pressure has always gradually dropped since I have owned the bike... I thought it was due to a slow puncture in the old tyres...

Is that the recommended pressure? Sorry, I don't know about Avons.


I check the pressure on mine weekly and they can vary depending on the weather (cold or hot) and also on how much riding I've been doing, so it's not unusual for them to drop a bit of pressure. Unfortunately, since I started writing this I have forgotten how much pressure you said they were losing and I can't check it - so I might be talking out of my arris now
I think the worst mine have lost was quarter of a bar in a week (yesh, I'm an old git that hasn't gone metric yet )

i ran mine at 32 front 36 rear, mine felt kinda twitchy if it was below 30 in the front

Knowing MK, there is always a chance of diesel on the roundabout, esp on the Buckingham- Bedford road (A421 or 422); I had a diesel slide on the bottledump (?) luckily it was 6a.m. and no vehicles about or I would have seriously copped it.
It may be a combination of both diesel and dodgy tyre valves, but a common reaction is to throttle down and engine braking mid turn will cause the bike to drift towards the outside of the curve and if its an off camber roundabout this is exacerbated greatly. It may feel unnatural to do it but keeping a steady throttle will help as there is a good chance the tryres will regain grip (unless the area is awash with diesel, even then if the tyres aren't grip for normal traction braking or accelerating will just affect the stability more)

My last bridgestone rear was pants in the wet as it approached the wear bars, was fine in the dry, but it was slipping all over the place until I replaced it, new one has been fine. Dont know at what point it started to get bad due the lack of rain over the summer, but I replaced it the first weekend after the first autumnal showers!

Front is nearing the wear bars and will need replacing soon too although so far its been fine wet or dry. The front is an 014 compared to the rear 020 though.

If the tyres have always been losing air pressure then it could be the valves are nachered, they probably didnt replace the tyre valves when they did the tyres.

(replacing seems to be standard for car tyres yet a lot of bike places dont seem to do it???)

I used to have Avon ST's on the old Thundercat and i kept them around 32/36 ish... to be honest tho, if your only a couple of psi down it shouldn't make *that* much of a difference

Also, from what i remember from them in the wet, i never had a problem... the back wheel came out a couple of times but nothing like what your suggesting

Like everyone suggests... get the seals done or swap them for some bridgestone 014's or 020's
- Had both and they're superb in the wet

'a common reaction is to throttle down and engine braking mid turn will cause the bike to drift towards the outside of the curve'

This sounds about right... I take roundabouts fairly cautiously at the moment so low gears, not much throttle...

The sliding out only really occurs on roundabouts. But I dont really do much bendy countryside riding in the wet, so couldnt say if it is limited to roundabouts. I was wondering about the quality of the road surface... MK has some very dodgy roundabouts with nice shiny black strips across them...

spacecadet - i work in Mk to and can confirm i have had the same feelings on the roadabouts around here also. On tongwell street etc..

Wet plus Mk roundabout roads not to great...but i think some of it could possibly be psycological too....as i had oil on my old bike rear tyre and that caused me to come off

I'm probably a bit of a wuss when it comes to this, because I can still feel the pain of hitting black-ice-coated tarmac and frosty cobbles twenty-odd years ago (the last time I rode a bike right through winter) but when it comes to icy days, I vote for at least four wheels (which is hard, I know, if you don't have a bus service to where you work ). Discretion being the better part of valour and all that... and when you think about it there aren't many freezing days in winter when you know you'll have to risk riding on ice. I have a crappy old car as well, so I'll be taking that to work on icy days. I don't mind the idea of going sideways in a cage (well, not as much as on a bike), but I don't want another front wheel going on me. No sir. Not if it means hitting that kerb again at whatever speed it was....

space cadet

Are your headrace bearings correctly adjusted?With the bike on the centre stand and the front wheel off the ground if you move the handlebars from side to side with gentle pressure on the end of the bars there should be no sticking in the straight ahead position.
Anything that can affect the steering is worth checking out.
Have you checked your wheel alignment?

I have tried testing the steering and it doesnt seem to stick in any position. Havent checked my wheel alignment, but the bike has had a full servie within the last month (or so) wouldn't they check this?

I have been trying to pin-point exactly what happens when I start to loose it. the front wheel seems to turn more than it should do, so I am almost fighting the handlebars to turn. then the back wheel feels like it slides out.

The most noticable times are when I am going right or straight on at a roundabout and have gone onto the roundabout fine, its when you change from going left to going right, which seems to change which side of the tyres you bike is riding on. At this point I can feel the tyre loosing grip and wanting to slide out from under me. It feels like the rear of the bike wants to slide away, so to the outside of the roundabout. I havent had the front slide out at all.

Im not sure if I am just repeating myself here or not. I'd like to sort this as it is really effecting my confidence on the bike...

assuming you have good tyres & the correct pressure, the next thing you want to check is the head & swing arm bearings.
we have a bike at work which needs head bearings & it behaves the same way as you describe, it doesnt feel "worn" when you move the bars, but the bearings are shot.
check for any play or movement in the swing arm, as this wont help either.
check the wheel alignment-that can also give the same or similar symptoms.
do you know the history of the bike?
if the forks are out, or the frame has a twist in it, then that wont help either.
HTH

I used to get very much that sensation on my zzr when it had a slow rear puncture I was trying to live with ... although I was trying to maintain it at correct pressure, I just don't think things were working out safely. Used to get a 'fairground' sensation of the bike going somewhere I wasn't pointing it as I straightened up and accelerated out of corners.

Mind you, I'd want to know there was a leak before lashing out for new rubber. Washing up liquid should help. Doesn't hurt to have a look at the main part of the tyre, I once had a nail got buried in so deep the rubber had closed around the head and was almost invisible until I threw soapy water all over it.

Good luck with it, trust your instincts, if it feels wrong then whatever the reason get it sorted!