Can't really talk to non-bike friends about this, and family and close friends would worry if I told them.
Riding from my work to the city tonight, about a minute or two down the road the cars I was following braked a bit more suddenly than I expected, no worries as I was at a safe distance. The roads were a bit wet and greasy as it had been raining, and it was going dark.
I'm not 100% sure of what happened, but I think I was braking with the front and rear as usual (as I wasn't going that fast). My back locked up and started fishtailing around, I couldn't really use the front brake as my bike was flailing around so much, luckily there was a large gap next to the car that I headed to. I was able to get the bike under control, brake and stop, finishing a foot ahead of the car I almost hit. The engine must have stalled too when I locked the back up which didn't really help matters.
Heart racing and pumped full of adrenalin I waved a thanks to the driver who let me in front of them (not sure if they saw what happened), and I carried on even more cautiously than before.
I guess I need to be a bit more careful about cold tyres, especially in the damp, I've locked the wheels up a couple of times just afer setting off, this was the closest I've come to an accident though.
Most of it was pure instinct, and the only thing I was concious of was heading for the gap next to the car instead of rear ending it. One of the few times I didn't have my helmet camera running too
Not something I plan on repeating, it does make me think a bit more about getting an ABS equipped bike though.
Riding from my work to the city tonight, about a minute or two down the road the cars I was following braked a bit more suddenly than I expected, no worries as I was at a safe distance. The roads were a bit wet and greasy as it had been raining, and it was going dark.
I'm not 100% sure of what happened, but I think I was braking with the front and rear as usual (as I wasn't going that fast). My back locked up and started fishtailing around, I couldn't really use the front brake as my bike was flailing around so much, luckily there was a large gap next to the car that I headed to. I was able to get the bike under control, brake and stop, finishing a foot ahead of the car I almost hit. The engine must have stalled too when I locked the back up which didn't really help matters.
Heart racing and pumped full of adrenalin I waved a thanks to the driver who let me in front of them (not sure if they saw what happened), and I carried on even more cautiously than before.
I guess I need to be a bit more careful about cold tyres, especially in the damp, I've locked the wheels up a couple of times just afer setting off, this was the closest I've come to an accident though.
Most of it was pure instinct, and the only thing I was concious of was heading for the gap next to the car instead of rear ending it. One of the few times I didn't have my helmet camera running too
Not something I plan on repeating, it does make me think a bit more about getting an ABS equipped bike though.