Slippery situation

Had my first unexpected loss of traction on my old vf700.
I was cruising through a long steady slightly banked curve.
About halfway through I started to roll on the throttle a bit.
I wasn't dragging pegs , shifting, or even running high speed or rpm. Out of the blue the rear stepped out a couple inches ,the caught traction as quick as it let go.
I did end up near the yellow line in a right hander. But mostly because I let up on lean angle and throttle a bit.

Not sure what caused it , it is typically stable and we'll behaved at my moderate pace.

 

Hard to tell what the root problem was from here, those gremlins are known to throw out shet, slime, goo snot, etc of all sorts of slippery stuff . especially on Halloween. Good you didn't get what some call target fixation going oh crap as you run off the road, but really hard to say unless an un seen bit of road grime which also could have been thrown out by said gremlin (s) whats your tires like?

 

wet leaves, dollops of anti-freeze or oil that a leaking cage dropped, sand, dirt, gravel, etc.

It was a small patch that you rode thru and the tire was able to recover traction once clear, but for a larger patch there would be no recovery. You're lucky to get the experience of a tire stepping-out without a wipe-out--helps build confidence in your tires and trust your rubbers.

 

http://cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1307040519087_3275209.png

 

A very similar incident happened to me a while ago. I'm still baffled by what happened, but still can't find a logical explanation.

 

That's funnier than hell.

Tires are between 500 and 1000 miles from new. I guess I was going a bit faster than my norm, which is about 10 over with a moderate to normal let off for curves.
It was just a quick bobble, it was over before I realized what was up.
Didn't see anything in the road, and although the stock vf rear shocks are notorious mine functions normally either way I eased up a little.

Shock seems fine on bumps, across RR tracks, with a pillion etc.
It calls for 10-43lbs oef air in the rear I am running around 30-35psi, the four position damping lever is set to 2 or 3.

It's one of those sharp curves at the end of a couple decent straights. It's got 2 or 3 slowdown, this means you , etc signs in the curve as alot of young cagers come up on it running hot , freak out and slam the brakes or jerk the wheel,wreck and make a mess. So it easily could have been any kind of greasy grimy stuff in the road.
Haven't drug the pegs so far but I did scuff the bottom of my shoe when i went to up-shiuft coming through a intersection.
She has been rock solid so far it would still be nice to upgrade the shocks especially the rear.

 

Believe it or not, I have literally run over a banana peel in a turn and have it slip my rear tire a little. I laughed for about a mile. It was like something out of a cartoon, save for the fact that I didn't fall down.

 

Coming home from Sacramento a few weeks ago I was coming through Ojai on Highway 33 and coming through a right hand turn I seemed to lose traction. I thought for sure I was about to low side and I even felt a jolt and heard a scraping sound :scared: but in my own little Marquez moment, I was able to keep upright!

I think what happened was the road up until that moment had been a nice new asphalt and mid corner, it was a shaved concrete section. Maybe loose gravel or just a change in available traction but it was definitely a close call.

I kind of blew it off and kept going but the other day while I was investigating a coolant leak on the bike, I noticed the headers had a huge flat spot that was all scraped up! Guess I know where the jolt and scraping sound came from now!

 

When my rear steps out a little it's usually from going through a turn at hyper-speeds. This almost never happens with newer modern dual compound tires now. When it does happen, I very slightly and instantly increase throttle and the rear nicely comes back into place. You're lucky you didn't high side when you cut throttle. You probably weren't going fast enough though.

 

To me it sounds like you may have run over a tar snake in the curve. It's a real common road crack repair method around me and I've just grown to expect the step out. And it happens regardless of temperature.