Twilkes
Guru
I came off this morning, bruised but okay, but keep replaying it in my head to see if I could have done anything differently.
It's an 8% slope down, then a short piece of flat road, then another 8% down. Had been raining overnight and possibly drizzle in the morning but the road didn't seem wet wet, i.e. there weren't any puddles although maybe they wouldn't form on a slope anyway.
Coming into the flat bit I was at 30mph, but had taken it down to about 21mph for the second slope and remained at that until I hit the ground. The slope curves left near the bottom so I was riding the brakes to avoid gravity accelerating me, but the rear wheel locked up, swung side to side at least twice possibly three times, then either the front wheel also skidded out underneath me or when the rear swung out to the left it put the front wheel at too extreme an angle and it stopped dead throwing me over the side.
I've ridden this road four times in the past, all at identical speeds and presumably the same braking approach and never had any problems, and at least one was in the wet.
The only things that have changed are new brakes and new tyres, Vittoria Zaffiro Pro. I’ve briefly locked up the rear wheel when stopping for lights before, I put this down to the new brakes being more powerful than my old ones (although both are cable discs) but I’m wondering if the Zaffiro’s just aren’t gripping as well as the Michelin Pro4 Endurance I had previously. I don’t remember ever locking up a wheel on a descent before, and this was like being on ice, so maybe I even hit a patch of greasy road.
What could I have done differently?
It's an 8% slope down, then a short piece of flat road, then another 8% down. Had been raining overnight and possibly drizzle in the morning but the road didn't seem wet wet, i.e. there weren't any puddles although maybe they wouldn't form on a slope anyway.
Coming into the flat bit I was at 30mph, but had taken it down to about 21mph for the second slope and remained at that until I hit the ground. The slope curves left near the bottom so I was riding the brakes to avoid gravity accelerating me, but the rear wheel locked up, swung side to side at least twice possibly three times, then either the front wheel also skidded out underneath me or when the rear swung out to the left it put the front wheel at too extreme an angle and it stopped dead throwing me over the side.
I've ridden this road four times in the past, all at identical speeds and presumably the same braking approach and never had any problems, and at least one was in the wet.
The only things that have changed are new brakes and new tyres, Vittoria Zaffiro Pro. I’ve briefly locked up the rear wheel when stopping for lights before, I put this down to the new brakes being more powerful than my old ones (although both are cable discs) but I’m wondering if the Zaffiro’s just aren’t gripping as well as the Michelin Pro4 Endurance I had previously. I don’t remember ever locking up a wheel on a descent before, and this was like being on ice, so maybe I even hit a patch of greasy road.
What could I have done differently?
You should try MTB. Now that's fun.