On my usual route to work, today was the first time in months it was wet. I usually take 1st exit off this roundabout in first and change to second just before middle of bend. However, today, when I was about to change to second the rear end decided to 'slide' out (or that's what it felt like), into second and slight opposite turning and things were fine. Must admit it really caught me out and seems virtue of wet road...is this lift off oversteer or car just losing traction in wet?

 

Over the long dry period all the road crud (rubber, oil etc) has built up. When it gets wet it turns to slime and can be a bit like black ice.

 

"lift off"

It happened as you were changing gear, no drive at all.

 

don't change gear on a corner

 

in the dry have no probs at all - i usually try to change before entering peak of bend - how else to take these bends fast? maybe a combination of lift off oversteer and slimey road...

 

Had exactly the same thing the other day hard right round a roundabout no gas no lift that I can remember back end right out was quite fun really as I was only going slowly so easily kept it under control.

 

Short shift in to second so you haven't got to change mid bend

 

what do you mean by short-shift? just yank it into second (no clutch)? surely that would bugger the gearbox?!

 

change lower down the revs into second, thats what he means by short shift i think.

 

He means change up earlier than you would normally. You may not be in the peak torque band but at least you can take the corner with one smooth action rather than cutting and re-engaing the power mid bend.

This is the biggest problem I've noticed when I've let mates drive my car. They are so used to 1.6l cars that they drive like the accelerator and brake are micro-switches. Full-on, full-off. When you drive a car with some degree of power you have to try and be smooth with the actions.

 

Sorry should have explained a bit. As the guys above said change up earlier so you can drive around the corner in one gear. Much safer an ultimately faster.

 

Could even have been a diesel spill just at that spot on the road. Very dangerous when you find one of those-even worse on a 'bike as you might imagine! We get buses doing that regularly around here. Drivers forget to put the tank cap on properly.

Les