The following is reprinted from my blog:On Saturday a group of us decided to do the
Kaslo-New Denver-Nakusp loop, and for some reason my friends decided that I should lead the group. That worked well, for about 25-30 miles.
On Friday, on the
Creston-Salmo loop , I’d experienced a significant amount of “brake fade,†the condition where your brakes overheat and lose 90% of their effectiveness - meaning they basically stop working until they can cool down a bit. I was following Marty on his Rocket III, passing traffic. He was able to slow down and duck back into traffic while I was not - I went sliding right past him and the car he ducked in behind. Luckily there wasn’t a car coming down the hill towards me …this time.
So back to Saturday, there was a large number of bicyclists on the road. Several miles north of the Balfour ferry there was one such group with their chase car, a mid-sized SUV, holding up traffic. There was a group of Triumphs behind the chase car followed by another car and my group. After a few miles I’d had enough of this. The motorcycles weren’t passing. It became apparent that the SUV was “with†the bicyclists. I saw an opportunity to pass so I took it.
Yeah, that was a mistake. I downshifted and ran the bike up to about 90 in a heartbeat. I shot pass the car and the group of Triumphs. As I came up to the chase car, another SUV came over the hill right at me. I went for the brakes and dropped down to about 60mph. Then… nothing. I don’t remember going for the rear brake so I guess the MSF course training “stuck.†But in doing so I locked up my rear wheel and it started sliding out sideways to the right so I got off it (I guess the MSF course didn’t take - they say not to release the rear in a skid).
So let’s review.
I’m doing 100kph (~60mph) in probably a 50kph zone having come down from about 140kph+. I’m now over a double-line. My front brake has basically failed and my rear brake is locked up. I have cars and bikes and bicycles on the right of me and an oncoming SUV on the left.
I managed not to highside the bike and fly over the handlebars when the rear wheel unlocked and got traction. I also managed to ride the centerline between the two vehicles. The lucky part is that both drivers were paying attention to this stupid American’s antics and parted to give me enough room to split the lanes and squeak through.
Needless to say the rest of my ride to Kaslo was a lot more sedate. I needed a bit of time for my heart rate to come back down and my puckered ****** to release from the seat.
Moe's note: This was edited only to correct ascii translation errors ( for example ’ = ') that occurred when servers were changed.
