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[MichaelJohn]

I really wanted to get out on the bike today but the roads were wet so I waited until about 4:30 to let them dry out. I got out on the road and the riding conditions were pretty good - mostly dry with a few damp patches here and there. I stopped to run an errand and just as I was getting back on the bike it began to rain lightly for a few minutes and then it stopped. It didn't seem like much and I continued on my ride. I was at an intersection in downtown Walnut Creek and when the light turned green I accelerated normally just to get a little ahead of traffic. I wasn't going hard at all. Suddenly the rear wheel spun up and the bike started fishtailing violently. It scared the crap out of me and I was very lucky to keep it upright. That was as close as I've come in a long time to hitting the deck. The car behind me must have gotten quite a show and probably thought I was an idiot. The road must have been wetter than I realized but it looked fairly dry and I was just accelerating moderately. This was a real wake-up call for me. I was in full torque mode (my custom setting is full power and full regen) which, in retrospect, is really dumb if the roads are wet at all. There is so much torque on tap that it doesn't take much to overdo it - just a slight subconscious blip of the throttle can do you in. I immediately switched to Eco mode and rode home as slowly as I have ever ridden a motorcyle. Nothing like a near-accident to instill a little (OK, a lot) of fear in you. Lesson learned. I usually avoid riding in the wet and now I remember why. If I'm ever caught in the rain again it's Eco mode ONLY.

[CrashCash]

When I picked up my SR, it was pouring down. Brand new tires on a very expensive brand new torque-monster I was unfamiliar with. All hail "ECO" mode!

Strangely enough, nearly all of my couple dozen crashes have been in the dry. I only remember 2 wet crashes in the past decade: I went down on the SV trying to brake on a washboard road, and that was the non-ABS version. Another time I was coming to a stop at about 3mph. I just TOUCHED the white paint bar and I was INSTANTLY on my ass, to the tune of a broken collarbone. One moment I was upright, the next, my ear was on the pavement. Non-ABS again. Right after that, I bought the ABS version.

Unfortunately, if you ride only when it's dry in Florida, you're not going anywhere, especially in the summer.

[evtricity]

Have done the fishtailing thing in the wet once or twice on my SR and it certainly shocks you as I've never spun the rear wheel in the dry even when leant over.

Not much you can really do in the wet other than use Eco mode to keep the power down as you did. Wet weather grip used to be worse on last year's IRC Road Winner tyres but I've spun up the rear in the wet on  on the Diablo Cprsa tyres which are now stock on the 2015 SR so it's not really a tire thing.

[Burton]

With the equivalent of an SR I have only put my bike down once, and I ride in all weather.

The day I put my bike down was right outside my parking garage. There was someone coming out of the garage and I stopped. Then turned and tried to go up the ramp. There was 1/8" of snow on the ground and soon I was to with my back wheel spinning fast.

When I got my bike the first thing I did was put BT45's on the bike. I have gone through a few sets of those on my ninja 250 and knew their rain performance was great.

Your fishtail was likely due to the tires being new, fresh rain, not being a seasoned rider, and not being familiar with the bike. I think the zero is a great beginner bike if ... you turn the torque all the way down and slowly get use to it.

Motorcycle safety and dynamics vol 1 / 2 ... read them. (msgroup.org) The MSR / BRC courses qualify you to ride in a parking lot and brake at .6g's ... the methods and drills in these books have saved my ass more times then I likely know.

[NoiseBoy]

How many miles on the bike? Some tyres are coated with a lubricating agent to help them pop out of the mould and they are absolutely lethal for the first 1-200 miles.

[Richard230]

My only crash in 53 years of riding was while riding up to the locks in the Canal Zone in 1967 on my Suzuki B100P.  It was perfectly dry and beautiful weather and I was riding on a broom-finished concrete access road.  Unfortunately there were a set of railroad tracks, used by the electric engines that pull the ships through the locks, running down the middle of the access road (like trolly or cable car tracks in a city).  These tracks had a wide depressed area next to the tracks where the wheel flange goes when they are being used by the engine.  I crossed the tracks at a very slight angle as the tracks detoured toward the edge of the road. That caused my front wheel to fall into the gap between the rail and the adjoining pavement, resulting in an instant twisting of the forks as the tire became locked into the gap and me getting tossed on to the hard concrete, resulting in some raspberry abrasions on my arm and knee.  That really taught me a lesson.  If you see railroad tracks in your travel lane, do everything you can to cross them at a sharp angle to keep your wheels from falling into the wheel flange gap or slipping on the rails, which can become very slippery when wet.  And it doesn't make any difference which type of two-wheel vehicle you are riding.

[MichaelJohn]

Your fishtail was likely due to the tires being new, fresh rain, not being a seasoned rider, and not being familiar with the bike. I think the zero is a great beginner bike if ... you turn the torque all the way down and slowly get use to it.

Motorcycle safety and dynamics vol 1 / 2 ... read them. (msgroup.org) The MSR / BRC courses qualify you to ride in a parking lot and brake at .6g's ... the methods and drills in these books have saved my ass more times then I likely know.

The tires have more than 1000 miles on them and I am as used to the bike as I can be. I did manage to hold it steady and not go down which I thought was pretty good. My point was that a light bike with this much torque can quickly surprise ANY rider, especially in the wet. Anyone can make a mistake, from newbs to seasoned pros. I know my limits and I usually avoid rain riding because of the increased risk and the decreased fun factor. I must have hit a small wet patch that I diidn't see which probably wouldn't have mattered at all had I been in Eco mode. That was my mistake and the point of my post. This isn't about taking MSF courses, it's about sharing something that could happen to any of us - especially on these unique bikes with power delivery like nothing else.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I live in Seattle where I ride year-round, and that means a good amount of regular rain for six months of the year. Typically, the roads don't get that oily when they're regularly rained on, but I do stick to ECO mode on my DS and have fishtailed a few times in two years.

The first moment was on a straight onramp for a bridge, which surprised me but the bike was very easy to keep under control because I could very smoothly roll off the torque. The other times were on busy curves in town where oil accumulates. It is definitely scary to do this in a curve, so I also recommend ECO mode, because it reduces the amount of torque per throttle roll-on which makes the bike more controllable.

[Richard230]

You also have to be careful when applying the throttle on wet streets when riding over those plastic pavement markings and crosswalks.  They can get very slippery and will not accommodate much rear wheel torque.

[ultrarnr]

I learned what 106 ft lbs of torque will do the hard way at Deals Gap. I was charging my SR in the campgrounds and it had been raining earlier. Soft ground meant it was muddy for the 40-50 feet I rode to get to the pavement in the parking lot. The pavement had dried out though. Never thought about having mud on my tires. As I started north on US-129 I pinned the throttle. It is hard to describe what happened after that. I remember flying through the air and having no idea what was really going on. When I stopped moving I realized I had been thrown from the bike. People were coming over who had seen this to help get me and the SR out of the road. I was able to walk and got out of the road and tried to help get the SR back to the parking lot. Really glad I had gear on. Helmet had scrapes on both sides and don't remember anything related to them. I had a small tear on the back of my left shoulder and it was obvious that I had probably landed on my shoulder but the armor did its job and no pain at all. My left thigh on the other hand did. I think after pinning the throttle the bike swung around so fast that the handle bar hit my left thigh like someone hitting me with a baseball bat. The next day I could hardly walk and it was extremely difficult to get on the bike. It would take several days before I could walk normally and it would take a month and a half for my thigh to return to normal. Damage to the SR was minimal. The rider's right side foot peg had broken off and very nice of Zero to allow the passenger peg to work so we just swapped them out. A few scrapes from spinning around on the pavement but that was it.  Without a doubt the most exciting moment on my SR.

[protomech]

I imagine at some point we'll see traction control implemented for the electric bikes. It's obviously not a priority for Zero, and good traction control isn't exactly trivial, but it's a great safety aid and it would likely have prevented each of these crashes or near-crashes.

[CrashCash]

I imagine at some point we'll see traction control implemented for the electric bikes.

Well, I certainly hope it'll be something you can switch off. I also think a nice cruise control would not be that difficult to implement either.