One last trip before returning to work, this time to Island Lake Park in Orangeville. There was a couple light splashes of rain, but now I’m pretty much waterproof and insulated from head-to-toe, so it wasn’t bad at all.
Last year I found a nice stretch of road to practice emergency braking, and I made sure my path to Orangeville went over it this trip. The pavement was cold but dry, so all my stops were uneventful.. though I’m sure I can still get much better with practice. A couple of the stops got the rear wheel off the ground an inch or so, but that was only in the last foot of braking… so I know I can slow down even faster if I squeeze a bit harder a bit sooner. I don’t want to endo… but unless I can _almost_ lift the rear sooner after I begin braking (and without locking the front tire) it means I still have grip I’m not using to slow down.
I should also start practicing slowing down rapidly then swerving to avoid an imaginary object…. but until I get better at the straight-line braking parts I don’t want to think about swerving too much lest I end up in the ditch 🙂