rsbob 

After a couple of rainy days there was a break in the weather yesterday, so got out the road bike for a spin. Was crossing a two lane bridge over a river where there were still slick patches of mud remaining on the shoulder. Mid-span on my left a large tractor-trailer was passing me. It was the long flat bed type which carries open cargo like rebar. There was a muddy patch which my semi-slick front wheel cruised through, but when the back wheel hit, caused the bike to fish-tail. Luckily I was able to catch it and proceed without going down. If not the trailers rear wheels were just waiting for me. Needless to say my heart skipped a beat of two. Really don’t know how I would have handled it differently since there was no place to go to avoid the slippery spot. Thank goodness for having experience on the bike and a fair amount of luck.

Ride safely everyone.

Inusuit

Sounds like a very scary experience. Glad you survived intact. I'm fortunate that there are lots of low traffic country roads accessible from my house. My driveway intersects a US highway with a 65 mph limit, lots of vehicles going faster. I get off it as soon as I can.

freeranger

Think if that had happened to me, it might have created another "muddy patch"! Glad you handled it and are safe!

bruce19

Scary as hell. Glad you're OK. Nice job of bike handling.

Chuck M 

I'm glad you are OK. But thinking about it, I don't think I can recall a time I ever fishtailed before I turned 50. I'm sure I did, but I guess I realize the seriousness of it more now and how long it takes me to recover from spills.

big john

Be careful out there!

downtube42

You picked your risk level, went out on that road in those conditions, and had the skills and fortune to get through the situation. IMO that's a good outcome.

In retrospect if you decide it was too much fortune, or was on the edge of your skills, you might want to adjust your risk taking. Risk/reward analysis is obviously a very personal thing.

I know I'm less capable physically as when I was young, but I'm also risking fewer decades of quality life. I consider that something of a wash, in terms of risk/reward tradeoff. But that's me.

CAT7RDR

I was reminded last ride that good fortune does not equal good judgment.

I timed a red light turning green on a moderately busy intersection and figured I was safe being on the right of a car turning left and no traffic I could see coming from my right. My judgment was wrong as a grey Mustang traveling at a high rate of speed was going to run his red light and had to brake hard to avoid nailing me on my right side.

Just another reminder how fragile we are on the road and it is better to clip out and clip back in rather than timing lights with so many drivers breaking traffic laws.

rsbob 

Wow you were extremely fortunate. A good cautionary tale for those driven to maintain a high average speed. Am definitely not without my own stupid judgement calls which almost cost me. Fortunately those were about 30 years ago and have calmed down a bit in my 60s. (Almost)