Anyone who rides a motorcycle knows that you are going to have the occaisional "Oh S***!" moment - it's how you react to them that defines whether or not you should consider parking it for good. Needless to say, panic and/or hesitation are not desireable reactions when you are in the moment.
Today I was coming into a small town, doing about 35 in 3rd gear in a 35 zone, and had a light go yellow on me at that exact distance where you just aren't sure whether to try to stop or to gun & run. Unfortunately, I chose to try to stop, which would have been the right thing to do on dry pavement. On wet pavement, however, I fishtailed; released the brakes, tried again, fishtailed again. Now I am at the big white stripe that delineates the intersection, still going 25 mph, and the light has by now changed from yellow to red. Drat. At that point, you hope that the folks in their cages are paying attention to the show, and run the red light. I'm sure that anyone who was watching probably thought that I was going too fast and/or was out of control; the fact is that wet pavement takes away one of your two huge defensive meneuvering advantages, the ability to stop quickly. Live and learn; luckily I lived to learn this time.
Experiences like this remind you of just how little control you have over things when they go awry on you.
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