It started raining today and I started noticing the rainbow coloured patches of diesel on the road. Ive heard alot about low speed spills on diesel and how slippery it can be. What is the best way of dealing with it? Apart from the obvious of avoiding it in the first place. How to react if I was to go over a patch of diesel, should I just expect the back wheel to suddenly slip out?
Here is a good place to start mate, never had to deal with diesel thank the man up stairs
http://darrenbourne.co.uk/killspills/
If you suddenly find you’re gonna touch on a patch of oil/diesel, basically no sudden movements, ie, dont snap the throttle shut, dont brake, dont lean. Just keep the wheels moving/coasting over it and you’ll be ok. Then just go easy for a couple a miles as the tarmac wears it off yer tyres.
Diesel is a bitch, if you can, avoid it, else, if you’re leant over, there’s not much you can do but try and relax, but for that split-second you won’t get much time to think. It’s like sheet-ice and will all tyres will lose traction, but for how long is down to how old the diesel is and how much of it there is.
Yup, if you’re not travelling in a straight line across it then you could be in trouble. Braking and accelerating (changing the balance of the bike) is also gonna get you into trouble.
But as Jay says, it depends on the size of the slick. A foot wide splodge will likely cause the bike to twitch but it’ll be back on tarmac soon enough to stop it getting out of hand (but if the tarmac is wet then the loss in grip may be sufficient to prolong the slide enough to go down). A three foot patch and it might be ‘goodnight folks’.
Just go steady in the wet and ideally slow enough to always be able to alter your line at junctions and corners tight enough to cause fuel to slop out of a tank - and that’s most roundabouts.
Ya wanna watch out for diesel spills at bus stops too,you normally get some leak from buses and thats where you will find it,just when you dont want it 
Ade
I have met diesel a couple of times when there was nothing I could do about it, the bike was cranked over and then it was gone. Wrote of a ZX9 after 24 hours of ownership on diesel.
I have met it a few times when travelling in a straight line, just keep straight and no sudden movements and you should be fine. No point braking, your wheels will slide on you.
I’m always wery of the first lane on motorways because of that…
?
Because of what?
God not half! London Buses seem to get away with murder!