Yeah... the bike took a nice slide thro ugh a freshly coated country road. No signs were posted. No injury to wife and I and bike except crash bar, clothes and ego.
Now I have fun job of removing tar from the bike.

Glad the both of you are ok.

Yeah... the bike took a nice slide thro ugh a freshly coated country road. No signs were posted. No injury to wife and I and bike except crash bar, clothes and ego.  Now I have fun job of removing tar from the bike.

I have only been "down" three times (knock on wood).

1) Popping the clutch on my first bike, from higher rpm at a stop, thinking a 250 had so little power it wouldn't matter.  WRONG.  Instant wheelie and threw me off the back of the bike onto my ass.  Light damage (standard stuff- turn signal, clutch lever, shifter, one plastic).  Lesson learned.

2) (The point of my post) Second bike (ZRX), we cut through a mall parking lot early in the morning.  No signs.  Very high humidity with dew.  They had just "sealed" the pavement and it was [apparently] ultra slippery, especially with the dew, I braked too hard for a stop, locked the front wheel way sooner than I could have imagined and slid over before I even knew what happened.  Would have been minimal damage except that I mounted my air horn trumpet on the mini fairing (that turns), which slammed into the tank, destroying the tank AND the fairing.  Ooops.  Two lessons learned.

3) On the Concours, got near heat stroke in forever stopped traffic, was adjusting jacket and allowed the bike to lean just a little too much and it was then unstoppable.  Almost ZERO damage, due to having the canyon crash bars.

Glad you are OK.
Glad you had crash bars
I am sure some lesson learned.
Get back on!

Yeah... the bike took a nice slide thro ugh a freshly coated country road. No signs were posted. No injury to wife and I and bike except crash bar, clothes and ego.
Now I have fun job of removing tar from the bike.

bummer...

kerosene, and a few microfiber hand towels... slow and gentle, will remove the tar...
and save the paint....
wear disposable rubber gloves.... Kerosene, while pretty harmless, always makes my hands itch...

@maxtog...

Definitely lessons learned. One thing I am never comfortable on this bike is gravel.... that stuff just makes me nervous. Up until the fresh coat, it was pea gravel and I just wanted to get the heck out the gravel portion of the road. Dumb decision.
Oh yes, I did not realize until the next day that I did bang my knee up - not terribly bad - ice packs for last couple nights seem to be working.

Glad to hear that it was not serious.  PITA, for sure, but no one seriously hurt.

• Shake it off.
• Clean up.

Get back on.   

Definitely lessons learned. One thing I am never comfortable on this bike is gravel.... that stuff just makes me nervous.

I am scared to death of gravel and sand.  I see people riding/parking it in, but I just flatly refuse to ride in it or park in it.  Not only nervous about slipping when riding, but also getting stuck in it where I can't get the bike out of a parking space.  This has been an issue with a few driveways, where I just have no options left.... no room to turn, no reverse gear, no leverage to push on it with feet barely touching the ground.  Hard enough sometimes even with good pavement... add some slope and I am toast!

I don't like gravel but we did 23 miles of it in Washington state.  We went out on Mountain Loop Road and the loop back was all gravel.   Some of it rutty and larger rocks. Not ideal but we survived.  We already had radiator guards so that was hopefully OK but was paranoid about flats, that's a lot of rocks to run over.

https://goo.gl/maps/SSdawoLtAg32

I have a little over a mile of gravel to get out to the highway. Normally not a biggie unless it is wet or freshly bladed. If it I has a hard pack wheel track I rock and roll. Pea gravel over seal coat is a whole different thing. That stuff is no fun at all. The C14 is the worst handling mud and gravel bike I have had.
Wayne

The C14 is the worst handling mud and gravel bike I have had.  Wayne

Tall center of gravity, powerful, heavy, low clearance, and long wheelbase probably aren't the best qualities for mud/gravel.     Although the traction control does work pretty good.

Yeah... the bike took a nice slide thro ugh a freshly coated country road. No signs were posted. No injury to wife and I and bike except crash bar, clothes and ego.
Now I have fun job of removing tar from the bike.

I'm glad you guys are both ok. Good luck with the cleaning and/or repairs

Tall center of gravity, powerful, heavy, low clearance, and long wheelbase probably aren't the best qualities for mud/gravel.     Although the traction control does work pretty good.

Long wheelbase helps, can't kick totally sideways as fast as a short wheelbase bike.  Heavy also helps as the weight will help it sink into something more solid, if it exists.  Powerful does not help, tall sucks! 

Not to mention, if it does go sideways and you put your foot down, there is nothing solid to help you hold it up.  Heck, I've dropped mine when my foot slipped on a stick when backing it into my garage!

Sliding the rear is no big deal if you're used to it.   Pushing the front in gravel or mud is f'in petrifying.

 Exactly. My old Z1 feels like a motocross bike compared to this on in the grease/mud.

Sliding the rear is no big deal if you're used to it.   Pushing the front in gravel or mud is f'in petrifying.
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I was riding rather spiritedly to work at the dealership one morning, on a narrow, very twisty, sun and shade dappled road in Western Pa, that I knew like the back of my hand, when I slid sideways in a curve. Both tires slid.  Thankfully, I didn't panic, got lucky, and the tires hooked up, and I continued on my way. I went back to  see what had caused the slide. In a dark shady area, there was a fresh patch of tar and pea gravel. They didn't do the entire road surface, just patches, and put up no signs. Unbelievable. I ride the Concours on gravel a lot, in PA and in Iowa, and I'm okay with it, because I know what it is, but patches of tar an pea gravel, not knowing? I really hate that.

I am happy you both are okay. It could have been worse. I really hope the idiots in charge learn to place signage on the roads they treat like that. One road within a quarter of a mile of my house was just tar and chipped. They have signs up though, and it is obvious since they did the entire road surface. They used chips too, not pea gravel, which isn't a slick.