We are warned constantly that diesel fuel, oil, and all that good stuff is slippery as hell. We are told to watch for it on the roads, avoid it when possible, and keep the bike vertical and the speed constant when forced to ride over the stuff. We are told that if we don't do these things, we will lose traction and crash dramatically.

This is true. Please remember it in the future, O gentle readers.

Your humble narrator encountered a nice, large oilslick this morning coming in to work. There is a building near the UW Hospital that's under construction - a Genomics facility, I believe - and there's a constant stream of trucks involved in that construction. One of them today was obviously in need of some maintenance, as it had spread oil over most of the lane. I noticed it, realized there was no way to avoid it other than the sidewalk, and steeled myself to pass over it. And then, of course, realized that I was half a block from an intersection, the light was red, and there was traffic in it. No choice but to try and stop on the oil.

This is a challenging task. I was luckily not going too quickly. Knowing that the front brake was off-limits, I brought Zoë to a stop with the rear only. The real wheel locked and skidded when my speed dropped low enough, and despite what I've been told, I feathered the brake and let the wheel spin back up. At crawling speeds I'm not worried about a high-side; I am worried about skidding the rear 90 degrees from my line of travel, though.

All ended well, and the shiny side stayed up, though the pedestrians on the sidewalk were no doubt treated to an interesting sight. I'm just glad that I didn't encounter this on a steep downhill grade; I wonder what could have been done in that situation?