So later on this afternoon I'll be riding from the vaal to Jhb, traffic is going to be a nightmare if this train continues so I'll use the bike. This'll be my first ride in the rain if it's still raining at that time. Besides slowing down are there any do's and don'ts of riding in the rain? Only had my bike a few months now so I might not know even the simplest of rules.
First things first...Mr Min your visor (or get C-Thru/Rainex in future). If you can't see you can't ride.
Speed isn't so much a problem, it's just that sudden actions like hard acceleration or hard braking are exacerbated by the loss of grip on wet roads.
So the key is to be smooth in all things. Steering, throttle, brakes whatever. Sure you need to apply this the rest of the time anyway, but it's more important than ever.
Keep using your rear brakes but be careful of really putting pressure down on them.
Learn to 2-finger brake (in general) and to "squeeze" instead of pull. Ultimately you want to give a little initial brake to compress the forks AND THEN put the real pressure on. If the forks are compressed you can pretty much brake into infinitely with modern tyres.
The reason people crash when panic braking is because the forks never compressed and that means no weight ever transferred to the front of the bike and therefore no downforce is applicable on the front tyre....so it slides.
As everyone has said avoid painted lines and man hole covers and the like, especially under braking.
Don't ride in the middle of the lane...not in rain or shine actually.
And gear up. If you are cold you are responding more slowly. The more snug you are in the right gear the better you can ride.
Keep lane splitting, don't become a car just because it's raining. You are way more likely to be rear ended because cars can't see you in the rain.
And beyond everything else make sure your lights work.