Potholes are everywhere, mainly due to poor reinstatement by utility companies, and badly laid or worn out roads.
Gravel comes mainly from road break up, or driveways and accesses, or road resurfacing.
Mud from field entrances or from farms – watch out for farm signs.
Diesel is mainly found on roundabouts near fuel stations, and oil on the ‘sump lines’ at traffic lights – the centre of the lanes near the stop lines, where cars, buses and trucks drop their oil.
Worn Top Dressing and Overbanding you can see from patches or lines of shiny tar, which can be very slippery when it’s hot, as the surface can melt, as well as in the wet.
Braking is often a cause of crashes as riders panic. The advice is just relax – easy to say – and ride smoothly, just using your rear brake, not the front, and only if you need to slow.
Wet Roads are more slippery, but as long as you apply your front brake smoothly and carefully, there is usually enough grip to get the rear wheel in the air. However the advice is 70/30 front/rear which should be safer.
Applying your rear brake first in any situation can tell you how much grip is available.
A rear skid is usually recoverable, a front skid usually not.
British Superbike School 