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slofox
5th April 2010, 14:26
They are possible. Without busting your arse. As it turns out...luckily... :yes:

We have a wunnerful Waikato autumn day here today - 26C, clear (mostly) skies, low humidity - one of those "see forever" days. So I went out for the mandatory run through lower central areas - south to Otorohanga via 39 and thence east through Otewa Valley and a spider web of intersecting roads eventually ending up on Owairaka Valley Road, Te Awamutu and home to The Tron...:ride:

Now I'd be first to complain about councils doing nothing about bitumen bleed - the whole district is full of it just now. Actually, just as an aside, the local councils solve the problem very easily. They stick up myriads of those signs showing cars skidding...problem solved! "We signposted it, so NEMO PROBLEMO!" :angry:

But even worse, IMO, is patching the road up and not posting that there is a sea of loose bluechip awaiting the unwary. As I discovered this morning in my adventure with the "two wheel drift"

On one of those spider web of roads, I was happily winding through the wonderful corners in that area when I happened upon a left handed, slightly uphill bend - one of my personal all time favourites. "Woohoo!" I thinks, "here's the go!" But. Being as how it was on the south side of a cutting overhung with big trees, it was in shadow. And had been recently resealed. Full width. About 200m long. Not a warning sign in sight. And not swept. Which I didn't see, coming from bright into shadow. First I knew, I was crabbing sideways across the road. Felt like 2 metres but was probably all of 20mm. But both wheels went together and my anal sphincter was given a thorough workout...lucky I wasn't "holding", eh? :shit:

Somehow I stayed shiny side up but there was an adrenalin buzz back of the knees for a few seconds...

To add insult to (lack of) injury, just up the road there was a minor patch of new seal on the extreme left of the road that had about ten million signs around it...:ar15:

Seems to me, there could be a little more thought given to signposting such road works consistently...


All the same, the ride was mint! :sunny:

Ragingrob
5th April 2010, 15:02
Yep I've two-wheel drifted before, right across a shiny sleek wet metal plate about 4mx2m that the council thought was the safest option available to fix a bump in the road :wierd:, to this day I have no idea how either both wheels didn't just slip straight out from under me or when I gained traction again off the plate get highsided to the curb :confused:

slofox
5th April 2010, 15:35
Yep I've two-wheel drifted before, right across a shiny sleek wet metal plate about 4mx2m that the council thought was the safest option available to fix a bump in the road :wierd:, to this day I have no idea how either both wheels didn't just slip straight out from under me or when I gained traction again off the plate get highsided to the curb :confused:

Yeah - well I sure as hell had no control over what happened today either...lucky I guess - (even though I'd love to claim "SKILL!"). Never quite had such an obvious example before though...so quick - no time to even begin to think...

Sometimes I believe that the less you try to do to the bike, the better it looks after you...:whistle:

SMOKEU
5th April 2010, 15:36
It seems that the government doesn't think about bikers when they design the roads. But then ACC holds bikers to blame before anyone else after the big budget blow-out(s).

Skyryder
5th April 2010, 22:26
It seems that the government doesn't think about bikers when they design the roads. But then ACC holds bikers to blame before anyone else after the big budget blow-out(s).

Aint that the truth.



Skyryder

TimeOut
6th April 2010, 06:40
Yeah - well I sure as hell had no control over what happened today either...lucky I guess - (even though I'd love to claim "SKILL!"). Never quite had such an obvious example before though...so quick - no time to even begin to think...

Sometimes I believe that the less you try to do to the bike, the better it looks after you...:whistle:

Ain't that the truth, had the same happen to me (grit) I was just lucky it happened so quick I didn't have time to panic and back off the throttle:sweatdrop

Genie
6th April 2010, 06:57
weeeeeheeeee, glad you stayed upright throughout that unplanned manoeuvre...a friends' husband had the same problem a couple of weeks back, his story was somewhat different, metal plate in arm and hasn't been able to ride or drive for the last 3 weeks.

I'd noticed aroudn our fair town loads of those same gravelly patches and not all of them are signposted either, a country wide problem, something more for the motorcyclists to be extra vigilant.