Let's be real careful out there people...

[riffer]

From www.stuff.co.nz this morning:



Ice was a factor in a crash which killed Kevin Martin Silke, 47, of Nelson on Saturday morning.

He died while being airlifted to Wellington Hospital after his motorcycle collided with a van on a bridge at the outskirts of Blenheim.

His bike and the van burst into flames, the van's occupants, an adult and three children, escaping unhurt.

Sergeant John Butson of Blenheim police said six motorcyclists were involved in the crash.

Five of those six riders suddenly lost traction on the icy road at about the halfway point on Wairau River Bridge, and two of the motorcycles and one of the riders collided with the van.

[merv]

I wondered if he and his mates are with any club like Ulysses but I've heard nothing through the grapevine. Wairau bridge on SH6 is nothing out of the ordinary that I remember but they must have had an early start to strike ice on that.

[KATWYN]

oil leak from the first bike combined with black ice??

[pete376403]

More like diesel dump from a truck that crossed the bridge before them

[FROSTY]

well if it was as cold as it was here this morning--yep black ice.
Reminds me --if you do hit a bit of black ice --how would YOu deal with it .
Me my rear would go pucker pucker and id stop braking

[merv]

Ice on a bridge, don't touch the brakes, and just stay light on the throttle and hold it straight. Easier said when you're on a dirt bike, other than that set your alarm clock to get up later.

[maybe]

Don't know the reasons why, but my thoughts go out to family and friends of the one killed and to those that where involved.

[R6_kid]

lucky we got the good weather up here in auckland for sunday or im sure there could have been a lot more bins if we got ice.

[Mongoose]

Timely reminder though, black ice over a lot of the local roads last night, this morning, caused at least one prang, four wheels not two luckily. About this time of year around here your safest times of travel are 10am to 4pm or there abouts. Miss a lot of the frosty bits and it tends to be a tad warmer all round too.

[merv]

oil leak from the first bike combined with black ice??

Had you heard the oil leak comment for real?

[KATWYN]

Had you heard the oil leak comment for real?

No.

But for some reason when I first read the article I thought it said
the 1st bike rider got over ok....then the other 5 that were following
all crashed.......

I re-read the article and it doesn't say that - so goodness knows
why I thought that after reading it the 1st time (source confusion
heard/read it somewhere else maybe).....unless it is actually what happened?? anybody??

If that is what happened then that would be my guess.

[merv]

As for oil leaks it reminds me of my days at Uni in the 70s and as usual we were all racing over the summit road out of Christchurch (did that at least 3 days a week). This time on the road from Mt Pleasant back to Dyers Pass (Sign of the Kiwi). Me on my XL Honda which was a flier over those roads in those days. Some way behind me one of the crazy hoons I rode with was into British stuff and that day he was on a Beeza 650 (A65).

I wait at Sign of the Kiwi and when he turns up his bike is an oily mess - I say "hey look at that". I guess vibration caused it but the oil tank mounts had broken on the top and the tank had tipped over and was hanging down spewing oil everywhere. By now he thinks "shit" and listens to his engine, sure enough its run the bearings by the sounds coming out of it.

Next guy turns up on his Suzuki TS250 and Beeza guy says "hey why didn't you tell me that had happened". Suzuki guy says "I couldn't catch up because of the oil slick on the road".

So he coasts the Beeza in Maori overdrive all the way down to the flat at Cashmere and then rings a mate from a gas station and the mate brings the trailer out to recover the bike. A rebuild later and its all back on the road again.

At least none of our team wiped out on the oil.

[merv]

This also reminds me of an ice story. Again back in the 70s another mad student I knew had a Triumph Bathtub Speedtwin (5TA - used to be an army bike of some sort and was painted army khaki). He'd ridden over to the Coast over the winter holidays while the rest of us were out of town elsewhere.

After the holidays he tells us he had canned off on ice on a bridge near Otira Gorge. All days seemed like holidays then so he says "how about we go for a ride over there and I'll show you where it happened?".
Off we go, me on my XL, him on his 5TA and another guy on a Taka (remember them - we called it the Powersaw because it sounded like a chainsaw). Cruising happily along, not too quick because the Taka wasn't fast. Cruise through Springfield and off into the mountains - me in the lead. Get to Broken River and as I'm heading down to the bridge that was on the corner at the bottom of the dip I can see there is a bit of havoc. A car had slid off the road on the ice that forms in the shadow of the hill on the uphill side from that bridge towards Arthurs Pass (the locals will know this one). So I slow down across the bridge and up the other side because there are people walking everywhere, over the bridge etc. What does my dumb mate do on the 5TA - not really looking ahead he comes zooming along, I hear a bang behind me and look down to see his bike slide past me on the left lying on its side with him following.

Consequently he thought it might be a good idea, after picking his bike up, to head home to ChCh and not bother going to Otira to show us where he'd crashed the time before.

This same dude damn near took me out at Teddington one time because we had raced over from Sign of the Kiwi to Gebbies Pass and I had waited for him down near the Wheatsheaf Tavern. He came racing down the hill and totally misjudged stopping - or the old drum brakes faded badly - I'm looking up the road and see him coming and actually leant my bike out of the way so he didn't clip me as he whizzed by before coming to a halt.

In the 70s the bikes we were riding weren't R1s or anything so the speeds weren't that risky and we could laugh at things like this. It was lucky that no-one I knew actually ever hit a car head on.

[vifferman]

Aw - tell us another story, Merv!
On second thoughts, maybe you shouldn't. It'll doubtless be about somewhere in Canterbury and make me miss Christchurch, or about biking in the 70s and make me sorrowful for my lost youth. :(
S'funny, the bikes we had back then were pretty crap compared to nowadays, but somehow it was a lot easier and more fun. Or maybe it just seems that way in retrospect.

[riffer]

My one and only highside was on ice on the old Lower Hutt roundabout when I was 17 (June 1984).

I had an old CB350 twin (the one with the drum brakes and enclosed fork tubes) with the handlebar turned upside down so it looked like I had clip-ons. I'd repainted it all black and ripped all the packing out of the exhausts so it sounded hideously loud. Totally unwarrantable :Punk:.

Anyway, I had my mate on the back and we went roaring around the roundabout at around 7.30 am, and I tried to put all 35 hp through the back wheel.

She slid, and I backed off, and over we went - straight into the grass on the inside of the roundabout. Jumped up, ran over to the bike (still going), picked it up (stalled it then), restarted it, and jumped back on, pissing ourselves all the way to work.

Must have been where I started my habit of falling off without hurting myself :crazy:

[Motu]

Done the oil over everything on my Honda,let alone my British bikes - checking the oil on the XLV is a mission...2 dip sticks,idle for 3 minutes,check both sticks - then I took it for a real hard cane around the Titirangi back streets to test a fading front brake,as I'm flying down to Titirangi beach I look down and see my right leg saturated,and oh yeah,the leg feels hot too! I found the dipstick in the drive,the other was sitting on the seat.It's the most oil I've ever seen on my rear wheel (synthetic too!) but never felt a thing wrong for 5 km.

There was a wooden rail bridge on Eltham road that used to always ice up,it was set at an angle on the straight road.We used to hit it at speed (90mph) and slide corner to corner,fun with ape hangers,at that speed we were off the bridge before it got too out of shape.Bridge is gone now,so have the rails.

[merv]

Must have been where I started my habit of falling off without hurting myself :crazy:


That's the thing if we can have experiences and live to tell the tale all the better. Great you were OK this time too Celtic as my mad days of biking we were never in crowds like you are these days on the motorway.

Now I tend to ride for fun only, never commute so hopefully I'm minimising the risks.

[merv]

Done the oil over everything on my Honda,let alone my British bikes - checking the oil on the XLV is a mission...2 dip sticks,idle for 3 minutes,check both sticks - then I took it for a real hard cane around the Titirangi back streets to test a fading front brake,as I'm flying down to Titirangi beach I look down and see my right leg saturated,and oh yeah,the leg feels hot too! I found the dipstick in the drive,the other was sitting on the seat.It's the most oil I've ever seen on my rear wheel (synthetic too!) but never felt a thing wrong for 5 km.

Bugger, human error comes into play too.

This Yamaha I've bought has a weird dry sump arrangement in that its wet until the motor is started and it pumps the stuff into the frame tube where the dispstick is. Is that what the XLV is like. I had thought the oil would normally be in there and you'd check it cold.

[Motu]

The XT400 is the same as your Yamaha Merv,a dry sump - so you check the oil in the frame after it has run for a while.But the XLV750 is sort of semi dry sump - 1.5 litres in the engine,1.5 in the frame...the oil seems to move around,sometimes low in the engine and full in the frame,other times the other way round,so the proceedure is to let it idle for 3 mins so it stabilises then check both.Been doing it for years and am still confused - ask Brian and he'll waste your lunch time with a detailed descripton.

[LB]

Off we go, me on my XL, him on his 5TA and another guy on a Taka (remember them - we called it the Powersaw because it sounded like a chainsaw).

In the 70s the bikes we were riding weren't R1s or anything so the speeds weren't that risky and we could laugh at things like this. It was lucky that no-one I knew actually ever hit a car head on.


Merv: what's a Taka? I've never heard of it.

I think we bounced easier when we were young too......

[brit_vtr]

Aw - tell us another story, Merv!
On second thoughts, maybe you shouldn't. It'll doubtless be about somewhere in Canterbury and make me miss Christchurch, or about biking in the 70s and make me sorrowful for my lost youth. :(
S'funny, the bikes we had back then were pretty crap compared to nowadays, but somehow it was a lot easier and more fun. Or maybe it just seems that way in retrospect.

Things just got a little faster in the 80's, but we still had 70's handling !!, one very odd moment in time me and a mate found a boot with a foot in it on the road between Dyers Pass & Mount Pleasant, never found anymore and never heard anymore about it. Used to have an XR500 with "coby" silencer and Avon road tyres....went like , well it just went round those hills.

[riffer]

Merv: what's a Taka? I've never heard of it.

I think we bounced easier when we were young too......
Take it from someone who's had 20 years between bins - you bounce exactly the same.

It just hurts for longer at 37 then at 17 :no:

[merv]

Merv: what's a Taka? I've never heard of it.

I think we bounced easier when we were young too......

Lynda have a look at this http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/machines/strange5/rockfordtaka100.jpg

In NZ the Taka had something to do with Tas chainsaws I think. The thing made a strange raspy sound more like a saw. It sounded nothing like the Suz or Yam 2 strokes of the day which sounded lower pitched and more manly eh.

Where this guy I went to Uni with got it from I'm buggered if I remember. I think he bought it new.

There's even one here on a Silver Bullet story still running in NZ http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/features.php3?reportid=39

[Motu]

Dalgetey's (sp?) were the agent for awhile,a mate got one when he worked there for cheap cause they couldn't shift them - he stripped it down and made a racer out of it,the whole bit and it had those triangular racing tyres on it.He went past me on the sweeper at Puke in the wet like I was standing still and when I got to the back straight he was nowhere in sight - mind you that could be more to do with me than him.

[vifferman]

I remember the Taka - the TAS Taka they were marketed as here. I thought they were pretty cool back then (I was into dirtbikes), and they were a real good price. Ended up buying a secondhand Elsinore 250 though, for around the same money as a new Taka.