Surprise gravel, mid corner: what now?

[Milts]

So, I was riding back from a friend's thisevening at about 6 pm. Not dark, but not light, and I was cruising around from Seatoun towards town via Shelley Bay etc. Suddenly, halfway through a corner, I hit fairly deep gravel in the middle of the lane (there was none in the right wheel track where I had been riding previously). No warning, although I could perhaps have seen it if I'd been looking closely.

Front end goes wonky, slides a bit, wobbles and then straightens up. Rear slips out and then regrips. My feet fly off the pegs, I'm bounced out of the seat a bit and my arms immediately go rigid. I'm pretty sure this is exactly the wrong thing to do. But what should I be doing? How can I ensure that when something like this happens, I don't instantly react wrongly? If I had been going 20ks an hour faster (which would have been dumb, but probably not unheard of) I could have had real issues with staying in my lane or even staying upright.

What exactly should you do when you hit gravel mid corner, either in low speed zones or on the motorway? And how do you practice this and ingrain the muscle memory without risking binning a bike covered in expensive plastic?

[Hurrie]

i had the same problem but probably not as bad, was going around some hills and mid corner i hit some gravel pretty close to the whit line so the front wheel slipped but than gripped and my rear did the same but by this stage i was in the wrong lane with a cliff right next to me, so luckily there were no cars coming my way

[Brownbikerbabe]

Same thing happened to me a few years ago, rounding a windy road....except I flew through the windshield of my bike and split it in half and then hit the pavement with my face (half helmet)...out like a light. I hate gravel! Leathers saved my skin on the rest of me!

[doc]

What exactly should you do when you hit gravel mid corner

Clenching helps

[Sentox]

If it's a true surprise there's not a lot you can do (except re-evaluate your riding if you survive). Grip the bike with your knees/heels, relax arms (the only way you'll manage this is if it's habit from riding this way all the time - and it doesn't hurt to scream "relax" inside your helmet) and stay steady on the throttle.

If you do see it, but it's close, hang off the bike to reduce your lean angle, get whatever braking you can done before you hit it (you can still brake some when leaned over), then try and ride through with a little throttle.

[firefighter]

Whatever you did was ok. You did'nt fall off or leave your lane. Good work bro.

I'm sure Valentino and some California superbike school instructors will be along soon to wank on about some shit that you did wrong. You stayed up, you must have done something right.

[davereid]

They ALWAYS puts the surprise gravel on a corner. Now you know where it will be, it won't be a surprise, so they will put it somewhere else in future.

Seriously.. this is one of the nasty winter things you can expect, randomly placed gravel, generally on shady corners where its hard to see. If you have gone into the corner at a reasonable speed, say 5/10ths of you maximum ability, and you have good tyres at correct pressure, you will need 8/10ths of your ability to get around, but you will get around.

- Keep your head up, avoid looking at the road surface at any cost, look at the exit point of the corner
- Don't change your original line, it will only ask the road for more traction that you simply don't have
- Don't brake midcorner, but if you spot the gravel while still upright, scrub off any speed you can do safely
- Your head will tell you losing traction and putting it down is the likely outcome... but actually the greatest danger is running wide and hitting something, so keep your line..
- Clench

Its a great idea to ride at 5/10ths... you may get to be an old man with all your bones, and skin perfect.


p.s. Not Rossi thanks firefighter ! Just tryn to help

[Sentox]

Keep your head up, avoid looking at the road surface at any cost, look at the exit point of the corner

Can't believe I forgot this point. Don't start looking down if you end up in trouble. Keep focusing on where you need to get to.

[firefighter]

p.s. Not Rossi thanks firefighter ! Just tryn to help

Hahahaha, come on now, I was born to take the piss!

[Mom]

Report it to your council. This is exactly the kind of shit that gets my blood boiling, if you had come off and been injured, it would have been put down as another motorcycle statistic by ACC not a piss poor road maintenace one.

[BuzzardNZ]

I know that area well, been riding round that peninsula for 20 plus years and seen many bikes hit the deck due to gravel.

Sounds like you were pretty lucky there.

[Milts]

Some really helpful responses here. Although it sounds like when you hit it completely by surprise, there's not a whole lot you can do, unless you're going slow enough to recover.

I might ride past sometime today or tomorrow and pinpoint the exact spot so that I can let the council know, assuming it's still there.

[aprilia_RS250]

Do what mountain bikers do when they hit slippery corners. Get the bike perpendicular to the ground (i.e. not leaning) so you have as much contact with the ground as possible, you must lean out to counteract the weight shift. You'll see motocross guys sticking their legs out sometimes as well. This helps to kick the bike back up if you feel a slight slip, (not advised at +50kmh though), just stomp on the ground quickly. You did the right thing by holding on and not getting scared/panic.

Sometimes you know you're screwed through a corner and you will need to lay the bike down and get all personal with the asphalt/gravel. I found out through many years of mountain biking it's best to lock the rear up and let her slip under you rather than jumping off like you're on a diving board.

[davereid]

Sometimes you know you're screwed through a corner and you will need to lay the bike down and get all personal with the asphalt/gravel. I found out through many years of mountain biking it's best to lock the rear up and let her slip under you rather than jumping off like you're on a diving board.

Some advocate this idea, but for me, once you "lay it down" you have already had an accident - things can only get worse !
I've made a lifetime goal of NOT EVER laying it down, voluntarily or not !

It certainly feels better to get the bike off the lean, but I think its an illusion.

You still need exactly the same amount of force to get around the corner, and a correctly inflated road tyre is actually on the softest and most grippy part of the tyre when you are banked over. Plus the compression of the suspension helps to hold the tyre on the ground if there are bumps mid-line.

Firefighter or Rossi may be able to help more here !

[Sentox]

It certainly feels better to get the bike off the lean, but I think its an illusion.

You still need exactly the same amount of force to get around the corner, and a correctly inflated road tyre is actually on the softest and most grippy part of the tyre when you are banked over. Plus the compression of the suspension helps to hold the tyre on the ground if there are bumps mid-line.

Hmmm... actually, you're right on this. Lateral force on the tires is a solely a function of speed and radius, so hanging off wouldn't actually benefit, contrary to my earlier assertion. Leaning less as a consequence of slowing down obviously would help, though.

Your suspension should still deal with surface imperfections better if upright though.