Gravel the Enemy

[Nail24]

I just got back from three days in the NC twisties. A chance to really pull the Ohlins to the test on some very technical roads. One of our group- the most experienced rider of all-- went down in a very tight turn due to the presence of very fine gravel that looked just like pavement but was roughly 1/4 inch deep:pot::pot:. His front wheel was outta there in a nano second. Thankfully, he was properly dressed for the slide with a good Arai helmet, Vanson armor leather and armor riding pants and boots. The great weekend came to a halt as soon as that happened but the outcome could have been much worse. I'm back in Georgia now and the R11S is very happy having been properly exercised. I ran NC181 about 7 times and it got better each time. Not one LEO all weekend. I guess they were over at Deals Gap with the squids. Now it's back the the salt mines with some good memories to ponder. As for the gravel, the next time we'll run the line a little higher to avoid the gravel that looks like pavement that lives about 18 inches from the edge.

[jamming]

Daymnnnn....hope your friend is OK, hope his bike's OK. Glad to hear he was geared up. Smart man.
Also glad you made it home safe Bubba, I'm jealous, never even got the bike out this weekend. Never really ridden much out in your neck of the woods, I'll have to.

[socalrob]

That stealth gravel is horrible. That's how I dropped Alan's bike a couple of years ago in Texas Hill country. I swear the gravel looked exactly like the general road surface, but in fact was over an inch deep. Even Allen admitted it looked like a normal road, & I don't think he would have cuty me any slack if it looked otherwise.

Hope your friend & his bike are all mended up. Shit happens then you've got to pick it up & go on.

[dee jones]

I was riding with the group earlier in the day, before I pulled off and headed home. A great group of guys riding on a beautiful autumn day.

The past few weeks in the North Carolina Mountains some of the best riding roads that are usually fairly clean have been covered with more sand and fine gravel than usual. I've talked with some of the other local riders and they all agree, that theres just more crap on the road lately.

The larger gravel you can usually spot and make adjustments. The super fine gray in color sand is damn near impossible to spot,and once your in it even at slow speed its sometimes to late.

Quick mending my friend.

[DJ Down Under]

Gravel sure is a bugger.

We all need this guy to ride ahead for us.

DJ

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~djp1/mypic3198.jpg

[Nail24]

I was riding with the group earlier in the day, before I pulled off and headed home. A great group of guys riding on a beautiful autumn day.

The past few weeks in the North Carolina Mountains some of the best riding roads that are usually fairly clean have been covered with more sand and fine gravel than usual. I've talked with some of the other local riders and they all agree, that theres just more crap on the road lately.

The larger gravel you can usually spot and make adjustments. The super fine gray in color sand is damn near impossible to spot,and once your in it even at slow speed its sometimes to late.

Quick mending my friend.

Dee, it was great running with you this weekend you headed back before I could say Adios amigo. You do run the S outta that ST:eusa_clap:. Keep in touch because I hope to pass your wy out there in CO this summer. BTW when do you leave.

[DarthRider]

We have something on some Texas roads I call "black sand", but I think it's really fines from a type of asphalt deteriorating a bit after it's a year old or so.
You can't see it at all and it doesn't get deep...just a fine, thin layer. It even allows a modicum of traction so it can be pretty deceiving...it's not "greasy" feeling, more like what old, hard tires might feel like. And it *will* put you on your ass.
You just have to sort of "feel" for it. And know where it will likely be...and not be.
Like most of us I guess, I usually use a late apex for longer site-lines, but if I'm on the type of surface that generates "black sand" I tend to stay more in the car tracks and to the inside where the damn stuff gets pushed to the high/wide side of the turn by car tires.
We really have to stay aware of surface conditions and talking about incidents & different types of roads really helps to stay sharp.

[Wild Will]

It has always struck me as idiotic that county crews patch roads with tar and gravel, given that motorcycles pay their fair share of road taxes and the method of repair is hazardous to single track machinery. So are hot tar snakes. You just have to watch out for every road hazard and act accordingly. Gravel has bitten almost all of my riding friends, and they're all long time riders.

Never ride naked, like the yayhoo I saw yesterday on the backroads with his missus on his new RT; he was wearing shorts.

[geechie]

When I was up in Topton last Spring, we came upon gravel a couple of times. Thankfully it was the big grit stuff that you could see and then make the necessary adjustments to your line.

Glad the gentleman who went down was prepared to. Sure wish I'd been with you guys. Sounds like it was fun.

George

[dee jones]

George,
Wayhah Road is well noted for having its share of gravel on it,the visible kind and the fine sand form. I guess the guys pulling the trailers have trouble making the turns and as a result swing it wide and there trailer pulls the gravel out onto the pavement. It doesn't help us much when rounding a blind turn to find gravel strewn all over the road. Some of the turns actually look as if gravel was intentionally placed, although I doubt thats true.

Double Island is extremely tight and if the pace is swift, which I'm sure it was, theres no room for error. Even the most experienced rider with the best vision isn't going to spot the gray sand on that road, theres not much light due to the tree cover. I'm just glad nobody else got caught up in the get off.

[geechie]

Ah, yes. Wayah road! I thoroughly enjoyed that one last year. For the rest of you, it runs alongside of a nice little trout stream. It's on the way to Arby's place. Picture perfect NC valley road. And yes, I do remember gravel on it.

George

[Nail24]

The pace was down a bit Dee because it was late in the run. Shadows and such made the fine gravel invisible. Double Island as you know is difficult because of the reverse camber of the road in some tight turns and close prox of the next reverse turn.:pot: That area is loaded with a lot of choices and we'll be there again soon. The Guzzi has a nice skid plate on the cylinder to protect it. I'll be surprised if the cost of repair is over 250 bucks. Road running versus the protected track environment is the more unpredictible of the two as you said. All in all it was a great weekend to clear my head for a few moments and live the dream in the daytime with my eyes open. I even had a brief conversation with a guy on a Road King from Johns Island geeche.

[DarthRider]

...Some of the turns actually look as if gravel was intentionally placed, although I doubt thats true...

Dee -
A buddy & I were riding supermotards a few years ago on a really cool "sportbike road" near Fort Worth and had been, um..."bending" a few speed limit laws.
We stopped in a small town for gas and a drink. A county-mounty stopped and walked over to us, you know what we thought.
But he very courteously informed us that some local kids had been reported for throwing gravel onto the road, in front of motorcycles, in some fast corners ! He just wanted to give us a heads up.
We didn't see the little bastidges but it did slow things down a bit.
Ya' just never know...

[Ed K]

Bubba...

"...very fine gravel that looked just like pavement..." Hate the stuff. Wish I had bionic eyes or something.

There's a small patch of it on one of my favorite roads, in a turn, of course. The first time through, I slid around a bit, and got lucky. Now, I know precisely where it is. Have seen a few dazed sport bike riders go down there.

Sometimes I do the DJ pic-type broom trick... to clean it up a bit for those who are not familiar.

[Boxerboy]

Dee -
A buddy & I were riding supermotards a few years ago on a really cool "sportbike road" near Fort Worth and had been, um..."bending" a few speed limit laws.
We stopped in a small town for gas and a drink. A county-mounty stopped and walked over to us, you know what we thought.
But he very courteously informed us that some local kids had been reported for throwing gravel onto the road, in front of motorcycles, in some fast corners ! He just wanted to give us a heads up.
We didn't see the little bastidges but it did slow things down a bit.
Ya' just never know...

We have what was once a fine, but short boulevard here in Melbourne, called "The Kew Boulevard". It's just 6 ks from the city centre and goes for 3-4 ks, following the undulating hillside of the Yarra River as it winds it's way slowly to Port Phillip Bay. Years ago on a sunny weekend day, this short road would see 100 or so riders just going up and down all day. Mostly squids doing silly things, then coming back to compare tyre edge wear! It would've been annoying to live there, no doubt.
The suburb this road edges is Kew. It's a wealthy suburb, with the usual big houses and flash cars etc etc. The residents of a certain section were getting fed up with the bikes disturbing "their" quiet weekends so someone took the initiative to put fishing line at neck height across the road. Well, you can imagine what happened!:thumbs_down:
No death, but an unhappy rider who rightly reported this to the constabulary. They put a notice in the paper informing the public of the legal consequences/possibilities. I didn't ever hear of it again, but imagine that! Not likely to be kids either.

http://sgp3whereismap.whereis.com.au/gns/sgpapi7-ZSA1WC-1194346145442.gif
Road designers have since made this road much less attractive to squids, so it doesn't get the business as much these days.

It can be hard enough dealing with the normal road surface and normal traffic. Who needs kids putting sand on the corners and adults putting out fishing line......?

[dee jones]

We have what was once a fine, but short boulevard here in Melbourne, called "The Kew Boulevard". It's just 6 ks from the city centre and goes for 3-4 ks, following the undulating hillside of the Yarra River as it winds it's way slowly to Port Phillip Bay. Years ago on a sunny weekend day, this short road would see 100 or so riders just going up and down all day. Mostly squids doing silly things, then coming back to compare tyre edge wear! It would've been annoying to live there, no doubt.
The suburb this road edges is Kew. It's a wealthy suburb, with the usual big houses and flash cars etc etc. The residents of a certain section were getting fed up with the bikes disturbing "their" quiet weekends so someone took the initiative to put fishing line at neck height across the road. Well, you can imagine what happened!:thumbs_down:
No death, but an unhappy rider who rightly reported this to the constabulary. They put a notice in the paper informing the public of the legal consequences/possibilities. I didn't ever hear of it again, but imagine that! Not likely to be kids either.

http://sgp3whereismap.whereis.com.au/gns/sgpapi7-ZSA1WC-1194346145442.gif
Road designers have since made this road much less attractive to squids, so it doesn't get the business as much these days.

It can be hard enough dealing with the normal road surface and normal traffic. Who needs kids putting sand on the corners and adults putting out fishing line......?


You guys stirred my mind to an incident that happened here in the late sixties.Ofcoarse the area now is for the rich and famous. But when we where kids ,we used to cut from the main road through the Celanese parking lot. In the evening they put up a steel cable to keep us from cutting across there lot.
This really didn't slow us down much, because there was plenty of room to duck under the annoying cable. The cable stayed like this for quite a while. Then oneday the cable was lowered, PY Thomas was heading home one evening as usual and hit the lowerd cable. It killed him.

I don't know how the law suit came out? But I do know some people don't like motorsickles and that certainly was the case in the mid to late sixties.
Remember the Honda ads. "You meet the niceist people on a Honda" I think they were trying at this point to change the publics few on motorcycling. Sorry to get off topic. Always watch for road debris, it will kill ya.:pot:

[Arby]

Just got back from two days riding in NC & No Ga mtns with Biff's R.

I felt the front tire kick out twice on the Rockster, but felt a little jolt each time. So I believe it was some larger gravel that I didn't see. Definitely caused a little pucker time though. The back end moving around a little isn't so bad (relatively speaking), but I want that front tire biting like a pit bull!! This was on another road farther east, not Wayah Rd.

Glad your friend survived OK.

You guys just missed the cold snap,it was 22 F at 8:30 AM Weds (Nov 7th)when Biff's R left for home. After washing the dishes and doing a little laundry, I left at 12:30 PM. It was a balmy 38 F and sunny.

Sorry for the hijack, but here's a photo of the trout stream on Wayah Rd that geechi mentioned.
http://shutter09.pictures.aol.com/data/pictures/11/007/3F/FD/12/52/BbXjJ8XJKP43jnDJjgnddPmPIIRm2yFP0300.jpg

RB

[Elsie Smith]

I think the extreme dryness along the east coast tends to let things pile up in the turns so maybe that contributes to more gravel, etc. than usual this year. Glad everyone's wearing their protective gear :-)