Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Tired of construction

I've mentioned before on the board there's only two ways out of this valley. Currently the way east has two sections of major highway de-contruction, one 5 miles long and one 10 miles. Crews have been at it since January, ripping and blasting out the old. Now they are mostly hauling in belly dump loads of new gravel.

The Bonneville America seems to handle the uneven surface alright, but you sure have to concentrate on potential soft spots that try to suck the handle bars out of your hands or larger rocks left lying around. The worst might be when water trucks saturate the surface and the fine materials get very greasy. Even with the slightly raked front end, the bike feels nimble enough to maintain control. Which only means I haven't tipped over yet, like the tricycle guy on the old Laugh-In show. I tend to wander around a bit looking for the most stable, even surface.

I followed the water truck this afternoon on a long work related ride to the big city. I guess a bucket of water and the garden hose comes out tomorrow. Summer is construction season around the land, ride safe people. There's actually a third way outa here, over the pass into Idaho, maybe I'll go that way tomorrow??

JH

Here, they just dig ditches across the road and then fill them in halfway. Then they come back a week later and put cones and yellow blinking lights around them.
If history repeats, in another few weeks they will come back and over-fill them with black top, so what was once a bone-jarring ditch will become an arse-launching whoop.

rob,

do remember a couple of years ago when sections of The Kanc were being resurfaced and a road northbound out of franconia--all during and around bike week?

i remember a guy in front of me clipping the side of a traffic pylon. the thing bounced up and skittered around in front of me. timing, skill, luck, all of the above got me around it. but there was so much traffic and congestion i wasn't sure i was going to find a clear path.

i don't like being in or around construction on the bike; particulary when the road is graded. YUCK.

mert(the stealth one )

what I am tired of is all the chip sealing going on around this burgh on many of my favorite roads. My main route to work was extensively chip sealed this past week and it is just palin hazardous with all those ribbons of fresh chip seal snaking in rivulets across the lane. That road will be a "slow down and take her easy" for another month before the stuff sets up good and ages.

A high nineties day with oily chip seal makes the tires slide so....I hate it.

"Tar Snakes" is the technical term.....

There is a short road - about 1 mile long - that goes through the woods and up and down some hills that I take to work everyday. It is a nice relaxing ride with lots of deer and turkey and groundhogs and raccoons and 3-toed sloths etc.....
Well, they just repaved it. Fresh blacktop. If you ever come across fresh blacktop after a steady pouring rain, slow down.

I may become a spokesmodel for Depends.....

During the torrential rain and drive home yesterday, you could tell which sections of 95 were most recently paved because they had MORE water on them. The older sections were rougher, so you could actually make out the surface of the road. The newer stuff is so smooth that there's a LOT of water just sitting on it, and the mist from the cars in front of you is worse too.

It's not just the water, it's that dreaded oily asphalt discharge......