Be careful of dirt & grass on pavement

Last week I was commuting home when I stopped for gas. All of as fine until I attempted to turn back on the road from a dead stop. As I accelerated and merged into traffic my rear wheel hit a patch of dirt and grass and subsequently began to spin out the Silverwing started laying down with the front end wobbling madly. Somehow I was able to manhandle it back upright while getting the front end straight. 30’ later I came to a stop behind a car. The pickup driver behind me yelled to see if I was okay. The light changed and I rode home without issue but with pains in right ankle and wrist.

In the end I came away with a badly sprained wrist, sore ankle, and bruised ego.

I went back a day later and examined the scene. This incident was totally avoidable had I been aware of road beneath me and have a bit more patience, instead of focused solely on merging into speeding traffic. Had I been aware, I could have not cut the turn as sharp, accelerated as hard, etc…

Scary moment huh? I'm glad you're not badly hurt. It sounds like you did a neat job of saving your SW from lying down.

Put it down to experience and ride on

Had a little moment this past Saturday. On the SW, and riding at low speed, all the traffic in front of me comes to a dead stop, and quickly. There was a larger (maybe 10x10 foot divot/construction area in the road) and found myself sliding in gravel within the divot (the drivers in front of me just dead stopped when they approached). Happily kept it upright but was a little shaken for a few seconds. As used to be said, keep the rubber side down and feet on the pegs (or floorboards in this case).

Grass and sand can be life threatening on the road, especially if on a corner. And speed makes it much worse...been there and done that. If I encounter sand etc. on the road or in a turn I SLOW down and do NOT brake, then let the bike/scooter steer through.

Years ago, I was turning off a paved road into a business which was not paved. There had been a storm and the entrance was all SAND. Being on a 900 pound Goldwing didn't help. I straightened the bike as best I could and let it soldier through. White knuckle for sure but the bike made it through to solid ground. Figured I was going to have to get someone to help me lift the beast but thank God I did not. Be safe and aware of your surroundings.

Good to hear you kept it upright, AND that you know why it happened. Unknown wobbles cause sleepless nights, if you know the cause it's just another addition to your roadcraft.

If you live in the UK, or anywhere else that salts winter roads, you can add roadsalt to sand & grass as road hazards.

steve_h80 wrote:

If you live in the UK, or anywhere else that salts winter roads, you can add roadsalt to sand & grass as road hazards.

Good call out regarding road salt. I hadn’t thought of that before as I am a 3-season rider.

with experience you learn to look for everything that can put you down.

I dumped mine on a particularly scuttery bit of farm track a while back. Smashed my screen and quite badly damaged my plastics and bent the handlebars very badly. Initially, it looked like it would never run right. It all went together again but I'm still finding bits of dried out cow clack in it every time I do a job - like the recent clutch job.

Got to practice what I preach yesterday...  Rode down a dirt road (usually good) but recent storms had made it dicey! I was on the Forza but same principles, took it slow and man-handled it a bit and made it OK. And for the record it did get worse before it got better. A dual sport would have been a better choice:

There's all sorts of problems on road surfaces I need to be aware of when riding. Road salt has already been mentioned, and while I don't think it's particularly hazardous to ride on, getting sprayed by the salt and sand mixture thrown out by road gritters is sometimes unavoidable.

Still I'll take that and having to give the maxi a hose down and dry after being on salted roads to going down on my arse on a patch of black ice.

Then there's road surfaces where the old worn out top surface has been planed off and grooved, they sometimes feel unsettling to ride on. Then afterwards if  the road is resurfaced by the spray and scatter method there’s always loose stone chipping to contend with for a couple of weeks.

The Highways Dept in Cumbria used to do that on roads in July and August which always pissed off motorists that had bought brand new cars for the new registration number on August 1st.

Imagine driving home in your new pride and joy with the sound of loose clippings thrown up by the car in front hitting your cars bodywork and windscreen.

I avoid North Yorkshire's back roads after long periods of rain as water runs off the saturated fields onto the road. Wide vehicles trying to pass each other go onto the roadside grass verges and churn that up into mud. Or tractors coming out of fields fling up clods of soil from their tyres, and beware of farm trailers as there's all sorts of crap that can drop off them on the move.

When I lived in Cumbria some A roads I used regularly had dairy farms just off the road, and I could come across a herd of cattle being herded from a field to the milking parlour and there'd be a coating of cow **** on the road. So any traffic coming along at the time had to go through this mess.

Cobbled roads have already been mentioned, they're a thing of the past, but speed humps seem to be everywhere in our towns and cities, when you're not looking out for drain covers, ruts and potholes.

Then there's the continuous thump thump thump riding on motorways sections surfaced with concrete, cracks sealed with bitumen, rain grooves, riding in cities that have tram/streetcar lines, etc. etc.etc.

It's all part of a normal days riding.

Might add---big top heavy scooters are much harder to handle than motorcycle when the going gets ruff, motorcycles have the advantage of gripping the tank and foot pegs to stand on. Old Vespa 125's with their 40mph top speed did handle well for me in bad conditions---my favorite scooter for Elephant Rally in Germany/Austria was my Vespa PX150E---just went well in snow, even enjoyed it more than MZ sidecar outfits in bad/slippery conditions-----Road Salted roads ok to ride on----just hard on machine in my experience---Hose bike down at end of ride helped for me.

I add to the all-too-familiar list the narrow country lanes so narrow the grass grows down the centre, collecting mud and gravel, leaving only tyre-width strips of tarmac on which to ride.

Many times you will see mowing of lawns resulting in splaying a wide track of fresh wet slippery grass on the road. I have been guilty of this practice in the past, but I think now we have a local ordinance of this act now being illegal because of the danger it gives to all vehicles, especially two-wheeled vehicles.
Also, new laws are appearing regarding a motorist's responsibility for his/her load dropping off the back of the vehicle.

At the end of the day though it all comes down to our own roadcraft to watch out for hazards.
You'll very rarely see a police biker come unstuck, and if you've ever riden with the police you'll known they are on on totally different level to us normal riders - training, training, training.

Even highly trained police motorcyclists aren't immune to serious crashes and fatalities.

Back in the Nineties there were a number of high speed incidents involving police riders due to the amount of extra equipment Police Forces were fitting to their BMW and Honda ST1100's.

All this excess weight and where and how it was randomly mounted was causing high speed instability and weaving that even these skilled riders couldn't correct.

Look at any police motorcycle today, and they have the minimum of clutter on them, thanks in part to lessons learned and the miniaturisation of radio equipment and LED's.

A prime and very visible example were the BMW riders from the Metropolitan Police Special Escort Group who escorted the Royal Hearse to Windsor Castle

Those new police bikes look great and as Meldrew says, all that equipment neatly tucked in for streamlining. I always wanted to be a police biker when I was at school....alas it never happened.