Sevulturus wrote: Every second in the car the radio, the AC, the heater, the chair that wraps its loving arms around all whisper, "sleep, sleep." Your mind is lulled away from what's happening around you, pushing back awareness of what's going on around you.
Boy that sounds familiar...
Dave Karlotski wrote:Cars lie to us and tell us we're safe, powerful, and in control. The
air-conditioning fans murmur empty assurances and whisper, "Sleep, sleep."
Motorcycles tell us a more useful truth: we are small and exposed, and
probably moving too fast for our own good, but that's no reason not to enjoy
every minute of the ride.
So Sev, what's your milage at now? My poor 599 has seen over 2600 miles of perfect weather, overcast and a bit of torrential rain, but still comes back for more.
Shrug, great minds and all that
uhh, I'm currently coming up on 12000 km for the calender year (got bike on June 8th)... I've put close to 5000 on it so far this season, and 1400 of that was this weekend. I hope to have the writeup availible in a couple of weeks, lol.
I've been through everything from light hail to sweltering heat this year. I'm really liking my gear so far. I love this little bike.
Of course I'm generalizing from a single example here, but everyone does that. At least I do.
Sevulturus wrote: Once the rain had cleared up, we cleared out. Down 17th in search of the Whitemud I'm still not completely sure why we were headed to the Whitemud, but we were.
The Highway 14 and Whitemud intersection has these entrance/turn ramps that create a clover-leaf and as long as you stay on the ramps and don't exit them, you can keep going around and around working on leans and wearing down those chicken strips....lotta fun and especially so because that isn't a busy interchange in the evenings... We can head back there next time and NOT miss the turn off and you'll see what I mean!
That last ride was a blast and we should have a bigger mix of bikes and people for this upcoming Thursday. Or at least I've done my part digging up more bodies!
Ya right, there are only 2 kinds of bikes: It's a Ninja... look that one's a Harley... oh there's a Ninja... Harley...Ninja...
Sevulturus wrote: Once the rain had cleared up, we cleared out. Down 17th in search of the Whitemud I'm still not completely sure why we were headed to the Whitemud, but we were.
The Highway 14 and Whitemud intersection has these entrance/turn ramps that create a clover-leaf and as long as you stay on the ramps and don't exit them, you can keep going around and around working on leans and wearing down those chicken strips....lotta fun and especially so because that isn't a busy interchange in the evenings... We can head back there next time and NOT miss the turn off and you'll see what I mean!
That last ride was a blast and we should have a bigger mix of bikes and people for this upcoming Thursday. Or at least I've done my part digging up more bodies!
sounds like you guys have a lot of nice places to ride out there. I've got nothing here. Nothing!
The Hamlet of Sherwood Park has sprung upon an ingenius new method of repairing cracks and small holes in the pavement in the last year or so. Once upon a time these small faults in the surface were simply filled in with tar. A solution that resulted in what is known widely as "tar snakes."
Basically long runners of semi-solid tar that sticks to tires when hot and is CRAZY slippery when wet. Either way it vastly reduces or increases traction when you roll over one. They are something to be avoided no matter the current temperature, as you're either rolling over small patches of ice, or a surface that'll grab and redirect your tire.
So on to our new strategy for sealing up these problems, rather then simply applying tar to the inside of the crack and making a long thin snake of it that is easily avoided, we now lay out a wide swatch of the stuff... then dump a large amount of fine gravel on the swatch and presss it in with a steam roller.
This provides a surface very similar to the standard roadways.
In a couple of days a street sweeper happens by for a cursory sweep of the area, leaving behind a large section of tar with some gravel in it (change in elevation and traction) and a bunch of little gravel peices all over the road.
So, as a biker, I'm scared to death. I can come around a corner I've been around a thousand times before and find a HUGE scattering of small round gravel pellets all over the road.
Or I can be riding along in the rain and all of a sudden hit a raised section of road that... feels slippery.
Riding around here is definately scaring me more every day.
Of course I'm generalizing from a single example here, but everyone does that. At least I do.
Tar snakes aren't that bad if they are placed by a competant worker. If the "A" team isn't laying it down, though, they can be hazardous in any temperature or humidity.
Chipseal isn't too horrible once it's been compacted. However, a local curvy road was "refinished" with this junk and after about 8 months it's finally alright to treat it as tarmac instead of gravel.
I think people who decide what should happen to roads should be forced to ride it on motorcycles before and after their decisions.
[url=http://www.motoblag.com/blag/]Practicing the dark and forgotten art of using turn signals since '98.[/url]
It shouldn't be scary. As per my sister, they are mandated to lay the tar and press in the gravel immediately with a packer, then sweep up the remains. This is meant to press it below or even with the road line creating a "seamless" integration with the road and the process should take less than 1 hour per kilometer. My sister drives a Packer.
The problem is, because of standard bureaucracy and road-worker laziness, the tar gets laid, then the gravel is laid some hours later and if a packer is available, it rolls over this mess it creating a fine piece of road. Under these ideal circumstances, a sweeper (the most unlikely part of the equation) can drive over and suck up the remaining gravel. If any prior part of the equation is missing, the sweeper gets left out, leaving the gravel to "natural dispersion".
I witnessed this being done very right on Baseline Road headed East the other day before 17th street. Highly efficient, well maintained and organized. It was a pleasure to drive past even while they were working on it. I have also however seen it done very wrong these last few days. I'm not sure they even laid the tar, they just appear to have dropped this fine gray gravel all over the roads, which scatters between lanes and kicks the hell out of my radiator when I pass over it at 70kmph.
Malice wrote:
I witnessed this being done very right on Baseline Road headed East the other day before 17th street.
You freaked me out for a second there Malice. I live near 16th street and Baseline and I didn't see any roadwork being done. Then I looked at your I.D. and realized that your intersection and mine are 1900 miles apart
The Highway 14 and Whitemud intersection has these entrance/turn ramps that create a clover-leaf and as long as you stay on the ramps and don't exit them, you can keep going around and around working on leans and wearing down those chicken strips....lotta fun and especially so because that isn't a busy interchange in the evenings... 
We can head back there next time and NOT miss the turn off and you'll see what I mean!
Or at least I've done my part digging up more bodies!
there are only 2 kinds of bikes: It's a Ninja... look that one's a Harley... oh there's a Ninja... Harley...Ninja...
