Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I've been wondering about this and have looked around, but I haven't found any good tips about potholes besides relax your arms or stand up a little to let the bike take the blow. I obviously know that on a motorcycle potholes are to be avoided, but what about the times that it is impossible to avoid? I know where I live there are some pretty big ones. On freeways, what do you do if you can't avoid potholes or a good amount of bumps and uneven road surface?

Assume you see it too late to avoid it

Before you impact
slowdown,
relax,
keep your knees in towards the tank
slowdown some more

As you impact
keep just enough throttle on to maintain speed (you're going to be losing traction here, so you don't want the suspension loaded up due to braking / accelerating (when I say braking I include engine braking)
let the bike go where it wants (within reason)

After the impact,
SLOW DOWN you're obviously going faster than you/your bike/conditions allow.
If necessary, pull over until you're relaxed again (if you see it at that short notice, it's gonna be a shock to the system)



ALSO if you're going around the pothole, be wary, as sometimes they have loose gravel around them

Keep your eyes on the horizon straight ahead of you. And I'd be careful about how much you slow down. Slowing puts a lot of weight onto the front wheel, which can be a bad thing going into a pot hole.

The best defense is a good offense, yadda yadda. The easiest thing to do is just watch for them and steer away .

people say sand is like riding on ball bearings but how much sand? I live in an area with lots of construction sites to seeing sand filled inbetween the paved roads is common but it dosn't seem to effect to much on riding over them?