Hitting Obstacles with your Motorcycle

From time to time you will see obstacles ahead of you on the road. If you're confident you're the only vehicle on the road, slow down and ride around it at a safe speed. On a highway you may not have this luxury. I have seen pretty much everything you can imagine on a highway, including mattresses, tires, furniture, dogs, and strange indescribable thingies. Of course in our south western states they have signs on the highways warning you of illegal aliens crossing the freeway. Really, I'm not clever enough to make this stuff up.

When you see an obstacle that you can't avoid, it's best to stand up on your foot pegs if you can, get your weight as far rearward as you can, and hit the obstacle straight on.

Railroad tracks often cross country roads at an angle. It's best to cross railroad tracks at 90°. This means on country roads you should slow down and drive across the road at an angle so that you cross the railroad tracks straight on.

Some older highways have rain grooves cut into the concrete. These grooves make some motorcycle tires wander side to side a small amount, which can be a very uneasy feeling for a beginner. The motorcycle won't actually fall over - if you stay calm and keep your arms loose, everything will be fine.

Some older bridges have open metal mesh for a roadway. Not only does this make the motorcycle wander, but when you look down you can see right through it. They won't actually make your motorcycle tip over, but overall it's simply a horrible experience. There's very little traction available, so you almost don't have brakes. If you do fall down, the bridge surface is a lot like a cheese grater. Truth be told, I hate these bridges.

When the temperature gets below freezing, there can be a thin sheet of water on the road that freezes. This is called "black ice." It's invisible to a driver. When you hit this stuff, you'll know - I hit some once in Yosemite park at about 10,000 feet elevation. I realized immediately that pulling on the handlebars had no effect - my motorcycle was sliding down the roadway. This went on for about 100 yards before the ice cleared. If you hit the brakes, the wheel stops but your motorcycle does not. This is very bad, as when you're on black ice the gyroscopic effect of the wheels is all that's keeping you up. Fortunately, my motorcycle happened to be lined up correctly and I "slid" the 100 yards without any external incident. Internally, this is an experience called "pucker power," a state where even if your hands and feet were to come off the motorcycle, still you would be firmly attached to the seat. At the end of the 100 yards, my riding buddy and I pulled over and thanked the motorcycle gods and saints for our good luck. There actually is a Patron Saint that looks after motorcyclists.

In the spring, highway repair crews go out and pour tar into road cracks. These tar strips get very soft in the summer when the road gets hot, roughly the consistency of modeling clay. Eventually the car traffic wears them down, but until then they're very dangerous. Motorcyclists call them "road snakes." If you see them in a corner, steer around them: many motorcyclists have hit one in a corner and fallen down.