Was I going too slow ???

[KeithR]

I went down yesterday after going through a construction zone with a lot of crushed stone. I'm ok but my leathers got some road rash as well as 1 boot. I was on a secondary paved hi way that they were replacing alot of culverts. In the section where they removed the asphalt they filled it in and then put 10-12" of loose crushed stone. I went across one section doing maybe 50km's (30mph) and felt the rear of the bike go a bit so I slowed down for the next one....next thing I knew I was slidng across the ground and the bike was heading for a ditch. It stopped before going over the bank. It went down on the left side and then it flipped to the right. Not a whole lot of damage other than cosmetic from what I can tell so far. My right lower cowling is trashed and the crash bar it self is bent. I had a set of the crash bar supports on and kinda think that saved me from getting more damage (it did break but I think it can be rewelded if its not bent). My handle bar ends didn't touch the ground or the mirrors either. So I'm kinda thinking slowing down wasn't such a good idea?

 

I do have a rub mark on my fairing.....has anyone have one sanded and painted before?

 

My thoughts on the crash bar supports......I think they saved me from having alot more damage...and my V/R gremlin bell of course! I didn't realize I went down on my left side at all because I saw no damage but was puzzled why my left boot and chaps were scuffed. It was only on the way home when we stopped to check the tie down straps on the trailer that my friend noticed the left front bar was worn down a nice bit. It was then I was able to put it all together.....it happened so fast I wasn't really sure what had happened. So I went down on the left and it flipped over to the right all in about 30 ft.

 

To add some humor to it I called my sweetie and said " I just went down on my bike" she replied " did you do much damage to the bike!"....I immediately asked..."what about me" She just assumed I dropped it!

 

So now its panic time......was planning to go on a 10 day trip the end of this month.....I hope Yamaha has the parts.

If anyone has triked and have some rear crash bars available I may be interested.

 

Be careful out there!!

 

Keith

[Owen]

Sorry to hear about the mishap! Glad you are ok and your sweetie has her priorities right!!!

 

I did a paint job on my faring. Here is a small write up. Others are far better than me I'm sure. But It has been almost 2 years and It still looks fine.

[johnny-canuck]

Hey Keith,

 

Sorry to hear about your mishap. How fast in loose gravel is a question I have too and from what I've read, faster is better than slower, but "how" fast is the big question. Tis the season in the East for construction. Between raised manholes, stripped asphalt, and loose gravel, it's not safe to go out some days.

 

Hope you get it back together for your trip.

 

John

[massey130]

i have about 3/4 mile of gravel road before i hit asphalt.

speed depends on how deep and loose the gravel is.

gravel roads can change. rain, heat and traffic will dictate how driving conditions are for any given day.

 

if our road has been ridden on by the neighborhood, i ride just fine at 10 to 25 miles an hour because the gravel is packed down. the speed depends on how busy the neighborhood is. are kids playing in the yard? are folks heading to work or coming home?

 

then comes the parish (county) road graders. they fix all the stuff that cagers complain about. road ripple washboard, pot holes and the like.

 

I ride about 13 MPH on fresh road grade.

 

Now comes the fun part. every few years the ditch cleaners come around and will put some dirt back on the road to keep up the base followed by the "add gravel to the fresh dirt" trucks.

 

slow or fast does no good on this kind of stuff in this situation. i muddle through about 8 mph or so. and i ride on the nothbound side (going and coming) as that is used by the neighborhood heading to town. we almost went down the first time driving on this fresh topping section of the road coming home and using the proper southbound lane. 2 steps with the boot to the ground kept us up and moving. no throttle was applied, just kept the same speed we had while making the left turn off asphalt onto gravel I moved over to the improper northbound lane to a harder pack that kept us up till we got onto the older part of the road.

 

gravel is something you have to have experience with. saying speed up or slow down all the time is tough to do since each road is a bit different. our road changes and i change my driving for that day for the road's current condition. getting used to how the tires and bike move and feel on gravel is only gained by finding some and riding on it regularly.

[Carbon_One]

Sorry to hear of your mishap Keith but glad it wasn't worse too. In regards to the crash bar braces; without them I feel it would of been worse. If the left side was scrapped you can be sure that brace kept the crash bar from folding. The right being bent and partially torn obviously kept the crash bar from folding entirely. So in a nut shell they did save you much damage (IMHO) doing what they were supposed to do.

Larry

[scotty]

I am not sure of the exact conditions you were on so I can't say for sure.

I have ridden gravel all of my life with the exception of 5 years that I lived in town.

Anything under 20 or 30 Kph and you start to really lack stability.

Basically the faster you go the more stable it gets, if you get bent out of shape, the faster you are going the more bent out of shape you get. kind of a double edged sword.

I run between 60 KpH and 110 KpH depending on the road. (but I have had a lot of practice)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOPyh4B8aNA]YouTube- Goldwing on gravel.m4v[/ame]