The highway dept is out to get me.

[Flyinfool]

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a good crop of orange barrels starting to grow alongside the highway, no biggie, this is Wisconsin, .

 

Last week on the way home from work In a severe Thunderstorm that came out of the predicted clear skies, (gotta love meteorologists) got to a section of road with no extra markings BUT IT WAS GONE. the hole was filled with water right to the pavement so I never noticed the drop till the bike dropped down off the edge of the pavement. Fortunatly the hole was only about 4 inches deep but now I am at at 45mph in 4 inches of water over a gravel road, Before I could get back under control and slowed down I came uo to a Manhole cover that was sticking up 4 inches but invisible in the water. I saw it a split second before I hit it and all I could do was to hang on tight and get all of my weight to the pegs. I have no idea just how high up in the air the bike was, bit it was a lot higher than was ever intended for my poor old V1. Some how I managed to stay upright and get slowed down to finish crossing he11.

 

I rode slow the rest of the way home not knowing if I did any damage to the bike. My shorts were not worth saving.

 

The next day I cleaned all of the mud and crud off the bike and inspected everything I could, no damage.

 

It was the next day that they put up the road closed signs and baricades.

 

OK Rant over.

[IH Truck Guy]

Man,that sucks....Glad you and the bike made ok...

[Scooter Bob]

You should know there's 4 seasons in WI, almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

 

Seriously though, I've seen car tires and rims damaged by hitting sharp edges like that man hole sticking up. If I were you, I'd check those out real close. Jack 'em up and spin them and look for out of round or bulges from broken casings, etc...

 

Glad you made it out OK, Scooter Bob

[Flyinfool]

Those are the 4 seasons that I have known for all of my life.

 

Fortunately it was not a sharp edge on the manhole cover, there was a radius equal to size of the asphalt grinder, they had not done the cleanup yet. The tires and rims were checked very carefully as well as the frame for any cracked joints.

[Venturous Randy]

Jeff, I had something similar a couple of years ago after reminents of a hurricane went thru western NC. I was going into a shaded area and the rain had caused the pavement to buckle up at least 6 to 8 inches. I hit it at about 45mph and literally went airborne. I was real glad Laura was not on the back on this trip. I had to turn around and go back and see what I had hit. There were already a lot of marks where cars and trucks had bottomed out going over it.

Glad you and your bike survived it.

RandyA