Scary situation

[Sandbagger]

My wife had a triathlon today. I was out riding the bike course while the swim was going on and came across a 30 foot wide across both lanes except for a foot of what I thought was water. 99 out of 100 times I just would have ridden across, but something made me stop and get off and make sure it was water. Appears someone was angry about the race and dumped oil across both lanes of traffic. It completely covered the asphalt. The bikes were going to be coming in about 10 minutes with motorcycle escorts. Even worse it was on a curve. I'll spare you all the details of what happened but was able to keep any bikers or bicyles from going down though. Have to tell you, it had me shook. I consider myself to be a very safety conscious biker, wear full gear and always thinking safety, but this came out of nowhere. How do you prepare for this. Makes me wonder about being on the farm roads and coming across a truck failure that dumped a bunch of oil on the road. I have a hard time believing that I would have had a chance to keep the bike upright going across that oil. Don't think I could have done it even if it was straight. I get taking certain risk, but this was one I had not planned on that has me a little shook. Was curious if anybody has taken their bike across a serious oil stretch and what happened.

[hig4s]

Wow, glad you stopped. Did anyone ever find out who did it?

[Carbon_One]

There's not much one can do when something of this nature is done deliberately. Fortunately you were able to avoid a bad situation as well as alerting others of the danger. You done good there.

I would hope that someone may have seen the persons(s) who did this and would turn in any info they have to the proper authorities. Whether anything could be done to them since no one was hurt who knows.

Larry

[Nemo]

I was riding through the hills in Lake of the Ozarks one year. As I came to the crest of one hill, looking ahead I see shinny oil. That scarred me to a screething halt. The County had just applied a layer of oil, ahead of adding new black top for the following day. That could have been a serious disaster! No signs posted either.

[OddStar]

Reminds me of a beautiful Sunday morning @ 6:30AM back in '79, riding my '69 BSA Rocket III to work at Republic Steel in the 'flats' of Cleveland. Was exiting off the shoreway down the 25th st. ramp that was a tight right, doing about 30MPH. Suddenly, the rear of the bike was passing me on the left and I went right into my dirt biken' instincts - layed her down real gently and sat there watching her skid another 20ft.

 

" damn what just happened", I looked around and both lanes were oil soaked about 10ft long, and there on the birm was a 5ga bucket of goop! Cussin' the mofo who dumped it, realized I was still sitting in the middle of a blind curve!! Got off my ass quick, and got the bike up just as a car stopped. Gave her a couple of kicks and got to work. After my shift, looked her over good - only a cracked headlight and bent right footpeg, which I bent back into shape and replaced the rubber.

 

Glad you didn't have to lay yours down .

[Sandbagger]

Reminds me of a beautiful Sunday morning @ 6:30AM back in '79, riding my '69 BSA Rocket III to work at Republic Steel in the 'flats' of Cleveland. Was exiting off the shoreway down the 25th st. ramp that was a tight right, doing about 30MPH. Suddenly, the rear of the bike was passing me on the left and I went right into my dirt biken' instincts - layed her down real gently and sat there watching her skid another 20ft.

 

" damn what just happened", I looked around and both lanes were oil soaked about 10ft long, and there on the birm was a 5ga bucket of goop! Cussin' the mofo who dumped it, realized I was still sitting in the middle of a blind curve!! Got off my ass quick, and got the bike up just as a car stopped. Gave her a couple of kicks and got to work. After my shift, looked her over good - only a cracked headlight and bent right footpeg, which I bent back into shape and replaced the rubber.

 

Glad you didn't have to lay yours down .

 

The thing that concerns me is that I don't think I have the skill that you have. Don't have any dirt bike days to recall. Glad yours turned out ok and your still going strong.

[OddStar]

"Don't have any dirt bike days to recall"

 

Yeah, I think every rider should spend some time in the dirt - making my 16yo learn there first before ever hitting the streets.

[eazyduzzit]

When I was young, I was in the car and hit a patch of spilled

diesel fuel. It was like ice, I was all over the road.

I don't want to think what it would be like if I were on a bike.

[Marcarl]

I would think that this is a perfect example of Good vs evil, even though the devil thought to wreck havoc, the angles were told to step in and send you out there to keep things right. Thanks for listening to what you were told, it saved a lot of grief I'm sure.

[Midnight V-4]

I had a similar situation only on ice instead of oil. January '87 riding a 1982 Maxim 650 from Phoenix to Orlando, around 11:30 at night on I-10 went under an overpass in a turn about 65 mph. As always I was riding in the left hand side of the right lane. I found the ice and started sliding toward the edge of the road. I wasn't going down, just sliding through the turn. Fortunately I ran out of ice before I ran out of road. When I got passed the ice the bike and I were still upright. I gave credit to the great gentleman upstairs and thanked Him many times as I continued down the road.

[midnightventure]

I was riding through the hills in Lake of the Ozarks one year. As I came to the crest of one hill, looking ahead I see shinny oil. That scarred me to a screething halt. The County had just applied a layer of oil, ahead of adding new black top for the following day. That could have been a serious disaster! No signs posted either.

Sounds like the idiots that work for MODOT>