Rich
0
My "pet peeves" include:
- Paint strips/decals that get as slick as grease when wet. Washington State is full of these things and the roads in Western Washington are known for staying wet a goodly portion of the winter.
- Traffic "sensors" that can't seem to sense motorcycles. It was bad enough with my 730 lb ST1300, but I've found that some that would sense it will not pick up the NT. A few weeks ago I had this happen one evening when a traffic signal technician was standing right there working with the signal box. Fortunately (at least for this light), he observed it, said "that shouldn't happen" and adjusted it right there and then. But it shows that they really do not know how to set these up. I've had occasion to coax a car behind me to pull up closer to trip a left-turn signal (which seems to be the most common offender). Bicyclists stand no chance. I'm told that one can legally run the light (if safe) if the intersection has failed to respond properly in 2 cycles. But this can be a long time at some intersections. And I only do this when no LEO's are in sight.
- Grated bridges. These are rare around here, but they do exist. They are worst on knobby-ish tires, but wet steel is slippery and some tire treads keep dropping in and out of those rectangular grates. Probably not as hazardous as it feels, but unnerving just the same.
- Sanded roads. This isn't much of a problem in Western Washington, but drove me nuts in Colorado. All winter long it piles up between lanes, in the corners and every which where. As the snows came and melted, this stuff remained to leave you with sand traps all over to work your way around. At times you have to ride as if the road weren't paved.
- Rutted highways. This is a lack of maintenance coupled with heavy traffic, mostly on asphalt highways. In a rainstorm, the water piles up in these ruts. So you have the choice of riding on the hump, where all the mystery fluids from '78 Chevy's piles up, or down in the rut where you get to hydroplane. I recall one really cool incident on my old Gold Wing where the bike hydroplaned in one rut (tach goes toward redline, speedometer plunges toward zero), the bike wobbles a bit, climbs up over the hump (tach drops back down, speedometer climbs back up), and goes down into the other rut and starts hydroplaning again. Pulled it back up on the hump and kept it there, choosing the least of 3 evils.
