Hard Hit

While at 50 or 60 mph, I slammed over a patch seam in the pavement and had a very hard thump. Rear suspension bottomed out and I felt quite a solid thump through the handle bars. No obvious sudden vibration changes, no handling weirdness. At home I checked rims and new tires, no sign of any damage. Front is original rim while the rear is an 18" alloy shouldered rim (lots of folks mistake it for an Akront rim) with stainless "necked" spokes acquired from Don Pender (madass140) that i laced myself. Happy to report both held up well. This was by far the hardest hit I've had on this bike and great to know it stood up well to the stresses.

Happy to hear the bike is undamaged. It would seem that Canadian roads are just as shit as the roads here in England. It really pisses me off when I think about how much tax we pay for such poor roads. We pay a yearly vehicle excise duty, insurance premium tax of 12%, fuel duty, currently around 55% to which is added 20% VAT, VAT on parts & services, plus all the so call congestion charges, low emission charges & car parking charges.
I love to know where all this cash is going, because it certainly isn't on the bloody roads!

You got lucky. I’ve had the same as you describe and ended up bending an ‘83 BMW snowflake rear wheel while driving on a Fort Hunter Liggett road in the mid 80s.

ILLF8ED said:

You got lucky. I’ve had the same as you describe and ended up bending an ‘83 BMW snowflake rear wheel while driving on a Fort Hunter Liggett road in the mid 80s.

Click to expand...

Was that an alloy rim or spoked? Spokes are supposed to be better for impacts than alloy....just ask any dirt bike rider.

Matchless said:

Happy to hear the bike is undamaged. It would seem that Canadian roads are just as shit as the roads here in England. It really pisses me off when I think about how much tax we pay for such poor roads. We pay a yearly vehicle excise duty, insurance premium tax of 12%, fuel duty, currently around 55% to which is added 20% VAT, VAT on parts & services, plus all the so call congestion charges, low emission charges & car parking charges.
I love to know where all this cash is going, because it certainly isn't on the bloody roads!

Click to expand...

This patch I hit, I went past it a few weeks prior. There was warning signage and even a cordoned off area near the road edge where they were replacing material. That was all gone when I went over it this last time. Just appeared as a freshly patched section, near the inside apex of a light bend on a highway over pass. Must have had an abrupt edge where I hit it.

Tornado said:

This patch I hit, I went past it a few weeks prior. There was warning signage and even a cordoned off area near the road edge where they were replacing material. That was all gone when I went over it this last time. Just appeared as a freshly patched section, near the inside apex of a light bend on a highway over pass. Must have had an abrupt edge where I hit it.

Click to expand...

More rain means more road damage. Warm air carries more moisture. Change is always happening and we must adjust. Politicians are not ever really movers and shakers, so often do not really know much other than they have neen told
Water is not compressible - when a truck runs over a puddle, water gets pushed into cracks then lifts the bitumen.

acotrel said:

More rain means more road damage. Warm air carries more moisture. Change is always happening and we must adjust. Politicians are not ever really movers and shakers, so often do not really know much other than they have neen told
Water is not compressible - when a truck runs over a puddle, water gets pushed into cracks then lifts the bitumen.

Click to expand...

The roads in the town in which I live in Australia, are now a real mess. Even though a huge effort is made to repair them.
Climate change seems to be a no-win event. Nearly every regional town in Australia is built on a flood-plain. When silt gets wet, it expands and walls and roads move, and crack.

Matchless said:

Happy to hear the bike is undamaged. It would seem that Canadian roads are just as shit as the roads here in England. It really pisses me off when I think about how much tax we pay for such poor roads. We pay a yearly vehicle excise duty, insurance premium tax of 12%, fuel duty, currently around 55% to which is added 20% VAT, VAT on parts & services, plus all the so call congestion charges, low emission charges & car parking charges.
I love to know where all this cash is going, because it certainly isn't on the bloody roads!

Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. The whole place is falling apart, and in many ways. A cyclist died recently when his front wheel jammed in a crack in the road (near Nateby).
I seem to remember the tax disc charge was known as the 'Road Fund Licence'.
Right....
I guess calling it Vehicle Excise Duty removes any pretence that it goes to funding motoring in our Sceptred Isle.
I've yet to have the pleasure of riding on Canadian roads, but my experience of the Oregon mountain roads was good.
Midwest maybe slightly less so, but given the temperature range the roads have to deal with it's not surprising.

Matchless said:

Happy to hear the bike is undamaged. It would seem that Canadian roads are just as shit as the roads here in England. It really pisses me off when I think about how much tax we pay for such poor roads. We pay a yearly vehicle excise duty, insurance premium tax of 12%, fuel duty, currently around 55% to which is added 20% VAT, VAT on parts & services, plus all the so call congestion charges, low emission charges & car parking charges.
I love to know where all this cash is going, because it certainly isn't on the bloody roads!

Click to expand...

The politicians have to take their cut first, they go into office broke and after 2 years they are multimillionaires.

Tornado said:

Was that an alloy rim or spoked? Spokes are supposed to be better for impacts than alloy....just ask any dirt bike rider.

Click to expand...

1983 bmw r100rs alloy wheel. You’re right the r100gs had wire wheels. My stable in 1986.

Asked my X Ray technician what she most dealt with .
Bicycles falling into streetcar tracks .
People falling forwards and using/breaking their wrists as they fall forwards .
As per motorcycles , steel rims are much more resilient , so I stick to them , also steel spokes , not stainless .

W

ILLF8ED said:

1983 bmw r100rs alloy wheel. You’re right the r100gs had wire wheels. My stable in 1986.View attachment 108729

Click to expand...

What a nice stable!
How did the 860 GTS compare to the commando?

Alan L said:

W

What a nice stable!
How did the 860 GTS compare to the commando?

Click to expand...

About even up on acceleration, but the 860 felt heavier. The Ducati could do 60mph in any of the five gears!

Torontonian said:

Asked my X Ray technician what she most dealt with .
Bicycles falling into streetcar tracks .
People falling forwards and using/breaking their wrists as they fall forwards .
As per motorcycles , steel rims are much more resilient , so I stick to them , also steel spokes , not stainless .

Click to expand...

I had Buchanan polished stainless spokes laced to my Dunlop rims in 1998. 25 years and over 45,000 miles later they are doing well and never needed trueing. However I have not hit anything like that hole in the road at Fort Hunter Leggett.

Here in Canada you have a week to file a report of damages to your vehicle due to pot holes or lousy maintenance of the roads . If the judge rules in your favor you can be awarded money for new replacement wheels .

Similar in the UK, no 1 week deadline, but the road authority (usually county council) need to have been aware of the hole and failed to make timely repair.

Back at Willow springs raceway we were having 40 MPH gusts. Going over the hill on turn 6, hanging off the bike, I decided to slow down just to be safe. Even so the wind caught me and blew me to the edge of the track where I hit a deep pothole that bent both rims. I was ass over head doing a hand stand on the clipons. I knew something was seriously wrong when I couldn't see the horizon so I decided to bail. I came down hard on my shoulder (bruised collar bone) and was sliding on my back at speed. I didn't want to start tumbling, slapping my arms and legs, breaking bones on the tarmac, so I went spread eagle with my helmet grinding away on the pavement. It was downhill and I seemed to slide forever. I had to move around because my leathers were burning through here and there. My friend Mic Ofield came up behind me and was barely able to keep from running over me. When I finally came to a stop in the middle of the track I sat up disgusted and crawled/crab walked to the side. When I took off my gloves and helmet - my gloves blew away. Fortunately the bike stayed on its side and damage was slight. Photo is me in the same turn on a better day.



Below you can see a flat spot on the points cover from that get off on a later monoshock version.