Be aware of road conditions when you ride!
- Wet Pavement – When pavement is wet, you have less traction. It also brings up all the oil to the surface and makes the road even more slick.
- Pot holes – Pot holes can cause you to go off course, can damage your suspension, or even pop a tire. Pot holes are also a danger because when they are full of water you don’t know how deep they are. If you don’t pay attention and put your foot down in a deep pot hole, it can cause you drop your bike and/or break a leg or ankle.
- Tar Snakes – (These are when the road maintenance crews put tar into the cracks on the road as a temporary fix) – These tar snakes cause the road to be very uneven and can toss you around in your lane. When they get hot, they also get very slick and cause even more problems.
- Road Gators – (Tire tread from re-tread tires in roadway) – This can fly up and hit you. If you hit them, they can cause you to lose control. Also, road gators sometimes contain wires that can damage your tires.
- Grass clippings – These can be very slick and cause you to lose traction.
- Fresh oil and stone chips – The oil not only gets all over your bike, the rock chips fly around and hit you and other riders. These road conditions can be very slick! If they put lots of stone chips on top of the fresh oil, it can be like trying to ride in deep sand.
- Mud – In rural areas, we get large amounts of mud on roads especially around farm fields. Mud is slick when wet and very hard when dry and can cause you to go off course.
- Leaves – Leaves can be very slick and they can hide what is or is not under them.
- Animals – Alive, animals are unpredictable and dangerous. Slow down to give them time to decide where they are going. Dead animal carcasses on the roadway and laying in your path of travel can be a serious road hazard.
- Other items on road and in your path of travel – this can be trash, car parts, lumber, mattresses, glass, and boxes. These are just a few items I’ve seen on the road. These items, and more, can be a hazard and are better to avoid if possible.
