Caution: EUC “Hidden” Road Hazards

[SeanNC]

EUCs give us the amazing sensation of flying.  However, this experience is dependent on an electronic machine working perfectly in conjunction with maintaining a very small but VERY important area of contact with earth.  Because of the latter, certain road and surface hazards that are a nuisance for 2 or 4 wheels becomes deadly with only 1 wheel.  As a newer rider, I wanted to share some of my recent experiences with other newer riders. 

Potholes with water / deeper than expected:  self-explanatory.

Sinkholes in grass:  Like booby trapped potholes but without the subsequent road rash. 

Random gravel rock or sand:  Rude awakening to a peaceful slalom on back roads.   

Wet paint lines (e.g. marking off bike lanes):  This can be unnerving on 2 wheels and can be deadly on 1 (especially if accelerating or braking).  It doesn’t have to be raining.  It could be morning dew or sea mist (I live by the beach). 

Unexpected gusty winds: Together with wet paint lines on the road makes a good 1-2 punch. 

 I hope others can chime in with any of their own experiences with “hidden” hazards.  It’s always less painful to learn from others’ misfortunes. 

[erk1024]

1 hour ago, SeanNC said:

Sinkholes in grass:  Like booby trapped potholes but without the subsequent road rash. 

There are lots of things that can hide in grass:

• Sand or mud that will bog down the wheel
• Sprinklers
• The grass can get the wheel wet and slippery
• Transitioning from grass to pavement can be a problem as the grass hides the true height of the lip of the cement you're trying to climb up onto.

There are a couple more interesting hazards:

Drawbridge grates: We have draw bridges and the road surface is actually a metal grate with diagonal lines in it. Riding on it is weird and unsettling. The wheel gets pulled in different directions.

Night Riding: If you ride with a headlamp, then the light is coming from the same direction as you are looking. The result is you don't see shadows and there are depth cue's that are missing. You hit unseen bumps and features as you ride.

I also think an easy way to fall is to clip a pedal on some obstacle. That turns the wheel sideways hard, and it's an instant crash. I had this happen to me two weekends ago. There were some iron posts leading to a bike lane. The gap was narrow and I just grazed one, and that was enough to eject me from the wheel. First crash in a really long time--like nine months.

Edited January 20, 2020 by erk1024

[SeanNC]

3 hours ago, erk1024 said:

There are lots of things that can hide in grass:

• Sand or mud that will bog down the wheel
• Sprinklers
• The grass can get the wheel wet and slippery
• Transitioning from grass to pavement can be a problem as the grass hides the true height of the lip of the cement you're trying to climb up onto.

There are a couple more interesting hazards:

Drawbridge grates: We have draw bridges and the road surface is actually a metal grate with diagonal lines in it. Riding on it is weird and unsettling. The wheel gets pulled in different directions.

Night Riding: If you ride with a headlamp, then the light is coming from the same direction as you are looking. The result is you don't see shadows and there are depth cue's that are missing. You hit unseen bumps and features as you ride.

I also think an easy way to fall is to clip a pedal on some obstacle. That turns the wheel sideways hard, and it's an instant crash. I had this happen to me two weekends ago. There were some iron posts leading to a bike lane. The gap was narrow and I just grazed one, and that was enough to eject me from the wheel. First crash in a really long time--like nine months.

Thanks for your riding pearls.  I haven't had the honor of going over drawbridge grates yet, but we have our share of those.  Just going over them on a sport bike was weird, especially when traffic was bearing down on you.  I wanted to add something about night riding since I do quite a bit of that on weeknights.    

Night Riding on dark roads:  At night I used to wear a double headlamp for illumination when riding my Glide 3 because its light was not very bright.  The light on my 16x is quite bright but obviously only points straight ahead.  When making a tight turn on a dark road, I couldn't see what I was turning into which was a bit spooky.  I started wearing a single headlamp mainly for turning which really helps.