This article was written by Daniel Schlender which was posted on the VF/VFR List. He has graciously allowed me to post it here. Perhaps Daniel's experience and reflections on road safety might be as useful to others as it has to me.
An Introduction to Road Hazards & Road Safety
Like most riders I love the windy twisty roads that lets me use a motorcycle 's handling ability. These roads usually show up as secondary roads and often are not even numbered on State Highway maps. In my part of the country they are often winding river roads or mountain roads. While I truly love riding these types of roads, what I really don't like is the occurrence of sand or sand and gravel sometimes found in the roadway. In many accounts of single motorcycle accidents in non-urban settings I find sand or gravel is often mentioned as an element contributing to the accident. I find it a common occurrence and common enough that I've studied the conditions so that I can attempt to predict when and where I may find it. It has been helpful.
Factors Contributing to Road Hazards
There are a number of factors that contribute to a nasty road. But to generalize, I can expect to find sandy material in a corner if (1) the corner is less than 30 mph, (2) a right hand corner, (3) has little or no paved shoulder, (4) and a sandy or gravel/sandy aggregate material used along the shoulder of the roadway.
There are a number of other variables. Generally the narrower the roadway and the absence of a paved shoulder (or a narrow paved shoulder less than 12" wide) along a sharp right hander should be a warning sign. Sand gets deposited in the roadway from longer wheelbase vehicles or vehicles pulling a trailer, boat or whatever, that 'cut' the inside of a right corner and the rearmost tires will drag the shoulder material on the roadway. Repeated events like this results in the accumulation of sand or sand and gravel in that lane.
The tighter the corner the greater the chance this has of occurring. Follow behind a vehicle pulling a boat trailer and watch how they take a sharp right hand corner. The riding technique I use when faced with such conditions is similar to what I employ with Spring mountain road riding. You can expect lots of sand in the mountain roadways in the Spring (or Winter) due to active roadway sanding. I employ a technique of NOT carving the corner and instead choosing the right or left vehicle tire line and ride it consistently through the corner.
Why? Because the sandy material usually gets concentrated in the center of the travel lane, something perhaps having to do with the vortex created by repeated passage of motor vehicles. A traditional motorcycle carve of a corner will cross this centerline portion of the travel lane twice. Which is where most of the sand will lie and by following a tire line from 4 wheeled vehicles you avoid this.
And of course if I unexpectedly find myself riding on sand I don't even think about using the brakes.
Again, some of the key variables that influence sand in a corner.
- Direction of the corner
- Width of the roadway
- Lack of, or little paved shoulder, and
- Composition of the shoulder material.
I always study the shoulder material of the area I'm riding in. If you have a heavier loamy soil with herbaceous vegetation growing up to the pavement edge there is less chance of soil material being brought up on the roadway. A sandy type of material or sandy/gravel is worse. Many times a light accumulation of fine sand in the centerline of the roadway is almost visually perceptible. Stop sometime off of a corner I have described and kneel on the roadway and feel the sand, it's often there, you just may not see it traveling at speed. If I expect some degree of sand in the roadway I always back off on my corner aggressiveness as I equate it to riding on small ball bearings.
Another variable is the amount of rainfall an area receives, the rainfall will often tend to wash this accumulation of material away. Other obvious visual clues and warning signs are any unpaved pull-offs along any corner and any unpaved road/driveway intersections along the corner. Vehicles using these pulloffs or intersections can carry sand and gravel into the roadway.
I also watch for any excavation or earth moving work being done in the vicinity. Recently I was riding along a country road and noticed some ditch shaping work that had been done along one side of the roadway evidenced by the exposed soil of the ditch. I was thinking to myself what good work they had done since there was absolutely no soil on the roadway. But I still didn't trust 'em. As I approached a corner I dropped my speed slower than normal for the corner and sure enough, the last part of the corner was totally covered with sand and dirt. It completely covered the roadway. They were walking their heavy equipment across the roadway at this point to work on the other side. It could have been disastrous if I was traveling at my normal rate of speed for the curvature of the corner.
I keep aware of any earth disturbing construction adjacent the roadway I'm riding and treat it warily. It could be as simple as excavation for building sites on both sides of the road; quite often they simply cross the roadway with the equipment, leaving behind a trail of sand and soil.
Watch for Falling Rocks
Another item, particularly in mountain country is rocks or boulders in the roadway. Actually I pretty much ignore signs that say, "watch for falling rocks" or the like. On the other hand I ride extremely cautiously following a rainfall anywhere I'm adjacent to a steep, un-vegetated road cut bank of say ten feet or greater, regardless of the lack of a warning sign. It is the rainfall that will loosen up smaller soil particles that are holding the rocks and boulders in place. Once this binding material is washed away, down come the rocks, stones, or boulders. The heavier the rain the more likely you'll find 'em. How long after a rain you still need to be cautious is a judgement call. If there was a rain during the night, and you are riding the next morning, even mid-morning, you may well be riding before the road maintenance crew has gotten to that particular stretch of road.
On twisty mountain or river canyon roads sometimes you don't get much advance visual warning...I simply slow it down a bit. Fundamentally it comes down to being aware of your surrounding environment and interpreting those conditions relative to motorcycle riding safety. It holds true as much in sparsely populated rural situations as it does in congested urban situations.
Daniel concluded his post with a note to the List that if this helped one rider avoid an accident...
Ride Safe.
Daniel Schlender
'98 VFR800FI
