I learned much of what I know from some pretty experienced touring riders. A part of riding in the Hampton Roads area is getting stuck in traffic, and so it was I found myself stuck on Saturday afternoon. They closed the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel heading west and another bridge in the area, so the only way over the water was the Monitor Merrimac Bridge (MMBT so named for the Civil War Iron clad Battle the happen in the waters surrounding the bridge site).
There were a couple young guys who were riding along and they quickly noted that I was dog paddling the Busa. I was told that if you are stuck in traffic, save the clutch by pushing the bike along on flat road and letting it roll on an incline. This will keep heat down and reduce a lot of wear on the clutch. It also saves your left wrist, which was particularly important given mine is looking like it’s going to need surgery. There was a guy on a Ducati who was ringing the clutch out and sure enough he was stopped about 2 miles up pointing to his clutch and waving his hands. Hopefully it will bite again when it cools down but I think he might be in for a truck ride home.
I followed traffic until I started to feel like I wasn’t controlling the heat. When this happens your body starts to get hot, it feels like heat is coming off you. It’s easy to have heat stroke sneak up on you, I always carry a small bottle of water in my tank bag and I drank that. But the temp was nearing 100 on the highway and we were all dressed in black riding gear. I finally told everyone it was time to get out of there.
Riding up the shoulder is always dangerous but it is especially so when people have been stuck in traffic for hours. I told everyone to put on flashers and take it slow. We made it to the front of the line of traffic right at the entrance to the MMBT only to watch a car burst into flames! This stopped all lines of traffic, again. But while we were stopped I had everyone check their wheels. We had run through about 10 miles of shoulder trash and it’s easy to pick up something. Sure enough one of the guys had a bolt in the tire. After looking at the damage, he decided to nurse the tire home (about 10 more miles).
It’s amazing because experienced guys tell you all these precautions and they all seem like a lot of “over-doing it†rules. But they can save your life and the careful rider has the longest riding career. If I hadn’t told that guy to check his tire he might have found out the hard way that there was a problem.
I was thinking as I rode home that my motorcycling mentors may have saved all of us from a really bad day today.
There were a couple young guys who were riding along and they quickly noted that I was dog paddling the Busa. I was told that if you are stuck in traffic, save the clutch by pushing the bike along on flat road and letting it roll on an incline. This will keep heat down and reduce a lot of wear on the clutch. It also saves your left wrist, which was particularly important given mine is looking like it’s going to need surgery. There was a guy on a Ducati who was ringing the clutch out and sure enough he was stopped about 2 miles up pointing to his clutch and waving his hands. Hopefully it will bite again when it cools down but I think he might be in for a truck ride home.
I followed traffic until I started to feel like I wasn’t controlling the heat. When this happens your body starts to get hot, it feels like heat is coming off you. It’s easy to have heat stroke sneak up on you, I always carry a small bottle of water in my tank bag and I drank that. But the temp was nearing 100 on the highway and we were all dressed in black riding gear. I finally told everyone it was time to get out of there.
Riding up the shoulder is always dangerous but it is especially so when people have been stuck in traffic for hours. I told everyone to put on flashers and take it slow. We made it to the front of the line of traffic right at the entrance to the MMBT only to watch a car burst into flames! This stopped all lines of traffic, again. But while we were stopped I had everyone check their wheels. We had run through about 10 miles of shoulder trash and it’s easy to pick up something. Sure enough one of the guys had a bolt in the tire. After looking at the damage, he decided to nurse the tire home (about 10 more miles).
It’s amazing because experienced guys tell you all these precautions and they all seem like a lot of “over-doing it†rules. But they can save your life and the careful rider has the longest riding career. If I hadn’t told that guy to check his tire he might have found out the hard way that there was a problem.
I was thinking as I rode home that my motorcycling mentors may have saved all of us from a really bad day today.
