Re: Tar Snakes and a R1200RT

----- "Mike Troutman" <mike@...> wrote:

>.  I'm not
> sure
> why these new snakes are so slippery compared to the ones I have seen
> on
> the road for years.  Very uncomfortable to ride on.

Oh they are uncomfortable. The reason new ones are “slipperier” then old ones is because they are not slippery, at least not in the usual way. The outside of the snakes is pliable, rubbery and not slippery at all BUT it is a flexible skin over a liquid center, kinda like a partially filled water balloon. When your tire hits the skin the tire does not slip on the skin, but the skin slides over its own interior liquid. (In the case of a new one, like the ones you encountered, you may rupture the still thin skin creating a real slide.) As the interior _slowly_ cures there is less interior fluid for the skin to slide on so there is less movement until the whole thing is finally solid, perhaps a year or so later.
(If you go up to one on a hot day and press on it with your foot while pushing your foot forward you should see what I mean. Just remember the damn thing is full of liquid tar so don’t get it on your shoe.)
The cure IMHO is to put one hell of a lot less tar on the cracks, less tar equals less cure time and less interior volume for the skin to slide on, just tell the road crews I said so...

John.

You might, if a snake is in a very dangerous area, be able to go to it and deliberately break the skin allowing air to get to the interior liquid so it can dry. I expect _if_ this works at all, to require repeating several times before the entire center is cured. And I _know_ it would be hard to explain to anyone who saw you…
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