Tar Snakes and a R1200RT

[mtroutma]

Nearly lost it in my office park this morning.  Right hand turn in an
intersection at speed (35ish) I encounter a whole mess of tar snakes
zig-zagging across Conference Center Drive in Chantilly.  I am
accustomed to the whole bike sliding a bit on them, especially while in
a lean but this time the front tire jerked sideways as it lost traction,
then slammed my shoulder back up as the tire caught pavement.  Had the
road been wet, I am sure a face plant would have occurred.  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.

Other than that, a beautiful ride in.

Separate topic, I am considering selling my '97 VFR with 53k miles and
purchasing a new BMW R1200RT.  The VFR runs great and looks pretty good,
but it is now 12 years old with 10 of those in my garage.  The only
holdback n the BMW right now is that the dealerships are incredibly far
away for service, which will make night drops a real PITA.  AFAIK my
choices are Mortons in Fredericksburg, Bobs in Jessup or Battley in
Gaithersburg.  None of them are near Manassas.  What are other locals
doing for service?


--
___________________________________
Mike Troutman
   mike@...
   http://www.troutman.org/

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[LindaT.]

As to BMW dealerships, I lived in Springfield and always took my bike to
Morton's.  They are good guys and have loaner bikes for while you're in
service.

Good luck with the RT.  My '99 RT is the best fitting bike I've ever
ridden.  Somewhat less than stellar reliability, though.

LindaT.
www.CustomTankBags.com
some bikes
some memberships
West Park, FL

Mike Troutman wrote:

> Nearly lost it in my office park this morning.  Right hand turn in an
> intersection at speed (35ish) I encounter a whole mess of tar snakes
> zig-zagging across Conference Center Drive in Chantilly.  I am
> accustomed to the whole bike sliding a bit on them, especially while in
> a lean but this time the front tire jerked sideways as it lost traction,
> then slammed my shoulder back up as the tire caught pavement.  Had the
> road been wet, I am sure a face plant would have occurred.  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.
>
> Other than that, a beautiful ride in.
>
> Separate topic, I am considering selling my '97 VFR with 53k miles and
> purchasing a new BMW R1200RT.  The VFR runs great and looks pretty good,
> but it is now 12 years old with 10 of those in my garage.  The only
> holdback n the BMW right now is that the dealerships are incredibly far
> away for service, which will make night drops a real PITA.  AFAIK my
> choices are Mortons in Fredericksburg, Bobs in Jessup or Battley in
> Gaithersburg.  None of them are near Manassas.  What are other locals
> doing for service?
>
>

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[PenguinBiker-2]

----- "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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[Rob Keiser]

Mike,

First of.....BLASPHEMY!  ;)

Secondly...I know a lot of them do their own work.  I rode with some of the
local BMWBMW group yesterday as we crewed the Triathlon in DC...and it
sounds like someone hosts a Tech Day each month or so to knock a bunch of
things out.

As far as more advanced issues, I don't know.  Try checking out their forum
and see what they do.

Rob
'98 VFR800
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[Dave Yates]

Nearly lost it in my office park this morning.  Right hand turn in an
intersection at speed (35ish) I encounter a whole mess of tar snakes
zig-zagging across Conference Center Drive in Chantilly.  I am
accustomed to the whole bike sliding a bit on them, especially while in
a lean but this time the front tire jerked sideways as it lost traction,
then slammed my shoulder back up as the tire caught pavement.  Had the
road been wet, I am sure a face plant would have occurred.  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.

[Dave]  I wonder if all the rain is contributing to these not curing correctly?  

Other than that, a beautiful ride in.

Separate topic, I am considering selling my '97 VFR with 53k miles and
purchasing a new BMW R1200RT.  The VFR runs great and looks pretty good,
but it is now 12 years old with 10 of those in my garage.

[Dave]  I'll give you tree-fiddy for it ;-)

 The only holdback n the BMW right now is that the dealerships are incredibly far away for service, which will make night drops a real PITA.

[Dave]  Brand B... say no more.

  AFAIK my choices are Mortons in Fredericksburg, Bobs in Jessup or Battley in
Gaithersburg.  None of them are near Manassas.  What are other locals
doing for service?

[Dave] I have a friend with an r1150 who does most of his own work except the super intricate brand b proprietary stuff that likes to break at the least opportune time.  Do you have the service manual?  

The only brake failure I've ever had on a bike was on brand b - abs modulator quit.  

Dave



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