Had a get off on the 4th on my 01 Tiger. I was following a buddy through a gravel road in St. Charles county Mo. We went through 2 low water bridges that were dry and the 3rd was around a corner with 2 inches of flowing water coated in a nice thick layer or algae. The dip to the bridge was about 3 feet on the side that I approached. My rear tire started to slide slightly to the right for which I quickly overcorrected and my front end slid out leaving me laying on my left side covered in frog shit with a throbbing in my knee. I'd crossed plenty of low water bridges this year, mostly in the spring, when there was no algae growth and mostly on my DRZ, which isn't as top heavy as the tiger. Be particularly careful with these in late spring through fall as algae is as slick as wet ice.. :eek1 I was following a guy on an 800 Vulcan, so not expecting any gravel or off road so I'd opted for the draggin jean, older style and not something with knee armor. My knee was badly bruised, but nothing broken. Just enough to keep me off the dirt bike for the weekend and stop my running regimen for a while. The kevlar inside the older Draggin Jeans actually scraped up my knee. It did a great job of not wearing through, but the kevlar itself rubbing against a scraped knee felt like sandpaper on an open wound. The newer kevlar used in similar jeans is much softer to the touch. My Olympia mesh jacket did a great job of cushioning the blow to elbow and shoulder and my helmet never touched the concrete. Stopped off at an urgent care after lunch, just to get checked out.
Glad you will be alright. I can relate as it has happend to me also. I slid through the frog shit and some how managed to keep it up straight. I ended up in a ditch on the opposite side of the road though. Good recovery to you!
We get a few of those slick ones around here. I find the only safe way across is clutch in, handle bars straight, and not touching the brakes. It seems like almost any control input is enough to start things sliding. Like the second poster, I did a similar thing only on a recumbent tandem bicycle. We started sliding, did some heroic corrections and made it across the water, but we were aimed into a berm on the far side of the road and we dumped the bike. It least we didn't get wet, and we were about at zero speed so we didn't get hurt. What made it exciting, is that just a couple of minutes after that there was some huge vehicle coming the other way on the road. If he met us at the creek we would have went right into them.
Have a few up north of me that can be a pain. Ran across a group of guys on cruisers with one that had launched himself a good 30' clear of the crossing. Only guess is he hit the throttle hard and caught traction as the bike went down. Mostly ego bruises for him though.
Condolences on the biff, glad you're OK. We've had a very wet spring here in the Old Dominion and literally everything is coated with frog shit and slime, even my gravel driveway (really, there's slime and algae growing there, never seen that before). We have a wooden bridge across our creek that is slick as snot from all the algae and stuff on it when it's wet, so I get to practice these kinds of crossings almost daily. As posted above, it seems the best method is neutral everything, literally coasting across with zero input to anything. My wife holds her breath when we ride across two-up and that seems to help . I rode my XT225 across the frog shit-slimed rocks in our creek in late summer several years ago and had a spectacular get-off right in my own front yard, so I quit that silliness. My wife still laughs about it. I've got a new-to-me WR250R with nice new knobbies on it that's just begging for the chance to give it a try, maybe I'll test it out when she's not home some day . I grew up riding in New Mexico, then later as an adult in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming so all this slime in the creeks is new to me. Doug
They're not even safe on 3 wheels....:eek1 Came into the crossing a little hot...... hack tire slid over the side in about 2.5 feet of water....had a hell of a time getting it out as I had zero traction....
I LOVE ABS. There's a crossing I've done maybe twenty times, last time, a bit fuller, but not running fast. I thought "If I lose a little speed, my boots won't fill with water from the top", a faint touch on the brakes 'bzzzzz' feeling as the ABS kicks in ... ."O.K., NOT losing speed here", off the brakes and put up with wet feet in return for the bike not falling down. Even better, a couple of ducks surfed my bow wave and gave me an escort - one of those 'you had to be there moments'. Pete
Just had a coworker telling me about his weekend out with his sun on thier Honda CRFs that encountered the same situation. Its one of those things that in Hindsight you think oh yeah of course that moss is slick as shit, but at the time you pay no mind. Hope all is well with the bike.
Even better, a couple of ducks surfed my bow wave and gave me an escort - one of those 'you had to be there moments'. Now that sounds like a great water crossing! Where's the GoPro when you really need it? Doug
We have quite a few in the Hill Country here in Texas and they are very dangerous. They are slicker than ice with a layer of water.