First time getoff - street sand

Hey ADV,

Im not too proud to say, today i had my first getoff. I've been riding since July last year, and today on a tour of RI it was spectacular riding. I did a maybe 140 mile ride from NW RI to Watch Hill, and back. Just about 150 yards from my home I made my last turn, at maybe 5mph, and went down. Sand. lots of it. Owch, get this bike off my right leg. A Audi driver comes by and lifts the bike off me. She is ok. I am OK. I stand up, Damnit, I feel stupid. Looks at sand, stupid. Must of cut the wheel then throttle on sand. I read alot here over the long winter. I dont ride without my gear. Today I had kevlar lined pants with knee armor. SAFE. ATGATT. Part of me feels like I got too comfortable, part me says it's just how it goes. Knowledge without injury, a good day.

I went back to see the corner today, I totally should have avoided this, but I learned something, so theres that. Bring on the street sweepers...

Glad you are not hurt! Oh, how we dare to ride our New England roads in the Spring!

Its a good idea to study the road surface in turns, or its going to happen again.

This is not something that should ever happen.

Agreed.

Happy to hear you made it without to much injury. We riders who frequent these northern states have do deal with a lot of street sand and such. It takes weeks of great weather before most of it is pushed or swept up here in Indiana.

Also watch out for any road construction sites and chip/seal operations gone bad. I got busted up on December 27th by a pile of chip/seal left in the driving lanes. I mean a pile of it, and I had just gotten off a gravel forest road a few miles back, but this junk on asphalt is the pits.

It was an instant 30 MPH low side for me, off I flew into the ditch and the bike slid across the road. Busted clavicle, and lost a new riding jacket and possibly a helmet. ATGATT saved my head from a bad blow. Still not riding due to injury. Grrrr!

Don't stop looking for danger until you are in the garage.

Don't forget the pot holes, some the size of small cars.

People that started riding in the dirt always study the surface they ride on, as there are roots, ruts, rocks, sand patches, mud holes, etc.
One second of looking away can and often does end badly.
You can relax a little on the street, but not in turns!

Sand in turns scares the shit outta me.

You think sand is bad, check out an oil spill!

Or horse sh!t.
Common enough road hazard on quaint country roads in and around Amish country.

To the OP: Were those Motoport pants you were wearing? I'm surprised to see the abrasion on your knee. Did the pants wear through?

In his post he said he was wearing kevlar lined pants.

I can usually see an oil spill in time to deal with it. However, the natural sand around here seems to blend in perfectly with asphalt roads that have a few year's age on them and it's difficult to tell whether it's just a little bit of sand or an ass-busting amount of sand. Thus, I usually poke cautiously around intersection corners.

The pants are Resurgence Gear Kevlar with removable padding (THIS). MY guess is the thin bit of rash is just my skin against the pad or the kevlar, these pants are spectacular for my work commute. I'm sad that the outer cotton is ripped, prob not OK for work anymore, but the rest is fine, so I'll have em patched up. They wernt cheap, and damn hard to find in USA. I've got a dealer in Toronto that gets me them for ~$200. Still cheaper than a ride in the ambulance, which is what I most likley would have needed had I not had the pads in.

I've been riding since it happend, but I havent taken *that* turn again yet. I walked down there the next day and stood looking at the marks and trying to figure out what happnend. Just a lapse of judgement, stupid.

Sand sucks on the street.

Common, man, cow shit (which we see a lot of on open range land out here) is MUCH worse than horse shit! [Now we can have a which kind of shit is worse debate!]

Totally agree, cow shit is worse.
Just less likely to be on the road hereabouts. Around here the cows are all fenced by and large, but the horses are a primary vehicle (and they seem to favor the race line when making a deposit).

Ha ha.... Are you saying my line is "cow shite?" On a transit at Black River Stages, there was a stretch of road that had split a farmers land, he had to herd the cows across the street. I remember very well not to bust my ass on the part of the transit.:huh

Is it just me or does it seem like sand is taking out a lot of people this spring? A possible lingering consequence of all the sand and salt we dumped on the roads over this especially cold winter. My dad nearly dumped on a patch of sand/salt/rocks in the middle of a T-junction, then he took me there a week later and I nearly dumped in the same exact spot. It's the kind of thing that you really don't see until you're right on top of it.

The roads here in PA were coated with TONS of this shit this year because of the winter we had. If you ride year round up here, you get used to constantly looking for the stuff. Glad you are ok op.

All over Maryland still. And nasty 4 inch deep 6 inch wide and 5 or six feet long pot holes. I am not exaggerating. Especially on asphalt between lanes on the white stripe. I guess it is the lanes when the put the asphalt down. You really have to keep your eyes peeled this time of year.