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Pot Holes

P

Polishgonewild

Cant Wait To Get My Ninja
Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Location
Daly City
Moto(s)
Dont Have One YET
Name
Phil S.
Since Im new to ridin. I was wondering how does everyone does with potholes on the freeway.

When your drivin maybe 55MPH+ and go over a pothole what happens?

Are bikes built to the point where the suspension just represses it and you just feel a bump or can it actually send you flyin?
 
You should have the balls of your feet on the footpegs. At a split-second's notice you'll be able to put weight on the pegs, using your legs to help act as a second suspension. Generally speaking a bike's suspension can handle most holes on the freeway, but weighting the pegs still helps dramatically.

I can certainly feel every bump better on my bike than in my car.
 
you really only have to be worried about these potholes

pothole.JPG



pay attention scan ahead and AVOID... if youre going so fast that you cant react in time to avoid... SLOW DOWN

for the most part you'll damage your rim before you fly over your bars... I am sure the :nerd will come up with a physics equation that states how deep and wide the hole needs to be but... IMHO its gotta be pretty big
 
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I speed up and aim right for it! No, but seriously, you should have enough time to see the pothole and avoid it. And if you can't see it because of a car in front of you blocks the view, then you are following too close. Speed and distance are KEY.
 
akacastle said:
I speed up and aim right for it! No, but seriously, you should have enough time to see the pothole and avoid it. And if you can't see it because of a car in front of you blocks the view, then you are following too close. Speed and distance are KEY.
Click to expand...

Like in a turn, keep the throttle open, even slightly. You want the weight to be on the back tire, not the front tire when you're going over a pothole.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the thinking is that keeping the front light allows the steering to be controlled more, while the back tire with its larger width can soak up the bumps more anyways :ride

If you chop the throttle and the bike's weight shifts forward to your front tire right before the pothole, it could do some pretty nasty things, depending on the degree of the pothole.
 
Never seen anything on a freeway that I'd call a pot hole.

Try riding China Grade... thats a road that'll get both tires in the air :p.
 
One of my professors hit a pothole on the freeway that was 8" deep. It smashed his rims badly enough to take out both tires. He did not go down. At speed, the stabilizing gyroscopic forces of the wheels are considerable (be on the gas, not the brakes, on impact), but it's probably still pretty miraculous he came out of that in one piece.
 
Gnarly Cranium said:
One of my professors hit a pothole on the freeway that was 8" deep. It smashed his rims badly enough to take out both tires. He did not go down. At speed, the stabilizing gyroscopic forces of the wheels are considerable (be on the gas, not the brakes, on impact), but it's probably still pretty miraculous he came out of that in one piece.
Click to expand...
holy shit, that is one huge pothole. what freeway?

My dad had a railroad tie kicked out in front of him while lanesplitting on his old R75/6 and somehow kept it up. It was angled too.
 
I hit one on an off ramp doing about 50. Want to see the $800 bill for fixing my rims? :mad The front could be straightened, but the rear had to be replaced.

definitely be on the gas if you hit a deep one.
 
Polishgonewild said:
Since Im new to ridin. I was wondering how does everyone does with potholes on the freeway.

When your drivin maybe 55MPH+ and go over a pothole what happens?

Are bikes built to the point where the suspension just represses it and you just feel a bump or can it actually send you flyin?
Click to expand...

First item is, if you have no control over where your bike is going... You have major problems, might not even get to the freeway.

The desireable thing is, look at where your going, pick the clean line and open space. Put your bike there. (don't hit the Pot Hole)

Second item is not all bikes are the same. Some have bargain basement suspension, some (because the owner knew it was worth paying for) have suspension that works.

So it will depend on your bikes design and features.

Dirt bike riders hit bumps, some major bumps, some jumps the size of homes. It's also a matter of learning how to ride a bike. That's the incentive.
 
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