Thanks Big Dawg. Yup, no need to ride on gravel if you don't need to.

Hey Papa -

Hey Papa -

Gravel and Roadies are like water and oil. I rode off of the fresh asphalt they were laying in my neighborhood the other day onto an unpaved section with just gravel on it, and the pucker factor went up 10 fold. I could feel the difference immediately. It was like riding on ice until I got back onto pavement.

Ya'll be careful now!!

Will do Tbone21. Oil and water - good analogy.

Thanks for the info that keeps us tuned up as to what can happen. I have hit N a few times without knowing it, every time I do I thing gee I shoulda played the lottery today.

On the oil, gravel,ice and water side, I have my opinion,

I ride all year long in Ohio,
Gravel, is really no problem, Long as you have power to the wheel (Not in N)
Water is no problem if you have OK tires and watch for gigantic puddles, I try to follow someone Else's tire tracks, trucks are best, they will wipe most of the water off the road and tune you up to what ahead. If you see a gigantic splash, that's your sign! LOL
Ice, It's hard to believe but Ice is not as bad as you think, you still really have traction just no quick moves. If you have to stop fast it's not going to happen and leaning the bike is not a good idea, you steer it.

Now, OIL, I have determined is the one thing that will render you strictly a passenger on your bike.
I hit Oil this June, It had rained the day before and some puddles were left over, I saw this.

And I was thinking it was just water brought onto the road by car tires, I stayed in left tire tracks to avoid it then I get the bright idea to take a shortcut over to the gas station and I make a right and it went down so fast my foot never even went out to catch it and both hands still on the grips. Exhaust burning my boot I quickly found a way to get out from under it (Thanks Yami Engine guards)

What you see in that picture is Oil from the hydraulic leak on the city garbage truck. That's oil folks and every stop was a puddle and it was drawn to the road nice and smooth by car tires who had traction on two other tires and never knew the difference.

Progressive paid in 2 days. $2600 in damage, I rode it away, and it was 100% in 3 days.

So watch your oil, you never know where that will be or how it got there. I was luck I had witnesses about the Oil and Progressive marked it up as a free accident.

We can get more street wise from people telling these seemingly unimportant riding events. Each one makes us more street weary.

I hear anti freeze is as bad as oil, I don't want to find out.

MC

Amen to that. I'm glad you came out ok MS1700. My scoot fell on the left side, so I didn't have the hot pipes to scramble out from under.

MS, Yes antifreeze is just as bad, a co-worker of mine came through a intersection late one night after a car had broke down there earlier with a busted radiator hose and had dumped out a spot as he described as only about a foot in diameter he hit it at about 35.mph on a sport bike.

He was skinned really bad on his elbows arms and hands. He never seen it due to the reflection of the lights his bike received around 4,000.00
of damage.

It took him weeks to heel.

PapaTom,
They say "all's well that ends well." I hope your back isn't messed up for too long. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not reading about any serious injury or worse. I've warned my wife to be prepared in case the bike starts to tip. She's a great rider and I hope she'd be as quick as your better half.
We will continue to go to extremes to avoid gravel. Fortunately, there's few of them in my general riding area.
Good luck to you both. Stay safe and be careful!!
Carmen

Thanks Carmen. The thing that really ticks me off is I wasn't even on the gravel yet. I just didn't realize I was a neutral after starting my u-turn while I was still on the paved part of the road. With the added weight of my wife, who isn't big, and her sitting fairly high on the bike, prevented me from uprighting the scoot in time. Live and learn, eh?

Back's still not 100%, but it's getting there. Thanks again everyone.

Wow more on oil.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijt9PMWFRaI