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Tar Snakes.....WTH!!!!!

FZ1riderNY

FZ1riderNY

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Port Chester, NY
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A week and a half ago some poor rider lost his life on the Bronx River Parkway when he was traveling southbound at the exit near my job. It's an uphill sweeping righthander and he lost control, hit the cement lane divider, and wound up over the divider on the northbound lane where a motorist ran him over, killing him instantly. They had the parkway closed for most of the morning causing havoc on people going to work.

I initially thought that he had to be moving pretty fast because I take that turn every single day going home and you could hit it at a pretty good clip with no problems at all. Well I have a new theory on what happened after coming home today. I almost always hit that turn in the middle lane. Most sportbike riders down by me are always in the left lane for some unknown reason. Today there was a "snail" in the center lane so I promptly moved to the left before the turn running about 55mph. I come to the crest of the turn and all the sudden my front end is shaking violently! How I maintained control is beyond me as the bike shot unexpectedly about a foot to the left. It scared the ever living crap out of me! Now I'm thinking "flat tire", but as I come off the turn, everything is normal again.........until I travel another 100 feet where again the front is all over the place. Then I notice whats happening. They have now put down these "raised tar strips" all over the left lane! Every time I hit one the front wheel goes nuts!

Now I'm wondering if this poor guy hit that same patch, lost control, and hit the wall, sending him over to the other lanes. I'm thinking to call the D.O.T. and make a complaint since this is super dangerous to any motorcyclist traveling even at the speed limit as I was today.

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm really curious.
 
Yes, it has happened to me as well Billy. NH is notoriously loaded with them so we're always on the ready for hitting them. Always a skid-mark both on the road and in the shorts! But, yes, this could be EXACTLY what happened to the guy especially if those are fresh snakes. Might be a good time to rally the media on the use of these as they are and always have been dangerous as hell to motorcyclists!
 
That had to be the first time that I ever had the misfortune of hitting one of them. I have seen them before but probably never noticed because they were well worn. These were raised enough and shiny that you could easily see them coming but on that particular turn, it's cresting at the apex so you have no visual whatsoever until it's too late. I am going to call 311 tomorrow during work hours and make a complaint and see what happens. They MUST know that it's dangerous to have these strips on the road and should be liable for accidents and or deaths caused by them.
 
During the East Coast Gather 2 years ago... I was leading the group on a ride up a local run road... this is a road you can really haul some ass on... I'm out front... moving along briskly... when all of the sudden, I hit a wall of water... it started pouring out of nowhere.. it felt like I ran into a waterfall....

at that exact second, I was leaned over doing somewhere in the neighborhood of jail-able offense speed... I hit a tar snake with the front tire... and LOST the front end... the bars were wagging back and forth in my hands... with a split second to react, I went loose on the bars and mashed the rear brake for everything it was worth, which swung the ass end of the bike around to meet the front...

It was one of those deals, that 2 miles later, I couldn't believe I wasn't lying on the pavement... I got lucky as hell... and have no idea how I did it / why it worked...

That said... tar snakes scare the hell out of me.
 
va_rider said:
During the East Coast Gather 2 years ago... I was leading the group on a ride up a local run road... this is a road you can really haul some ass on... I'm out front... moving along briskly... when all of the sudden, I hit a wall of water... it started pouring out of nowhere.. it felt like I ran into a waterfall....

at that exact second, I was leaned over doing somewhere in the neighborhood of jail-able offense speed... I hit a tar snake with the front tire... and LOST the front end... the bars were wagging back and forth in my hands... with a split second to react, I went loose on the bars and mashed the rear brake for everything it was worth, which swung the ass end of the bike around to meet the front...

It was one of those deals, that 2 miles later, I couldn't believe I wasn't lying on the pavement... I got lucky as hell... and have no idea how I did it / why it worked...

That said... tar snakes scare the hell out of me.
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It's funny you mention that because I believe one of the reasons why I didn't go down was because I had such a light grip on the bars. I could see if someone tries to wrestle the bike, you'd be on the pavement really quick. The scary part of the whole ordeal wasn't the unexpected head shake but the violent launch to the left. I can only explain it as if you were to hit a patch of ice while leaned over and losing the front end. It took me the whole 10 minute ride home to recover from the adrenaline rush it gave me. No more left lane for me in that stretch of roadway. This was what I'm sure I looked like for the entire ride home! :eek5:
 
I forgot about the wet ones. A guy had a wreck when he hit one in the rain. I don't remember the circumstances but he's a MSF instructor and had never seen them before. He hit and it caused him to high side. The bike was totaled.

Good luck on calling and complaining. I believe they do know the havoc they wreak but use them anyway just to get motorcyclists to slow down. You'd be better off checking to see how they are laid and making sure they're done correctly. There's a right way and a wrong way--something about them parallel rather than vertical. I've seen them many different ways. The argument is that it's more economical to use the tar than repaving the road.

On 60S leaving suches going towards Dahlonega, once you cross the county line, the road is covered in them. In warm weather, I go below the speed limit on that stretch -- if I haven't avoided it all together. They're not so thick here as to disturb the front tire but they are very slick!
 
theWolfTamer said:
I forgot about the wet ones. A guy had a wreck when he hit one in the rain. I don't remember the circumstances but he's a MSF instructor and had never seen them before. He hit and it caused him to high side. The bike was totaled.

Good luck on calling and complaining. I believe they do know the havoc they wreak but use them anyway just to get motorcyclists to slow down. You'd be better off checking to see how they are laid and making sure they're done correctly. There's a right way and a wrong way--something about them parallel rather than vertical. I've seen them many different ways. The argument is that it's more economical to use the tar than repaving the road.

On 60S leaving suches going towards Dahlonega, once you cross the county line, the road is covered in them. In warm weather, I go below the speed limit on that stretch -- if I haven't avoided it all together. They're not so thick here as to disturb the front tire but they are very slick!
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Well, these are definitely parallel with the road which is why your contact with them is prolonged. That is what the dangerous part is. That, and the fact that I was only traveling 55 or less at the time I hit it. I'm only speculating as to what happened to the poor guy who lost his life but I am going to do a little investigating tomorrow on my way home from work. I can only imagine that if I jumped over almost a foot to the left at 55, if that guy was traveling faster, I could see how he ended up into the cement barrier which is only about 3-1/2 feet high, which would easily put him over to the oncoming lanes. I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow.
 
Those things are all over our area. I think Ohio is their breeding ground. The street our shop is on you cant go 50 feet with out hitting one, almost as scary as a teenager behind you texting in traffic.
 
FZ1riderNY said:
A week and a half ago some poor rider lost his life on the Bronx River Parkway when he was traveling southbound at the exit near my job. It's an uphill sweeping righthander and he lost control, hit the cement lane divider, and wound up over the divider on the northbound lane where a motorist ran him over, killing him instantly. They had the parkway closed for most of the morning causing havoc on people going to work.

I initially thought that he had to be moving pretty fast because I take that turn every single day going home and you could hit it at a pretty good clip with no problems at all. Well I have a new theory on what happened after coming home today. I almost always hit that turn in the middle lane. Most sportbike riders down by me are always in the left lane for some unknown reason. Today there was a "snail" in the center lane so I promptly moved to the left before the turn running about 55mph. I come to the crest of the turn and all the sudden my front end is shaking violently! How I maintained control is beyond me as the bike shot unexpectedly about a foot to the left. It scared the ever living crap out of me! Now I'm thinking "flat tire", but as I come off the turn, everything is normal again.........until I travel another 100 feet where again the front is all over the place. Then I notice whats happening. They have now put down these "raised tar strips" all over the left lane! Every time I hit one the front wheel goes nuts!

Now I'm wondering if this poor guy hit that same patch, lost control, and hit the wall, sending him over to the other lanes. I'm thinking to call the D.O.T. and make a complaint since this is super dangerous to any motorcyclist traveling even at the speed limit as I was today.

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm really curious.
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We have a lot of tar snakes up here. They are especially bad at the end of our road so if you're not careful on a very warm day, your front end can jump out on you. I've had it happen to me and it scares the hell out of me every time it happens, but there's no easy way to avoid them.
 
Hit them for the first time last year.. Now I go like a puss bag when I see those things. I just see lines of death in the road when those come into my sight. Makes me want to smash everyone who made them with a shovel. I would MUCH rather run through cracks in the road than those. At least cracks you have a fighting chance, vs those things the tires just slide till they hit normal pavement and sometimes that slide is too far.
 
Well, on today's ride home I rode the center lane and sure enough, right past the crest of the turn in the left lane is a "Tar Strip" about 10 to 15 feet long and 3 to 4 inches wide, running parallel with the lane just right of center. Once my suspicions where confirmed, I came home and made the call to 311 and filed a complaint. The guy was very sympathetic and assured me that he would file my complaint with the NYC DOT. I got his name and complaint number as well as an email confirmation.

At the end of the conversation he asked me if I felt it posed an immediate danger. I told him "of course" and he said he is supposed to patch me through to the 911 operator and have a three way call to report it so that they could send someone right away to fix the situation. The 911 guy was rude to say the least, asking me why I'm calling when it occured yesterday. I explained that I wanted to be sure before making the call so I waited to check it out again today. He then told me that I needed to be at the scene to make any complaint and promptly hung up the phone! So I'm there in silence saying "hello?", "hello?'. The 311 guy says "I think he hung up". I told him "thats NY for ya". He apologized and assured me that the report would be filed.

Whats even more strange is that I did a search for a MC Fatality on the parkway and found the story. The rider was part of a club for which they had the Facebook link. When I clicked on the link, there at the top was a plea for everyone to call 311 to file a complaint about the situation at that turn and that even though the cops said excessive speed caused the accident, they know that it's the road condition that caused it and that the city will never admit to it. Amazing!
 
i hit the squigglies before. dangerous stuff. reminds me of a place in boston i used to go when i used to visit my ex girlfriend in brookline. there's a spot where the green line (street car) goes straight and then turns left and you have to cross them and that shit is dangerous too especially because your tire sometimes wants to get caught right in the groove of the track. and as i said in a previous post, in my area there are a ton of roads with the biggest pot holes that i can remember there being from the tough winter we had. anyway, just be careful!!!!
 
Crazyjoe said:
I appreciate what you're saying Billy but when the thing is 10 to 15 ft long, my question is --- Why did you hit it? Avoid it -- it's really that simple.
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It wasn't possible Joe. As I said, I never ride that lane ever and it's on the downside of the crest of the hill which is blind to you as you come around. As soon as you come over the rise it's there waiting for you. Now that I know it's there it's simple to just avoid it but for as long as I have been riding home I never took the left lane because my entrance from work is a mere 1,000 feet before the hill. Most times I am in the right/center lanes but this particular day I had two slow pokes doing 35mph with faster traffic coming up soon. Thats the only reason I hit the left lane at all. From now on it's no problem.
 
FZ1riderNY said:
It wasn't possible Joe. As I said, I never ride that lane ever and it's on the downside of the crest of the hill which is blind to you as you come around. As soon as you come over the rise it's there waiting for you. Now that I know it's there it's simple to just avoid it but for as long as I have been riding home I never took the left lane because my entrance from work is a mere 1,000 feet before the hill. Most times I am in the right/center lanes but this particular day I had two slow pokes doing 35mph with faster traffic coming up soon. Thats the only reason I hit the left lane at all. From now on it's no problem.
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Sorry, missed that part about it being blind. That sucks --- fer sure. Tar snakes that are sporadic in direction to your travel are easier to go through as long as a person doesn't over react. Just be light on the bars and the bike will hook back up.
 
Crazyjoe said:
Sorry, missed that part about it being blind. That sucks --- fer sure. Tar snakes that are sporadic in direction to your travel are easier to go through as long as a person doesn't over react. Just be light on the bars and the bike will hook back up.
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I think thats what saved me from going down. I had such a light grip on the bars, she did her dance, and I was lucky to be upright when the music stopped. The guy two weeks back wasn't as lucky. He wound up over the knee-wall and was hit by a Northbound car and killed instantly.
 
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