Roosterman
New Member
It was a beautiful cool weekend here in South Texas, so decided to take the S10 out for some dirt and gravel roads yesterday in the beautiful Hil Country area of our state. We've had a lot of rain this fall, and most of the creeks and rivers are running at a high to moderate capacity. Even on the dirt county roads, most of the creek crossings will be paved with concrete to fight erosion. But what the concrete does is develop a slime coating due to the constant water. This algae like growth is literally as slick as ice. You cannot even walk across it, so riding a bike even over a 6' wide 3" deep crossing is a very delicate process........ You can't walk the bike across, because well, you can't walk on it. And when riding, any application of brake or throttle is a recipe for disaster. The only way to do it is to use a medium speed approach, stay in the tire tracks made by the cars, use no engine or manual braking, maintain a light steady throttle, and just "glide" across...... and say a quick little prayer.
Well, for the third time this fall, I dumped my bike on one such crossing yesterday. It was a low-side 1 MPH fall; as the front end began to slide out, the rear followed, and once it started there was no way to save it. It's agony. So I just stepped off and let it go down........ I was riding solo and was on a very isolated and little used road, so I waited for 10 minutes but no one came along. In my MX boots there was absolutely zero traction to stand, much less lift the bike, which has to be done in a quick jerk before the tires slide sideways. So I had to revert to taking off my boots and rolling up my riding pants to get some barefoot grip, but it worked and I got it lifted after two attempts. But damn, the water was cold!
Anyway, like I said, this is the third time low-siding on slimy creek crossings with this bike. So my intention here is to praise the Altrider crash bars which do a superior job protecting the bike. The way they are designed, only the lower edges actually touch the ground, and it is at a high enough angle that the hand guards, grips, and levers do not even make contact. Basically, with the bike laying on its side, there's only three contact points on the ground; the sides of the front and rear tires, and the bottom of the engine guard. When all was said and done, all that happened was a 1" scrape mark through the powder coat on the guard, and that was it. Cleaned off the grime and hit it with a shot of black semi-gloss to prevent rust when I got home (for the third time, ha) and you can't even tell it went down. The Altrider guards are very well designed.
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Well, for the third time this fall, I dumped my bike on one such crossing yesterday. It was a low-side 1 MPH fall; as the front end began to slide out, the rear followed, and once it started there was no way to save it. It's agony. So I just stepped off and let it go down........ I was riding solo and was on a very isolated and little used road, so I waited for 10 minutes but no one came along. In my MX boots there was absolutely zero traction to stand, much less lift the bike, which has to be done in a quick jerk before the tires slide sideways. So I had to revert to taking off my boots and rolling up my riding pants to get some barefoot grip, but it worked and I got it lifted after two attempts. But damn, the water was cold!
Anyway, like I said, this is the third time low-siding on slimy creek crossings with this bike. So my intention here is to praise the Altrider crash bars which do a superior job protecting the bike. The way they are designed, only the lower edges actually touch the ground, and it is at a high enough angle that the hand guards, grips, and levers do not even make contact. Basically, with the bike laying on its side, there's only three contact points on the ground; the sides of the front and rear tires, and the bottom of the engine guard. When all was said and done, all that happened was a 1" scrape mark through the powder coat on the guard, and that was it. Cleaned off the grime and hit it with a shot of black semi-gloss to prevent rust when I got home (for the third time, ha) and you can't even tell it went down. The Altrider guards are very well designed.
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