Bad Patches
 

Hey everyone. I ride in the mountains of NC and ever since the recession the state and county has let the roads get to a bad point. On my ride home on highway 194 I take probably 50+ turns. They recently patched the road (for like the 5th time).

I'm finding that when my tires go from cement to asphalt patch it wants to rip my rear tire left and right really hard.

Its gotten to the point where I can only do 15mph and creep around the turns. I wrote a letter to the senator but of course they don't answer.

What should I do? Change? In my riding style to get more speed over the patches?

You're not going to like what I have to say but take it to the track. If it's not a safe road to push it on don't push it. Or find a differant route home with better roads. Sorry man but pushing it on rough roads doesn't make sense. The professionals crash on perfect tracks everyday. Don't get hurt trying to be fast on a crappy road.

Im not going fast thats the thing. in a car i can do 45mph down this road no problem. Its my only way home other then 5 miles up gravel. On my bike i can barely do 15mph in some spots. im going around a blind corner and all the sudden i look in my rearveiw and there is a truck barreling down my a**. its a dangerous situation. but the height difference is almost 3-4inches on some of these patches and the original road surface.

on the track i can drag a knee but these patches jerk my bike so hard that i can't get any confidence.

that does sound rougher than sh*t. lol. I gotta stand by my original advice. Find a better route home :D Sounds like you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation whether you're pushing it or not. If you push it you risk an unplanned get-off. If you take it easy you risk getting run over.

yea well if it wasnt a college town it wouldnt be so bad. i was riding next to a girl today. probably my age 19-21 and she was looking down at her phone for at least 30 seconds straight. i cant believe people anymore. im guilty but its just a quick glance and i've stopped doing it.

im worried about someone like that coming up behind me and looking down and getting hit. thats why me friend beau is in a coma. F250 ran right over him going down the road

Right. I've learned to text without looking :P

haha. still dangerous but better then most

Yep, all you can do is take it slow and watch your mirrors the best you can. If the road is that bad, you definitely don't want to push it. It suck, tho, no doubt.

I think you have gotten some good advice, but I would like to add that you shouldn't give up on writing and calling whoever you can to get the road fixed properly. Where I live, in Flint, MI, we have some pretty crappy roads here too. Find out who owns the road (state, county, township, etc) and bother them constantly until they make it at least rideable.