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.

I have been to Flint, Im from Grand Rapids. I know your pain brotha.

I still have not heard back from anyone at the county or state level :/. I did however notice they went over the fresh patches with a steam roller or something and dramatically reduced the gap between original road and patch. Only problem is where they drove over the existing road with whatever equipment they used, they broke the original road up. Went to work this morning and the road was all cracked up and I heard the little bits of asphalt pinging off my tail and front fender.

Doesnt help that I ride with gumballs

The state engineering department finally got back with me and there is good news!!!

Letter as follows:

Dear Mr. Mendler,

Governor Perdue has asked that I respond to your recent inquiry concerning NC 194 in Watauga County between Valle Crucis and Banner Elk. I understand your concerns about the current roadway condition but I do have good news to tell you. NCDOT will open bids on September 21, 2010, for a project on NC 194 that begins at the Avery County line and ends at the intersection of Broadstone Road in Valle Crucis. The project will improve six (6) curve locations and the entire 5.41 miles will be repaired and resurfaced. Work on this projecet can begin as early as November 1, 2010, and the contract completion date is June 15, 2012. With this project on the horizon, our maintenance staff have tried their best to maintain the road the last couple of years without spending an exorbitant amount of funds. Last winter was extremely hard on all our roads in the mountain counties, and NC 194 was no exception.

As for the signs you mentioned, they were not installed by NCDOT but rather were installed illegally by another party. I have asked our sign erectors to remove these signs as soon as possible. Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention.

If you have any questions, or if I can be provide you with any additional information, please let me know. Also, you may contact our County Maintenance Engineer Kevin Whittington at 828-265-5378.

Regards,

it pays to follow up :) and it looks like I'll be grabbing me a pretty cool sign. haha

:icon_lol: :icon_lol: i go thru nc all the time, and it's not the recession. them there roads have always sucked.

yea sometimes they do but where i live in Watagua country and Avery county they normally put alot of time and effort into the roads because it is all scenic byway and our main source of income in tourism. I mean I live on the parkway, it just takes forever to get to work and most people dont pay attention, they are too busy taking pictures and I dont want to get run over, haha

I'm glad you finally got a response. It is amazing and disappointing how slow things move. End of the contract in June 2012? At least it is on their list to be fixed...

Not to thread hijack, but I recently started riding on I-69 in Flint and the concrete pavement looks like it is made of quilt squares from all the sections cut and replaced. It is a pretty bumpy ride, to the point where I feel I could lose the bike if I wasn't paying attention. Maybe I just need more experience on bumpy roads.

Haha. Elected official typo :D


What kinda sign you gonna get?

we have serious problems with bikes (bicycles/motorcycles) crossing the center line. I would say a biker is killed at least once a month in front of my house. It's all there fault. I love my bike but I keep it in the lines.. There is a guy riding a white KTM HyperMoto around my house that passed me the other day on a blind right hand corner. A few seconds later a denali passed going way to fast. he coulda died real quick..

So, sombody spent $1.000's to put signs up that say "CROSSING THE CENTER LINE IS FATAL". They are all gone now. They did it saturday, took every single sign down

Hmm. Sounds like one they should have considered keeping :/

i live in MI also and dam all the roads are so bad even like 75 in a car is very bad. and the way they just patch is so dumb somebody is really going to get hurt.