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556 Patch of Oil in Road = Close Call


Tpoppa

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I had a close call today on 556 due to a patch of oil in the road near the entrance to one of the new fracking sites.

 

The oil was near the exit of a fairly high speed right hand turn.  I was leaned pretty far over, getting ready to accelerate out of the corner.   I completely lost the front end when I got to the oil.  It felt like sliding on ice.  Zero traction.  A millisecond later I heard the engine rev to red line and spun up the rear tire for probably a full second or 2.  The rider behind me said I smoked the rear tire.  I thought I was going to low side until the rear gripped and the bike shook back and forth 3-4 times like a typical high side.  It stood me up out of the seat and put most of my body weight over the grips.  I managed to keep it on 2 wheels and kept it in my lane while wrestling it back under control.

 

I've ridden that corner many times before.  I was riding my typical line, had good body position, and was loosely gripping the bars.  I've never felt anything like that before.  

 

Watch out for those fracking sites.

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Fracking trucks are already beating up some of the SEO roads and dragging gravel onto the corners.  The worst part about the oil is that I couldn't see it until it was right in front of me :(

 

 

Yeah, that was crazy Tony - wish I had a GoPro to document that, great save man!

DPG.

 

Did it look like any of these?  Because that's what it felt like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzB6KSlD6ec

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I wound up talking with the regional ODOT garage.  They were going to take a look at it. 

 

Hopefully, this oil slick was just a one time thing, but I will be watching out for new fracking locations popping up.  After a few years of being a squid, followed by 15 years of being a serious rider that was my worst moment on the street.

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Were you one of the two motards that pulled out shortly after our group of 4 pulled in?

Yep, that was me and my buddy from Wheeling. I was BSing with a few guys in your group but we still had lots of ground to cover. Nice to meet you or almost meet you.

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