Whoa Nellie! Large oil patches on roads left by cars!

[pidjones]

On my way in to bike night yesterday evening, I was following four cars on a two-lane, when all of the sudden out from under the car in front of me appeared a large fresh puddle of oil. They had all straddled it, but the rear wheel of the RTL went right through it, and WOW! what a dance she did. Luckily, held on and straightened out to continue over the next rise and see the trail lead to a VW new style bug in a lot. I've seen a lot of oil patches lately. Maybe taking cars around ten years old beyond their design lifetimes?

[Mikey]

Good job!!!

[RayBJ]

Scary! Glad you were going straight. Luckily it's a rare problem since most cars are 'dry' nowadays. Here in NJ, going thru toll gates used to be a challenge from the drippings of Ratmobiles marking their territories.

[Lew L]

.

Can you imagine the 2 wheel dance you could have had

Lew L

[Navydad]

A problem around here is shoddy workmanship from the "quick change" oil changing outfits that have sprang up like weeds. Filters not installed correctly, drain plugs stripped, or both. Sitting on my Guzzi one day this past summer when a very nice newer model F-150 sitting at a light in front of me decided to puke it's entire load of oil onto the road. Turns out the plug was stripped by the quick change "experts" and it let loose at this particular moment. Tow truck driver said he gets several of these calls a week. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for a town this small with more than enough tow services. Dealerships aren't much better.

[Saluda]

Glad that's how it ended, that could have turned bad.

[pidjones]

God granted me slow reaction times, which allowed me to "drift" the GL1800 through a half-dozen loss-of-rear-traction events (snow, diesel on wet road, sand, oil) and let the bike do its job. By not letting off the Spyder, she danced all over but straightened out all in our lane.

[BajaRon]

It is a good habit to straddle the center of a lane with one outside wheel and the rear wheel. I usually bias my position to the left of center this way. You won't miss it all. But you'll miss the majority of it riding this way. There is almost 2 feet between the inside of the front tire to the outside of the rear tire. That will straddle quite a bit.

[cravenfun]

God granted me slow reaction times, which allowed me to "drift" the GL1800 through a half-dozen loss-of-rear-traction events (snow, diesel on wet road, sand, oil) and let the bike do its job. By not letting off the Spyder, she danced all over but straightened out all in our lane.

2x on diesel. At least you can smell it ahead of time and get prepaired.

[redrazor]