What's your hypothesis...

[mtnairlover]

...Theories? Postulations? What d'ya think?

Ok, so here's the scenario: It was Sunday afternoon. A group of us were finishing up our lunch at Marion's of the Rockies in Idaho Springs and considering taking Central City Parkway up to Peak to Peak hwy and then down hwy7 to Lyons and home. As we rode, we could see the clouds just sitting along the mountainsides and we knew it was only a matter of time before we were riding through rain.

Sure enough, some miles outside of Blackhawk, the rain began. Now, this rain was not a heavy rain...just sprinkles, but the road was completely drenched at a certain point and there was no getting around the wetness. So, asp_125 who was leading, slowed the pace to account for the conditions.

Several miles before Nederland though, there was a specific kind of condition that could not be easily dealt with. At a certain point, I looked down at the water I was riding in, and there was a rainbow in it. I thought, "Holy f*, just don't get all crazy!" I figured if I moved to the other side of the lane, that I would miss it. Nope. The slick was all over the lane. I thought, "Ok, so it'll probably disappear in a few seconds...NO...what?" The slick went on for several miles and several turns. At one point, both asp_125 and I went wide around a turn. The slipperiness was getting worse.

I kept looking at the side of the road for broken down vehicles. I mean, my first thought was that it was someone spilling gasoline because of the rainbow. Just as the slick was dissipating, there was a ranger truck on the side of the road and he was talking to someone in an SUV that was also on the side of the road. After sighting those two vehicles, the rainbow was gone and from that point on, all we had to negotiate was the water-soaked road.

Thoughts?

[Devaclis]

I would have pulled off the road and hit up the dirt shoulder or the ditch and rode it out from there.

Or just stop and wait. It can't rain all the time.

[~Barn~]

Dealing with lubricant-laced roads that are still in the early stages of rain (read: that have not washed away yet), is like dealing with an unfamiliar German Shepard.

Doable. Just no sudden movements. :lol:

[mtnairlover]

Yeah, I get your point, Barn. I guess I should have said that it had been raining for a while when we met up with that slick. And it was Peak to Peak...not some city street. I know, all roads have that sort of oil soaked tint to them, but mountain roads tend to not hold it as much...at least that's just my observance.

[Devaclis]

did you still have your snow chains on from riding this winter? LOL :)

[mtnairlover]

did you still have your snow chains on from riding this winter? LOL :)

:lol:...damn! That's what I did wrong. I had just taken them off before this ride, too.

[~Barn~]

You're very right, Cathy. There are definitely some sections of different roads/HWs/streets, that just don't quite "runoff" like others do; even if the rain has been coming down for hours and hours!

Could be that maybe they're in low-lying geography, or were just engineered in a way that stagnates when the rain starts to fall. But yeah... Definitely tread gingerly, when you see the ol' water & oil rainbow, or even just an innocuous looking pool of water. Never know what's lurking. ;)

[gtn]

I think I'd have stopped to ask the ranger if that's why he was with the other vehicle. Seems likely one of them was spilling fuel or lubricant. They may not have known it.

[mtnairlover]

Welp, that was my thought. If there's gonna be a gas spill I would not think that it would last as long as that slick did. So today, what I hadn't thought of before was that when a vehicle blows a transmission, it leaves a trail of transmission fluid that can last for quite a ways.

But yeah, shoulda pulled off to the side and talked with the Ranger.

[asp_125]

I felt the rear slip a little, then the front.. then both! If there was oncoming traffic it would have been really bad. At that point we were probably already going at or below the posted limit. In hindsight we probably should have reported it to CDOT or whoever maintained that section of road. I'm still getting the butt mark out of my saddle after peeling it off on Sunday. Good thing my riding pants were already wet at that point, I might've peed my pants.

[Mental]

First, good on both of you for keeping your cool and recognizing the situation, adjusting accordingly, and getting home shiny side up.

Initially, I am gonna say that's just the crap on the road, but the reality is it had rained all weekend, so while the road would still be slick with an initial downpour, there is no reason for the fluid to still be there in that amount.

So I am gonna back your implied theory of someone having a fuel line problem, which would be why they stopped on the side. Furthermore, because it was an SUV and I am feeling a bit Snaky after a week and 1/2 off I offer more;

Liz, or as she insist on being called, Elizabeth, with am emphasis on Eli, pronounced E-LIE' because it sound more European, and after being known as gutterslut in high school, figures she could use the classin' up, had just filled her 07 Earthdestroyer SUV. As the rain came down, she was glad she had insisted on the full size AWD drive model, even though she had no idea what AWD stood for, or even meant. She just knew it came with standard with the XLS model, which included leather, BOSE sound system, SATNAV (she didn't know what that meant either, but she had GPS) and the built in DVD player for her son Cheyenne. Normally oblivious to her gauges, she looked down and noticed again the gas gauge now read 3/4. But she had just filled the tank? Immediately her thoughts turned to the conniving bastard of an ex-husband and his surgically altered "new" bride, but she could not conceive of a way that he could have caused this. It was just in her nature to blame him for everything, which she secretly knew, was the reason he jumped into bed with that 24 year old bimbo in the first place. A quick glance in the rear view mirror, angled not to see the road, but to spy on her over-indulged little brat in the backseat confirmed he was still wearing his remote headphones and watching Spongebob and she let out "Bastard." Which did nothing to address her dilemma, but certainly made her feel better.

She then cursed herself for taking the back way to her empty expansive home in boulder and wished she would have stayed on the freeway. She felt a slight tinge of panic when she realized her tank was now only just above 1/2 a tank. She tried to do the math in her head. How far had she gone? Wait, didn't she need to know how far to go to get home? She clicked on the GPS screen for an answer but found none in the seconds before the truck made the whirring noise on drifting out of her lane onto the rumble strips. She looked up and quickly corrected, almost too much, as the rain was failing steady now. As the vehicle lurched, her pouting 8 year old looked up disgusted at the interruption to his video.

Now Elizabeth, cursed wearing her jewelry to lunch. But she was meeting her friends and had to look her best. It was the only time she went out anymore. She also blamed this on her bastard ex-husband, but also she surreptitiously knew it was because she drank too much. She had to to keep the tears from failing like so much rain that now pelted her windshield. Certainly out her she would be robbed before the police or roadside assistance could reach her. She had seen it too much on the Lifetime movie network.

No time for pity she thought, I must be strong, strong for Cheyenne; again she looked reassuringly in the rearview at the life that has come from her now much neglected groin. He was eating another Twinkie, and laughing like a simpleton at a cartoon she knew he had seen 1,000 times. She was alarmed at the apathy she felt looking at him right now.

The rain was easy, but steady. She gritted her teeth and drove on. Before long, the low gas light illuminated as the needle moved to "E." Then slightly beyond, and even after she thought it should, the ridiculous machine finally sputtered to a halt, she eased to the side and pressed the alert button at the roof of the console. As she desperately tried to convey her situation to the Indian accent on the other end with the ridiculous name "Jeff" she though what a metaphor for her life this entire day was becoming. Jeff assured her a service truck would be there shortly. Her son still stared blankly at the same cartoon he had watches twice already that trip. She seriously began to wonder if in fact her son, that she proclaimed often to be a genius, was in fact, mentally deficient. As she mulled over the special boarding schools she could send him to, a Park Ranger eased up behind her.

Again her mind wandered to the Lifetime movies she watched when Rosalina cleaned her home. She thought a a Valerie Bertinelli film, or maybe it was Meredith Baxter Berney. She thought of a tall, fit handsome younger man exiting the truck and a whirlwind romance. Strangely, she actually felt a tingle in her womanly region, which had not happened in some time. This disappeared when the Ranger exited the truck and walked toward her. He was, decidedly, average.

As she was explaining her situation to the average and disappointing park ranger, she heard the sound of motorcycles, and her heart filled with dread. She saw them all the time, the appeared from nowhere, gesturing obscenely whenever she changed lanes or exited a shopping center. She truly felt that they were all a part of some plot to drive her insane cooked up by her bastard ex-husband. What other explanation could there be? She never saw them until they honked at her, revved their engines and sped off.

She was thankful the ranger was there, and watched as the two bikes slowed drove past. The lead bike was white, but it was the 2nd bike that caught her stare, a black motorcycle, unencumbered by the plastic from the first one. Clearly it was ridden by a woman. her mind slowed as the female rider passed. She was awestruck. For the first time, there on that rainy day, Elizabeth saw a personification of confidence. Not the ploy she would put on for her friends, but true belief in ones self, when no one was looking. This female rider was beautiful. Elizabeth of course had no way of knowing this, for the rider wore jeans, boots and black lather jacket with matching helmet and gloves. She was not beautiful in a way you could see, but in a way she could feel. Elizabeth knew that would translate into a physical appearance that had eluded her for decades. The woman on that motorcycle was beautiful. She was free and confident in a way that Elizabeth had not known since her 1 1/2 years at college, before she got married. When she would dance to Joy Division, when she could wear pajama bottoms and a ball cap to her morning classes, when she smiled naturally instead of the permanent grimace she seemed to default to.

In the brief 15 second pass, Elizabeth felt beauty, and mourned her freedom. Her own freedom, beauty and happiness eroded from her in a life of chasing things and bitter disappointment. Eroded like the deepening lines under her eyes that even the Botox could no longer hide.

She watched the motorcycle pass, mouth slightly agape, and when it passed around the bend and out of sight, Elizabeth wept uncontrollably.

[rforsythe]

Dealing with lubricant-laced roads that are still in the early stages of rain (read: that have not washed away yet), is like dealing with an unfamiliar German Shepard.

Doable. Just no sudden movements. :lol:

Heh, that's actually a great analogy.


I felt the rear slip a little, then the front.. then both! If there was oncoming traffic it would have been really bad. At that point we were probably already going at or below the posted limit. In hindsight we probably should have reported it to CDOT or whoever maintained that section of road. I'm still getting the butt mark out of my saddle after peeling it off on Sunday. Good thing my riding pants were already wet at that point, I might've peed my pants.

The posted limit is what's considered safe for dry conditions, at least for cars, based on typical maneuverability, driver reaction times, visibility, etc. Granted bikes can handle much higher performance in these conditions, but that also has a flip side: In wet conditions, especially with further traction reduction caused by chemistry, gravel, paint, etc, the laws of physics are working against you, and you will be less capable than a car. This is just MHO and not any sort of statement about your riding, but in wet conditions the posted limit is my MAX speed, and if there is any hint that other factors are against me, I'm going to be well under that. But you've probably figured out why that is by this point. :)

[Zach929rr]

Wow. That was quite a story, Goose. What's the make on that 07 Earthdestroyer...?

[InlineSIX24]

It can't rain all the time.

http://www.freewebs.com/mymindisblank/Draven.jpg

[JohnEffinK]

Wow. That was quite a story, Goose.

:spit:

True dat.

John

[TFOGGuys]

Welp, that was my thought. If there's gonna be a gas spill I would not think that it would last as long as that slick did. So today, what I hadn't thought of before was that when a vehicle blows a transmission, it leaves a trail of transmission fluid that can last for quite a ways.

But yeah, shoulda pulled off to the side and talked with the Ranger.

My guess would be the SUV lost a transmission cooler line. That would account for both the slipperiness and the length of the spill.

[JohnEffinK]

Cut brake line as she was heading into the mountains. Damn bastard ex-husband still wanting to collect on the insurance policy he still secretly held onto....

John

[mtnairlover]

She watched the motorcycle pass, mouth slightly agape, and when it passed around the bend and out of sight, Elizabeth wept uncontrollably.

lmfao...I laughed uncontrollably.

Hey, did you know there's a new show on Fox starting tonight called "Mental"?

btw...now I understand...love the elaborate story.

[Mental]

...Hey, did you know there's a new show on Fox starting tonight called "Mental"?...

Those rat-faced finks!


(http://www.newsok.com/fox-goes-mental-in-summer/article/3363382)Fox goes 'Mental' in summer (http://www.newsok.com/fox-goes-mental-in-summer/article/3363382) (http://www.newsok.com/fox-goes-mental-in-summer/article/3363382)


Somebody at Fox owes me some damm money.

[mtnairlover]

Those rat-faced finks!

Somebody at Fox owes me some damm money.

lol...yep. I'm wondering how closely it will come to the quirkiness we've all become accustomed to with your posts.


My guess would be the SUV lost a transmission cooler line. That would account for both the slipperiness and the length of the spill.

Ah-ha...that would make sense. Seems like a pretty good hypothesis to me.