Classic bite by gravel

[dorkburger]

Over the past few months I learned something about road gravel.
About a year ago the roads people came out and resurfaced the road running by my place, for a couple of miles each direction, up to the nearest intersections.
It was a beautiful job, the surface they left behind was like a GP track, absolutely flawless, the best road surface for literally miles around. Like having a pristine GP track of my own for a short distance, anyway.
A few months after that they re-appeared and dumped an inch of granite chippings on the beautiful surface. I was intensely pee'd off at that, as at one fell swoop they'd transformed this glorious surface from a trackday delight into the Road From Hell.
Anyway, time and traffic passed, and gradually the surface became more consolidated until it's now quite rideable with only a modicum of care, but I have to exercise normal observation and be aware of some sneaky hidden gravel patches on the edges and corners.
It suddenly struck me the other day that was the cause of the long snakey not-tar-snakes on the main roads around here. These not-tar-snakes are like grooves in the road, right in the middle of the lane, where I'd normally be riding, and they're quite good at causing the bike to suddenly go a bit off-colour in the handling department, causing me more than once to suspect I might have a puncture or something's just broken.
Bear with me, I'm getting to the point...
These roads were surfaced in exactly the same fashion as my local road, and the heavier volume of traffic on them created the not-tar-snakes as the gravel was swept from the normal tracks of the 4, 6, 8 and 10-wheeled traffic both to the sides of the road and to the middle of the lane, where it was eventually pounded into the road structure, but in an uneven fashion. These damned grooves are there permanently now, at least until the next re-surfacing work, just waiting to catch the next unwary motorcyclist out.

Tricky stuff, gravel.

They used to do an odd thing it the rural are where I grew up. Instead of paving a questionable road, they would coat it liquid tar then cover the tar with pea gravel. After a couple of hot summers the gravel would push down leaving the slick, now hardened tar on top. It was super slick when wet.
I had my first real motorcycle crash at about 16 years old because of it. I was riding a beater XL 350 we had. It started raining so I rushed home on the street instead of the usual fields. I applied the only working brake (front) when approaching a 90° turn. Instant wheel lock and fall. My shoulder dislocated and popped back in while sliding. Of course I couldn't tell the parents.
There were three big gouges in the pavement from the footpeg to serve as a reminder for several years.

[alke46]

Good to see the outcome was better than a lot of them. So many gravel encounters turn out a lot worse than this one.

Heal up fast and do buy a new helmet. Maybe even talk your wife into a full face one.

Check with your insurance carrier about paying for a replacement. My insurance paid for my latest one in a crash nearly two years ago. However, they didn't offer to do it until I questioned them about it. Paid for helmet, boots and would have covered the jacket but it did not receive any damage.

[GS1150Pilot]

I'm glad you were both essentially okay, Kerry!