• Welcome Guest! If you are already a member of the BMW MOA, please log in to the forum in the upper right hand corner of this page. Check "Remember Me?" if you wish to stay logged in.

    We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMWMOA forum provides. Why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the club magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMWMOA offers?

    Want to read the MOA monthly magazine for free? Take a 3-month test ride of the magazine; check here for details.

  • NOTE. Some content will be hidden from you. If you want to view all content, you must register for the forum if you are not a member, or if a member, you must be logged in.

Did anyone else hit the gravel spill east of Buffalo?

GSSteve

New member
Here is a reason to "always expect the unexpected". The day before the rally, my wife and I were riding highway 16 to Buffalo . A truck was climbing the hill in the opposite direction and flashed his high beams at us nearly a dozen times. We were at the speed limit but waved a thank you. A motorcycle followed and waved downward to the ground a few times and I suddenly started wondering what was up but within a few seconds I saw a police car. I relaxed thinking that these folks were fairly obsessive about communicating the presence of a cop. My wife was following on her motorcycle and I let her know I had seen the cop (via our communicators) and began looking out at the wonderful scenery. Within seconds I hit a deep gravel spill that was right in the middle of the road. It was deep and more pit run than gravel with rocks the size of softballs mixed in the sand and small rocks. I yelled at my wife but she had accelerated to close the distance between us and hit the gravel right behind me. To this day I wonder how we both were lucky enough to cross over this mess and come out the other side without falling (at 60 MPH). I claim no special riding skills but our years driving cars through freezing rain, snow and ice thought us never to brake or try to muscle through slippery stuff, so this may have saved our hides.
I think that if I had not seen a cop, I would have remained more vigilant, but I assumed the warnings from the other riders had been to save me a ticket. Man was I wrong. Anyway, within a short period of time, a snowplow was sent to clear the road. I really hope no one got hurt. It was deep enough to even make a car go for a spin.
 
Kudos to both of you for not falling down.

I probably would have been mentally mousetrapped by the signals followed by the LEO, even though I'd like to tell myself I would have been more alert to a problem other than a mere police car.

And, I have to ask if the officer was aware of the spill - and if so why wasn't he parked right on top of it with every light he had warning approaching traffic. Was he too approaching from the direction of the spill? Parked? Going the other way?
 
Have a similar story..... was in, I think, North Dakota and the road was having some major work done. There was a pilot car but we were led right through the thick of it: huge, and I mean huge, equipment was all around us. Actually found it hard to believe they were allowing us through this mess. Here in Mass. I don't think the liability lawyers would have any of it... anyway, at one point we were stopped for some reason in the middle of this mess (dirt and gravel) and once we got going again, I noticed a GS rider a few cars and trucks ahead. Once we reached the end of the construction, he had pulled to the side. As I passed, I noticed that he only had one Vario bag on the bike. I thought he was just taking off a layer as it was hot, but as I waved I thought the single bag was odd, so I turned around to check.. Turns out one of the dust mitigating water trucks cut in front of him, turning the dirt to serious mud... he had just done Alaska, only to be done in by a construction site water truck. He couldn't get up enough speed to make it through the mud and went down (somehow I avoided this). Making a clean dismount, he watched the bike spin itself into the ground and shear off one of his bags. I gave him a ferry tie-down ratchet strap I had and we rigged up the bag and rode together for a while... the construction folk were as helpful as they could be and apparently were looking for the water truck driver to issue a reprimand.. ya never know where danger will show itself..
Hope everyone returning from the rally had a less eventful trip home...
Be safe....
 
Glad your ok Steve ,That was a heroic adventure.
So are you guys comming to the Trenton Rally :eat :clap :jester :bar :beer :fart :beer :gerg :ca :ca :ca
 
Won't make it to Trenton. Off to Alaska for my first time (driving cautiously).
I think the cop may have been notified and only had just arrived, so we may have been 5 minutes too early to get a proper warning.
 
Back
Top