Riding along near Orangeville yesterday, I hit an oil slick without realizing it. On my next left curve, only doing about 50, tires lost traction mid-lean and the bike started to wobble. I applied some brake and straightened up the bike, fortunately managed to avoid a lowside/highside. Managed to stay upright and slow down but still rolled over the unpaved shoulder and into a grassy ditch. After the bike stopped moving, it gingerly went over about 45 degrees on its side (leaning on very high grass/shrubs) and pointed 45 degrees nose down toward the ditch.
Within about 30 seconds I must've had about 5 guys stop to ask if I was OK & offer to help get the bike back on the road. This was a country road, not hugely trafficked so I was quite impressed & thankful at the generosity of strangers. It wasn't a particularly dramatic or high speed event, and I was 100% unhurt. The bike seemed fine & was fully rideable too. But the way it was leaning, pointed downhill in lumpy/muddy plants, would've been quite hard to pull out without help. Anyway, there are lots of stories of people doing stupid things to us on the road. Thought I'd share one about people being generally awesome.
Follow up question - what should I do to be sure all that oil is cleaned off my tires? After I got back on the road, I rode through the gravel/sandy shoulder for a bit and then managed to ride about 100 km home without incident, but was trying to ride conservatively & still want to be sure it's all gone.
Within about 30 seconds I must've had about 5 guys stop to ask if I was OK & offer to help get the bike back on the road. This was a country road, not hugely trafficked so I was quite impressed & thankful at the generosity of strangers. It wasn't a particularly dramatic or high speed event, and I was 100% unhurt. The bike seemed fine & was fully rideable too. But the way it was leaning, pointed downhill in lumpy/muddy plants, would've been quite hard to pull out without help. Anyway, there are lots of stories of people doing stupid things to us on the road. Thought I'd share one about people being generally awesome.
Follow up question - what should I do to be sure all that oil is cleaned off my tires? After I got back on the road, I rode through the gravel/sandy shoulder for a bit and then managed to ride about 100 km home without incident, but was trying to ride conservatively & still want to be sure it's all gone.
couple seconds and it will be all gone !
