Glad everything worked out for you and you did not have a mishap.
I was on the interstate here a while back and they were actually removing about 8" of the asphalt on just one lane at a time, and had the section they were working on closed off, but up the road that lane opened and the other lane closed as they prepared to do it the same way, what a surprise at 60 mph to go off that huge drop off.

 

bet you neede a break after 14...I've done deep gravel for a few miles and needed to get off for a little while.

 

I feel for you, I have a small fear of that type of construction now. A year ago I having a nice calm ride, looking at the stars while listening to my tunes when I encountered the same conditions but mine was at night at 55 mph and there wasn't a construction or warning sign of any kind. I knew the road well and knew there was some patchwork there, so the surface discoloration did not alarm me. When I hit the area that was skimmed off, like you said 3-4" deep, I hit right on the lip of the drop off. I'm not real sure what happened after that point, all I knew at the time was I was in one hell of a knee slapper as I steer right, no left, no right, no left, no right. It is amazing how your instincts completely take over. During my rather exciting ride, as I am thinking to myself "I am going down" I hear my wife screaming as she was following on her bike. Afterwards, she told me that she was scared she was going to hit me as she didn't want to get on her brakes hard since she was riding out the squiggly grooves as well but that my rear end was fishtailing back in forth across the lane just inches from the front of her bike. I can't even tell you how long this encounter lasted (probably 10 seconds but seemed like a hour), but somehow the bike settled down and I was tracking straight and smooth down the highway like nothing ever happened. Well except for the cramp in my left foot, guess I was squeezing the tank a little hard with my knees.

 

Its about 12 miles from home to my job....divided 4 lane all but about 1 mile....when my 07 was new the East bound side was being re paved...the stock Dunlops followed the grooves like a train on rails.....two years (and 27k miles)later they re paved the West bound side....my AVONs hardly notice the grooves....

 

A few years ago I was in Florida on my way back from Daytona and it started pouring out, well I came across the same crap, roads ground down with the squiggly lines, only to make it worst it was wet,flooded with water as it was raining. That sucked. Luckily the road was like that for only a half mile or so but it was still pretty bad rideing on it in the rain. It felt like forever.

 

The best handling change I did for my FatBoy was switching from the Dunlops to Metzlers. Out here in the Bay Area, the highways have rain grooves and the Dunlop's would like to track them. Metzler's handle them and also riding over steel bridges so much better.
Glad u made it home safe.

 

Yeah ... that is fun! Nothing like a little butt pucker to make the seat fit tighter. Weirdest feeling I can have on a motorcycle is having the two wheels tracking in different ruts on the road.

The only thing worse is when they make you jump from a newly paved lane into the freshly cut lane or visa-versa ... in the rain.

Had that in New Mexico and Texas on this year's cross-country trip. It was a heavy drizzle and they had just cut the inside lane to repave it. We had to jump five times from the newly paved side to the freshly grooved side and then back. It was at least a 3 to 4 inch hop up or down (depending on the direction we had to move) and my butt never puckered so much on a motorcycle. And going from the grooved side to the smooth side was even scarier because of the differnece in height.

 

Mam... been riding on that chewed up grooves crap for the past two months. Seems like their plan is to tear up all the roads, then, usually, some time in November, the crank up the asphalt laying machines and finish it all up.

I don't mind the grooves, it's the part where one part of the lane is 6 inches higher than the rest of the lane. Makes changing lanes interesting at times.

 

Yep... they never seem to consider motorcycles in road constructing or repaving... go figure...

Charlie D.

 

Not to hijack this thread, but I am quickly approaching time for new rubber on my FatBoy. Which Metzlers did you get?