Lost in the 60's
Well travelled
- Location
- Mobile, Alabama
Today I thought I'd try something new. I figured that on Thanksgiving the traffic would be really light on the Interstate so my plan was get on I-65 at exit 1 in Mobile and continue northbound and cross over the W.K. Wilson Bridge (also known as the Dolly Parton bridge). At 6 miles in length that would be the longest bridge so far for me. And also the highest at 125 feet at it's peak. Then my plan was to continue north to exit 31, then exit and take highway 225 south back to I-10 and home. It would be about a 70 mile loop. But it was not to be. To begin with my visions of a nice quite wide open interstate proved to be wrong. The traffic on I-65 in Mobile was almost as heavy as a normal weekday. Why are all these people out driving on Thanksgiving day? I thought they would all be at gatherings with their families feasting and watching football.
As usual my 65-70 mph was not enough to keep up with traffic. Although considering the propensity for motorcycle speedometers to be optimistic that may have been more like 60-65. I hit 80 a few times for short periods and that was enough to stay with the flow but between the wind and the pucker factor I can't keep that up for long without chickening out.
Then just after I passed exit 13 I saw the sign for construction ahead, and the dreaded "grooved pavement" warning sign for motorcycle! Shiiiiiit! I'd never been on grooved pavement before, but there wasn't a damned thing I could do now but plow straight ahead into it. I slowed down from 70 to about 60 and just tried to keep the bike steady and straight ahead. To be honest, although I was scared shitless, I didn't noticed much difference in the bike's handing. And almost immediately I saw a sign that said "Exit 15, one mile". So I made up my mind to get off there. When I got there there was a drop off of about 2 inches from the new pavement on the mainline to the exit ramp which had not had anything done to it. I was a little nervous crossing that but nothing bad happened. I had no idea how to get back home on backroads so I got back on I-65 southbound. Again there was that 2 inch jump from the on ramp pavement to the mainline. I was even more nervous crossing that one, but it went OK too. Then I had another mile or so to go on the grooved pavement before the rest of the trip home. So all told I made a 32.7 mile trip instead of 70 and had my first very limited experience with grooved pavement. Although I didn't encounter any problems with it I am not in any hurry to try it again. As I said before I did not notice anything all that different when I hit the grooved pavement and I am wondering if maybe it wasn't even grooved at all. It was obviously new pavement but maybe it had been just recently put down, but not grooved yet. My stock tires feel like they are sliding every time I hit one of those raised markings in the road, so I would think they would have felt really squirrely on grooved pavement. But I didn't feel much difference at all except for the tight pucker at my sphincter.
As usual my 65-70 mph was not enough to keep up with traffic. Although considering the propensity for motorcycle speedometers to be optimistic that may have been more like 60-65. I hit 80 a few times for short periods and that was enough to stay with the flow but between the wind and the pucker factor I can't keep that up for long without chickening out.
Then just after I passed exit 13 I saw the sign for construction ahead, and the dreaded "grooved pavement" warning sign for motorcycle! Shiiiiiit! I'd never been on grooved pavement before, but there wasn't a damned thing I could do now but plow straight ahead into it. I slowed down from 70 to about 60 and just tried to keep the bike steady and straight ahead. To be honest, although I was scared shitless, I didn't noticed much difference in the bike's handing. And almost immediately I saw a sign that said "Exit 15, one mile". So I made up my mind to get off there. When I got there there was a drop off of about 2 inches from the new pavement on the mainline to the exit ramp which had not had anything done to it. I was a little nervous crossing that but nothing bad happened. I had no idea how to get back home on backroads so I got back on I-65 southbound. Again there was that 2 inch jump from the on ramp pavement to the mainline. I was even more nervous crossing that one, but it went OK too. Then I had another mile or so to go on the grooved pavement before the rest of the trip home. So all told I made a 32.7 mile trip instead of 70 and had my first very limited experience with grooved pavement. Although I didn't encounter any problems with it I am not in any hurry to try it again. As I said before I did not notice anything all that different when I hit the grooved pavement and I am wondering if maybe it wasn't even grooved at all. It was obviously new pavement but maybe it had been just recently put down, but not grooved yet. My stock tires feel like they are sliding every time I hit one of those raised markings in the road, so I would think they would have felt really squirrely on grooved pavement. But I didn't feel much difference at all except for the tight pucker at my sphincter.
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