Ride Smart 2 by Alan Mayes 

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  The air seems crisp, the leaves turn beautiful colors, and the temperatures in my part of the world are more moderate.  I like to ride wearing a jacket and gloves.  Such attire is more comfortable when the weather has started to turn cool. 

For all its beauty, though, autumn also presents some new hazards for the wise motorcyclist to be aware of.  Those colorful falling leaves around us can be pretty slippery when they've gotten wet.  I was recently riding my Super X in the Smokie Mountains and encountered paved one-lane road, very steep and covered with fallen leaves.  It was in a very wooded area, protected from the sun.  Those leaves were slick!  I did not fall, but possibly the only reason was that I was aware of the probability of the leaves being slippery. 

Speaking of slippery, it is wise to take a mental and visual assessment occasionally of all the slippery road hazards you are likely to encounter.  Let's divide those hazards into two groups: road components and extraneous hazards. 

Under the heading of road components, consider the following warnings to be from the voice of experience.  Don't ask, OK?  Highway bridge or elevated section expansion strips can be really slippery when they are wet and you've encountered one on a curve at 65 mph.  Interstate 65 in downtown Louisville has some of these.  I know this first hand.  Akin to these are metal grating bridges.  Squirrelly when dry, they are frightening when wet. 

Something else that's a fairly recent change to road construction technology is the machine that grinds off the top layer of old pavement before a new top layer is installed.  This creates two hazards actually: the uneven grooves can cause some tire tread patterns to seem somewhat unstable, but more hazardous is that the dust created by this operation, when mixed with rain water suddenly becomes very slippery. 

When you are driving or riding on a rainy night, those reflective white lines on the edges and middle of the road can be very comforting.  Do you know what makes those lines reflective?  It's glass beads.  Does the term, "Slick as glass" sound familiar?  Reflective road markings, crosswalks, center and edge markers are all like ice when they are wet.   

Another road component to watch out for is gravel.  Gravel on gravel roads isn't too bad.  Gravel on pavement is bad, whether it was dropped from a dump truck, or sprayed out from an intersecting driveway or gravel road.  If it was dropped from a dump truck and is still bouncing when you encounter it, you have an extra problem to deal with.  Do NOT follow dump trucks, period.  If you can see a dump truck in front of you, you are too close!  I have a big rock chip in the windshield of my S-10 that reminds me every day how glad I am that I wasn't riding my X when that happened. 

Among the extraneous components we need to watch out for, none is more hazardous than diesel fuel.  Again, speaking from the voice of experience, I can tell you that this appears often near the driveway intersections of truck stops, trucking terminals and industrial parks.  That is because the truckers fill their tanks as full as possible, then either slosh out the fuel through overflows or caps they forgot to put back on.  You haven't had a thrill until you've done a diesel fuel fishtail! 

One serious road hazard we often forget about is animals.  Everyone has heard the stories about guys who have hit deer on motorcycles, but large dogs, raccoons and other sizeable critters can take you down, too.  When those furry items have become road kill, they are still a hazard, though.  Now they are slick spots on the road.  Not even a minor nuisance in a four wheeler, they become a problem on a two-wheeler.  Possum guts are slippery! 

Keep your eyes on the road and miss these obstacles.  Enjoy your autumn rides.