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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | mkultra - I think the most determining factor is the material being used to seal the cracks. Some states I had ridden through seem to be better/or worse than others. Here in Az. the local jurisdictions use different materials. Application is also key. I do know that if they use the Pima County spec. material and dont get carried away with the application I have zero problems. I found this to be true with all of the various bikes Ive owned over the years. So I try my best to avoid the lateral ones, try to cross the perpindicular ones as close to 90 degress as possible, and just plain pay attention on roads that have a bunch of them.......just my 1.8 cents....
mike
I saw two different kinds of tar snakes in Arizona, one like you describe and then those imfamous ones that get all squeeshy when you ride over them. Here in Virginia it seems that they use the same compound on some roads to patch the road, so you end up with a big square tar snake, those are tricky, especially when wet. On the WV Turnpike, those scandrals put the compound perpendicular to the travel path along the joints. When I came through while it was raining the tail kept slipping with the joints in the hard curves and I didn't know why and until I got to a dry spot and saw what they had down.
I think the last thing the highway department takes into consideration is motorcycle riders. Richmond has plenty of bridges on curves on the interstate that have steel joints. These are even worse than tar snakes, hot or wet, when they are wet.
Ride Safe and be careful
Edited by varyder 2010-08-26 7:33 AM
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Tourer
Posts: 363
Goldsboro, NC | varyder - 2010-08-21 11:26 PM
If you want some good roads to ride that makes the Dragon (*yawn*) look straight, go out on roads from Alt58 and RT23, up around Pound, Norton, Jenkins
Just looked at maps of the area. VA620 / WV930 from Wise to Whitesburg looks like a real humdinger. I wonder if those roads are paved?
View Humdinger in a larger map
Edited by trailbarge 2010-08-26 11:46 AM
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | you have to be careful on that TB. I thought I knew my way around up there as I've been to the area a few times over my life because that's where my mom is from. I went down one road I thought was right and I think I ended up on someone's farm, wrong road, and the wrong place to be looking out of place. But the road I did finally grabbed were tight. I'd have to run them a few times just be confident for a good run.
I looked at that road, that should be paved and fairly decent. Like the dragon there are not any guard rails. If you ride them, let someone know ahead of time when you expect to be back. If you end up off the road you might be mistaken as deer and end up as supper with gravy.
Edited by varyder 2010-08-26 1:13 PM
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Iron Butt
Posts: 725
Reno County, KS | I did a search to see if anything has developed on this front as well. Still notthing really to find for the Vision and it looks like there is probably a reason for this lack of products. I'm having a hard time understanding how something like this is even applicable to the Vision. ONE suggestion: Could you live without a front fender? If so, then you can probably get a generic one to fit. You may also be able to get one machined that is "U" shaped to rise above the fender, but it might cause it to get weak. Otherwise it will be clamped so close to the triple that it would pretty much negate the advantage of using one. The bar would have to join the inverted shocks in order for this to work and the inverted shock length ends right at the top of the fender (not counting the fork seals). I've seen em used on the Wings and I have yet to hear of them stabilizing the bike in adverse conditions (tar snakes, air wash, etc). One Winger I talked to said that he could get his bike down closer in tight turns with the fork braces installed, which I am 100% certain was BS due to the fact that you can watch a good rider on a Wing scrape metal at the Dragon in less than favorable conditions. As near as I can tell, these braces are mostly effective on sport bikes. I seem to recall that Harley had some issues with fork flex that this would help with as well. Although I can imagine that 99% of the people putting them on Harleys see them as another peice of chrome or they are following up on advice from a dealer that stocks them... I would think a steering dampener would be more effective in this scenerio though. I dunno but it seems like an expensive experiment.
Edited by bigwill5150 2010-08-26 1:15 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 162
Extreme Southern, AZ United States | Thanks yall. This is not something that would make me get rid of my bike. I didn't get rid of my chopper with the 12" over springer and that was much more squirrely. I realize there are those who react a certain way when their choice bikes is questioned, but this wasn't the case. I have ridden bikes with fork braces and they do make a difference even if they don't get squirrely over some tar snakes. On some bikes the addition of a brace makes the bike that you thought handled well handle even better. I won't lose sleep over this. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1436
| wroman, yep what you explained is an old motorcross bike trick. However what you want to do is bounce the forks a couple times and then compress them while tightening the pinch bolts down on the axle (2 people required). Serves 2 purposes; prevents pinching the axle causing the wheel to be out of alignment, some call it proper seating and it allows or rather compensates for the natural flex on the fork tubes while compressed. Tightening with the forks compressed prevents the sliders from binding when you take a big hit such as landng off a jump.
Some folks mistakenly hear the word fork flex and think twisting. Fork flex is the bowing either in but generally out that occurs as the fork is compressed. The bowing occurs at the weakest junction where the tube and slider move against each other as separate parts. This is the biggest contributing action to worn out bushings & seals, which in turn creat fork leaks. A fork brace prevents the forks from being able to bow out at this junction. So what you end up with is the triple clamp supporting the top, fork brace the middle and axle the bottom. The affect is a slightly stiffer compression and rebound is sharper/faster. The outcome of that is the tire stays in contact with the road slightly better on smaller road junk such as tar snakes, cracks, etc... It can make the bike feel rather busy on consecutive small road stuff and/or can make the bike feel more plank like.
Loads of things to consider when tuning suspension and street bikes are definitely a tougher tune. I suspect something in the front of my bike had broken loose, or was out of alignment. Might have been a cartridge, bearing or any number of other things. Heck could have just been some crud in one of the carts. I rode two different Visions during the demo trucks stay here and neither had issues on tar snakes other than the normal one would expect... either way I had taken one too many trips to the dealer with my Vision.
I don't for a minute believe a fork brace would be the end all or be all for perfect handling, but I believe it would allow for better stability on an aggressive bike like the Vision.
My understanding of the fork brace dilema for the Vision and from looking myself, was the closeness of the forks to the gas tanks. You'd need to really bottom the suspension to be near the tanks but I'm sure the folks at SB just want to make a product for the Vision that won't become a issue even in an extreme nose dive. I suspect they'll work it out this winter.
I don't want ANYONE to think I disliked the Vision, nothing could be further from the truth. I enjoyed almost every mile ridden on her, but the little piddly repeat problems just finally got to be too much coupled with the tar snake issue it was having. At the end of the day a good bike gets you hom an equal number of times it has been taken out.... the VV never left me stranded. |
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Fork brace
