Scary Road Sand!

[RolliePollie]

Weather's nice...soooo tempting to ride. But I've been holding back because of road sand and snow burms lining the road. DOT went a little nuts with the sand a few weeks back...it's literally piled up inches deep in places. But almost all the snow is gone now, so today, I was unable to control myself any longer and I headed out for a spin.

Ummmm...extremely bad idea. Road sand IS dangerous! About a mile out, I dumped my bike on a corner...luckily I had slowed way down and miraculously I got my foot unclipped so I didn't go down with it. I really have no idea how I stayed standing up on one foot, but thank heavens I did. Only damage to my poor bike is chewed up bar tape where it hit the pavement and a new scuff on my seat. Something cut my leg through my tights...not sure what bike part did it...but it's minor.

Anyway, the moral of my story is:

Don't ride on sandy roads in winter!!!

[maillotpois]

wow - glad you weren't hurt or your bike damaged worse. for sand you realy have to slow way down before the turn. once you start the turn, braking in sand is bad bad bad.

[Biciclista]

how about be careful on sandy roads in the winter? we have a lot of sand too, i just avoid it or slow down and be really careful.

[sbctwin]

Glad to hear you are ok...Many years ago (early 80's) I found out about sand and corners and....well, luckily I was wearing a helmet in those days too because I probably would have a very damaged ear. As it was I had a horrible case of road rash and torn up clothes and my orange MSR helmet was a mess....

[malkin]

Sand is very scary!!!

[smilingcat]

bad stuff is just a mild understatement.

And it's not just being able to ride through it, turn in it, or stop in it. If you manage to stay up, it scratches and grinds away at the precision components on your bike. Ruin chains...

stay away stay away!!

[tzvia]

Lucky you!
I hit some sand in a crosswind about 2 1/2 weeks ago and went down hard. All of the sudden- my bike just makes a hard right turn and the handlebars just jerked out of my grasp! I slid on my elbow for a bit (joy). The frame was damaged and is being 'crash replaced' to the tune of about a grand. My left elbow looked like it went through a cheese grater, and is still sore, and my ribs are still aching. My month old L.A.S helmet had to be tossed too, and I had to order new Ultegra shifters because mine look like they were sanded down. Great. Maybe my new bike will be built up by this weekend. I went up from the Specialized Ruby Elite to the Expert frame, which is ok but I would have rather done it the normal way.

Yea, sand SUCKS.

[bikerHen]

Yeah, we've got the sand/gravel thing going on here in a big way too. I haven't had to much trouble with it yet mostly because it's still wet or frozen to the roadway. But those icy patches and bumps are a whole different story. My commute time is way up cause I have to go slower and scout for hidden ice.

I ride with wide tires,1.5", on my commuter bike and at the moment have my studded tires which I think are 1.75". My road bike, with it's narrow tires, doesn't come out until the road sweepers have been out at least a couple of times. Thankfully the city/county get the sweeping done fairly quick because of all the dust the sand generates once the roads begin to dry out. I have been known to blow kisses to the sweeper crews on my commutes. bikerHen