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[bear tracks]

   anybody have advice on how to spot and ride through diesel fuel spills?   

[dayne66]

Here on the Island...on the Malahat...just look for the tractor/trailer flipped over

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/04/19/bc-malahat-fuel-spill.html

[porthole]

There is no way to safely drive through a diesel spill on a motorcycle.

[spada84]

  anybody have advice on how to spot and ride through diesel fuel spills?   

Drag your glove through the suspected spill and sniff for diesel odor as you slide down the road next to your bike.

There is a large truck stop I have to drive past every day on the way home from work (exit 58, I95, Virginia).  I see diesel on the road at least once a week, only really scary in the rain because you cannot see the dark stain.  That's one time you don't want to "taste the rainbow".

[hdbrad03]

Believe me you cannot see it. You realize it once your Bike start the Death Slide back and forth 5-6 feet. I made it through but wife went down at 55 MPH on a very busy Interstate. Totaled our first  ,

 


    Brad

[JoeSDE]

Diesel spill, rain...invisible. No chance no how. Been there, done that. Smelled good,too.     JoeS

[wideglidejoe]

Well, I've read about it on here, I experienced it this a.m.!!  

Off ramp from an interstate onto a US hwy, I ride it every morning going to work @ 0630 hrs.  Long, slow, right hand sweeper, uphill off-ramp.  Easy to take at 50 mph in car or on a bike.  I downshift to 5th at the start of the curve every day.  This a.m., I'm halfway thru the curve and I see a ~3ft wide shiny stripe.  I saw it a fraction of a second before I was in it.  Diesel spill, or similar; very slick.  I'm leaning thru the curve, the front wheel starts slipping and the rear wheel swings left.  I'm about 45* sideways to the road and now going straight instead of following the curvature of the road.  I almost get the bike straightened out, but I'm heading towards a curb since I can't follow the curve.  The curb is tapered instead of a square 90* curb, thankfully!  I bounce over the curb into the lane of the US hwy that I would've eventually merged into, but I'm into that lane much sooner than I would've been had I finished the curve and blended in with traffic at the normal spot.  Thankfully, there was a gap in traffic when I jumped the curb and into the lane.  All of the above happened in 2 seconds or less.  2 miles later, I'm at my work parking lot, and I called 911.  The highway patrol said they'd get DOT down there to look at it ASAP.  Hopefully they got there before another bike went thru there!

I'm posting this 3 hrs after the fact, and I'm still a little rattled.

I'm thankful that my Lord above and guardian angels were watching over me today, because looking back, I don't know how I got thru that without going down.

[murphy]

That calls for a change of underwear and a lottery ticket!

[wideglidejoe]

Murphy,

Lottery: good point!  I notice that Powerball is up to $253 million, I need to buy a ticket before they draw numbers on Sat night.

[King Glide]

Any way you look at it, you just won the lottery

[guppytrash]

10 years back I had a similar story.
Was doing 55 on a highway and coming up to a green light at a T intersection I could see a dump truck pulled over on the shoulder ahead.
By the time I saw the huge puddle of fluid on the ground, I was committed to the intersection.  Fortunately I  was going straight, the light stayed green, so I pulled the clutch in and coasted thru what I later gathered was where the dump truck had broken an oil or hydraulic line.
Wish I would have taken pictures of the King that day...it was covered in oil/hydraulic fluid.  When I stopped to pull over it was dripping oil everywhere.
Yep!  You guessed it I had just washed it earlier that day.

[spada84]

Phew!

Say a prayer of thanks too!

Glad you're OK.

[cvobiker]

You were a 'lucky cat  - Thank God you made it through and i hope you never have to use up your remaining 8 lives   

[wideglidejoe]

spada84.........after I got thru it, in upright position, the last 2 miles to work, you can rest assured that I was saying prayers of thankfulness to Him for getting me thru it!


cvobiker..........actually, I think I've only got 7 left.  In '04, I was riding in AR and I collided with a great horned owl.  Totalled my '03 WideGlide, and almost totalled me.  First hospital did surgery twice and told my wife of 2 months they couldn't do anything else to save me and put me on a life flight helicopter to Little Rock.  In Little Rock, in coma in ICU for 12 days, off work for 5 months.  Two dozen++ surgeries in first year and $1 mil in medical bills, but thankfully I had excellent major medical insurance.  As soon as I could, I bought the '05 WG; it has 45k miles on it, and I've put 8k miles on the CVO since picking it up in Aug '11. 

I believe God has a plan for everyone, and when it's your time to go, it's your time to go and nothing can change it.  So far, it hasn't been my time to go........yet.  I don't do foolish things, but I do ride hard, fast, and ride as much as I can.   I just turned 60, and have no intention of slowing down until He takes me home.  In June, I was at a open track event on a road course in my AC Cobra replica, when I had a catastrophic engine failure, oiled down my tires and the track, and did loop-de-loop spins down the track at 85 mph, but the car stayed right side up.  OK, maybe I've only got 6 of my "cat lives" left.

Take care,
Joe

[mitch.smith]

2 wheels and fuel spill that =