Advocacy & Safety - speedbump

Beautiful morning here in Centreal Indiana. Soon as the sun came up had to go for a ride. A couple weeks ago I noticed they were repaving the road thru a bunch of condo'sabout a mile long. About 15 miles out I went back by the condos and thought this would be fun. The road was flat but incredibly smoot and fast. The sun was in my eyes and I had sunglasses on. I was really relaxed about holes and stuff since it was so smooth. I am not kidding there was a speed bump I really could not see till I was right up on it. It was not painted. I was flying when I hit it and got my roadbike airborne. I am an old fat guy and I was sure I was about to trash my bike and probably me. I landed very smoothly and as far as I can tell did no damage at all. Just very lucky. Dang, seems like there is always something out there to get you if you dont pay attention.

They're not that bad once you know they're there. During an Alleycat I underestimated how much speed it would take to get me airborn, and almost fell while cutting through a school. Even 15mph will impact your steering on the other side of the speedbump for most bumps. Don't worry about your bike, they're much tougher than you'd expect/

In the early part of my return to serious riding, I had one of those LED type lights on the front of my bike and was riding at night. This was making a late-night cut through the parking lot of one of those sprawling strip type malls (grocery store, liquor store, movie rental store, that sort of thing). Like the OP, I was enjoying the wide-open flat and smooth blacktop. My headlight offered plenty of light by which to navigate but not nearly enough to light up potholes or speed bumps.

My grip on the bars was quite relaxed when I hit that doggone speed bump. I nearly lost it.

Another problem I have is my polarized shades on a sunny day. I find that the polarization tends to darken light spots on the pavement so that holes do not always show up in time for me to notice them.

Yet another problem is watery eyes on swift descents. In that situation, I can see plenty well enough to stay on the road and to avoid traffic hazzards, but, I cannot see well enough to avoid pot holes, etc.

I wear glasses, but they don't seem to help.

Caruso

I think I will find some different shades. Maybe flat and smooth blacktop is what the biking gods use to reel us unsuspecting bikers in wake us up to the many ways to bust up a bike.