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Tiltcylinder
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 09:38 am: | 
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Drkside79 NYC still has a few, but most are really short spans over rivers and bay inlets. The worst by far (near Shea stadium in Queens) has recently been completely replaced with super slab. Holes large enough to swallow a tire appeared often, and the temp fix was to weld or bolt 1" steel plates over the holes. Serious pucker factor in rainy weather. Mostly they all were/are drawbridges, and the grated deck was definitely for weight reduction. Replacements are being built tall enough to end the need to raise bridge high enough for some fool in a sailboat to pass under. Nothing like sitting in a hours traffic because someone's going sailing. I think the only large (non drawbridge)ones are the Queensboro and Williamsburg over the East river, outer lanes of both are grated across the spans. |
Babired
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 12:32 pm: |
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You know what Drkside79
I had a City Cross too and an X1 and the ULY. The City Cross puts you in the most upright position and has a really steep line from the handlebars to the front tire. To me sitting up so tall the bike gave me instant feedback from the front wheel. The difference between all three bikes I felt more road surface and turning feedback from the City Cross than the other 2 bikes. More instant feedback and less stability. The bike is extremly twitchy. So I'm guessing your bike is giving you greater feedback while riding over the bridge grates. what do you all think? |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 01:42 pm: |
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Froggy, my Uncle lived about twenty miles from the East end of the bridge. His neighbor was one of the witnesses to the event. He was heading East(S) bound shortly after the incident. A WWII vet, he said it was the most horrifying thing he had ever witnessed.
The cars that stopped on the East(S) bound side aimed and flashed their lights at the West(N) bound vehicles for sometime before I believe it was a big truck slowed as a car in front of him went over, he stopped when he saw the car disappear, but would not have slowed enough to stop without the folks flashing their light in the oncoming but separate bridge.
He said they got out of their cars waving their arms, yelling, but no one saw or herd them, car after car, one at a time would go by oblivious to their impending death. If I remember right one car's driver survived the fall to the ship's deck where his car stopped.
I rode over the old Skyway bridge a week or so before they closed it for demolition. That was on a Sportster. That bike just felt nervous on flat road with a cross wind. It was an exciting ride across the steel deck at 250 feet. |
Dwardo
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 01:45 pm: |
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I always think about falling on that stuff. It would be like sliding down a cheese grater. Worst case scenario is having to stop quickly in the rain on one. Makes me pucker thinking about it. |
Etennuly
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 02:04 pm: |
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I crashed my Yamaha TT 500 in the middle of a railroad bridge once. The rails had been removed. An early season ride in NW Pa had the ties still frozen when I thought they were just wet. That one hurt.
I went over the bars and slid on my hands and knees on cross ties. I stopped with my upper body and one arm hanging off the bolted side berm tie, looking at the creek thirty feet below. It wasn't so much like a cheese grater like the steel deck would be, more like big hammers hitting the tops of my knees repeatedly. |
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