Oh little lurking lump
That makes my cargo come all unstuck
When I spot you way to late
With anguished cry of "Mother F**k!"
Call them what you will.
Speed bumps, Silent police men...
Down here they are Topes or Tumulos.
Whatever you call them, I ride over literally hundreds of them every day here. They dont have them on the toll highways, but on the free highways that go through all the small towns there are lots.
Usually there are warning signs that say you are entering an area with them (populated areas). And then often, each one is also indicated by a road sign right at the spot. But thats just usually!
Sometimes there are road signs saying they are there but they are not. Sometimes there is no warning sign at all but there are lots of them in the populated places. And, just occasionally, there is no sign, no town (maybe just one old abandoned house) and one of these dastardly little lumps is waiting there!!!
And, just to add to the challenge, they have lots of trees right near the roads here. So what you say.... Well, when the sun is not high in the sky, these trees cast lots of shadows on the roads... And the tree trunks cast very linear shadows... And this is PERFECT camouflage for a speed bump. The speed bumps can be made of anything from plain old dirt to concrete to asphalt. But its the ones made of asphalt (same as the road surface) that are the real problem... They are already very hard to spot, and a shadow in the right place does the trick!
At least three or four times a day I manage to spot the little blighters before Ive hit them but to late to slow down gently... So, I slam on the brakes and then release them just as Im about to hit. This means the suspension rebound as I release the brakes helps to "float" the bike over the lump... but its hard on the brakes and the bike still takes a pretty hard hit.
But, just occasionally, I dont see the speed bump at all, and the first thing I notice is a massive jolt!
Fortunately, I raised the suspension of the bike and that helps a lot but its still really hard on the bike.
The other day, one "got me" and I was going at a pretty good clip (say 80Kmh). Fortunately also, it was one of the wider but more gentle type, and I ended up being thrown up out of the seat and the bike rear-end went significantly higher than the front.
It felt like forever, but I was balanced there with the big heavy bike barrelling along the road with the back wheel in the air and the front wheel down for what seemed like quite a few seconds... Very exciting :)))
The rear wheel eventually decided to come back to the road and I didnt fall off or lose any luggage etc, but it definitely "woke me up"!
Im sure I have many thousands more of the little blighters to cross on my travels, so there is no sense getting frustrated with them... Its just part of the game :))
