| Author | Message | ||
     Drkside79 |
No matter how many times i go over one I never get past the awww crap feeling. | ||
| Spiderman |
LOL try riding across the Big Mac, with a broken finger on your right hand, with a semi up your ass! I always like going over a grated bridge and hearing the sound drop out LOL | ||
| Lastcyclone |
There is one over the Chicago River that I avoided for years. I know what you mean. Feels like a tank slapper waiting to happen. Traffic was bad one day so it was the only route, slow a bit, hold your line, loosen the grip, you'll do fine. Don't brake hard! Try the Makinac Bridge to the UP some day. | ||
| Drkside79 |
There are a few over the Chicago river. Actually i got trapped on 176 while it was under construction last year. It felt just like a grated bridge. Me and another bike cruised down it for 10 of the most nerve racking miles of my riding career. All the while with cagers trapped behind us because there was no way in hell I was going to go over 35 mph | ||
| Gunut75 |
Kinda like a grooved road right before the oil is put down for fresh pavement. The bike WILL follow the grooves, but dont panic. It will stay upright. You just have to let the bike do it's thing. | ||
| Etennuly |
The steel grate bridges in NW Pa got a not so motorcycle friendly winter fix about thirty years ago. They decided to weld 1/4" studs on every fourth corner of the grid for winter traction. What PENNDOT said when questioned about motorcycles using the bridges was something to the point of "don't crash on a bridge". The studs would make the bike wonder even more than just the grates. The old Skyway Bridge from St.Pete to S. Tampa was a wobbler. I rode that on a then new 1984 Sporty once. A much more nervous event than on the V65 Magna I had back then. So far these bridges don't seem to bother the Uly's tracking too much. | ||
| S1wmike |
the Big Mac Been across it many times, never on a bike. That is one hell of a bridge. | ||
| Strokizator |
the Big Mac Tell you how old I am, we've got 8mm movies of me throwing rocks into the lake with the bridge in the background only partially completed. Could you make it across on knobbie tires and still have any knobs left at the other end? I get puckered just thinking about it. | ||
| Americanmadexb |
Will be going over the Big Mac to get to HC. You guys are making me nervous!  | ||
| Etennuly |
It is in my plans for the trip to or from HC. I haven't nailed the plans down yet. | ||
| Froggy |
Where is this "Big Mac"? Google link? Also why do they make these grated bridges instead of solid? | ||
| Hootowl |
Weight? The tacoma narrows bridge used to be all grate, but about 15-20 years ago they paved sections of the lanes that your tires ride in. (Then they built another bridge right next to it.) The sections between the towers held the expansion joints, which were all steel, and not paved. Riding through there in a crosswind in the rain was a real treat. As you pass the tower, the wind dies, the road surface changes, and that nice lean you had going to counter the wind suddenly becomes a significant steering input. Hairy. | ||
| Americanmadexb |
Here ya go Frogster! After looking at this google link, im not as nervous. I forgot the outside lanes are not grated. http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&um=1&ie=UT F-8&q=mackinac+bridge&fb=1&gl=us&ftid=0x4d35f4fbf5 1779c9:0x5c87dd8b625932d2&ei=lmq6S9bTH5OANrHP-OAF& sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ 8gEwAA (Message edited by americanmadexb on April 05, 2010) | ||
| Sifo |
The Mac is a big one, tall too. Froggy, it connects Michigan's UP to the LP.  | ||
| Etennuly |
The reasons for steel deck would be things like less weight, flexibility, lower cost, can be more easily built off sight, low maintenance, but I think more importantly air passes through it. It was pretty cool looking 250 feet down at the water as you ride over the web of 2" steel squares. The old Sunshine Skyway Bridge was fun, right up to the day the ship hit it and knocked it down. It kind of kicks your imagination loose. I always felt bad for those souls who drove off of it when the accident happened. There was no way of knowing that the section was gone until they would be within feet of it at 65 mph at dusk. It was a rather steep up hill and just as you would summit.....it was gone. Many people drove off before anyone could get them to stop. The drivers coming the other way were helpless to stop them because they were on separate spans. Many of the cars fell 150 feet, hit the deck of the ship bouncing off into water that was 80 feet deep. What a way to go out. Your first sensation something is wrong on your semi-attentive 65 mph cruise up the concrete part of the span that you have been on for four miles already, is that the nose of your car is pointed down, the road noise has stopped, your engine on cruise would rev up, the car would feel like it was floating. Then you see that you are below the bridge rails and you have time to think a bit as you notice the ship's deck lit from it's control house lights and your own headlights, is damaged from the previous cars and trucks that have bounced off taking ship fittings and side rails off. Then your car hits nose first on the ship's deck crushing it to the windshield, the force taking your legs and hips under the dash as it comes back to you and you can feel your seat belt stretch, but the air bag was just enough to keep you conscious as the cars forward momentum was letting it bounce and slide to the edge where the gouges from the previous victims vehicles had carved a path. Then the edge approaches, you can see out of the one eye that didn't pop out to smear on the air bag, that a precipice of darkness between the ship and the broken pier are rapidly closing. You in your mangled wreck with your too conscious mind now see the water a hundred feet below. The car tilts over enough that the roof hits first, crushing your upper torso over to the passenger seat loosely pinning you on the shifter which has penetrated your right chest and lung. Now you can see and feel the warm salt water of the bay engulfing you, burning in your open wounds as blood bubbles in your mouth. Now it goes dark. It seems like hours since you felt the car float off the bridge. The bubbling and whirling of the water subside as the car floats slowly to the bottom of the bay, scraping for a moment the side of the concrete pier base then gently thumping down on the side of the car that fell just before. You then get to think for a second that it doesn't matter if you survived, your body has been destroyed, you couldn't breathe even if you were in the air because of the crush and penetration damage to your bones and flesh. You then notice the water is cold, black-dark, and quiet. Well....it could have happened like that!  | ||
| Spiderman |
 | ||
| Froggy |
Vern, surely someone caught that on video! Sounds fun. | ||
| Americanmadexb |
Lots of scary video's of that accident on youtube. | ||
| Nobuell |
My wife and I going over the Big Mac bridge last summer.  Great View | ||
| Nwforester |
Hootowl mentioned the Tacoma Narrows bridge - this was the first version of the bridge. I think footage of this was used in a Pioneer or Kenwood stereo advert. some years ago. Forgive the lame soundtrack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw | ||
| Metra6924 |
I think it was my second season riding. It isn't quite the Big Mac, but the bridge over the Mississippi at Savannah, Il is an open grate deck too. I found myself on it a few years ago on my Blast. I really, really wanted to turn around, but there was no place to do so. So, I recalled a chapter from David Hough's book (which I had read several times the winter before), loosened my death grip, kept my eyes forward, kept my speed up, and thought how much more it would hurt if I wasn't wearing all the gear. My buddy Rick would say "Well, ya got that out of the way". It's a strange feeling, the bike wandering, following the grates, but now when I ride over rain-grooved roads, it's no big deal. And Vern, you scare me! | ||
| Nwforester |
Oh yes and hence why version 2 has steel grates - Etennuly said it airflow. | ||
| 99savage |
Went over the Big Mac during maintenance - Windy, rain & fog - Steel deck only - 15 MPH - Booth feet below the pegs - Hugging the tank bag like it had teats - Backed up traffic all the way to Flint & didn't care Got where I was going & they had the steel deck down on the Portage Lift Bridge all the time   | ||
| Gregtonn |
If you want real pucker factor try crossing a grated bridge in the rain on your bike. Been there done that.  G | ||
| Leftcoastal |
Just think of the steel grating as an environmentally-friendly use of materials: If you go down on your bike at speed on one, you'll end up nice little morsels to feed the fish, below. | ||
| Tepiddeath |
ahhh, the BIG MAC! I have been over big mac in cage and by foot, but never on bike. It is definitely on my bucket list... not to mention i have family all over those parts(main reason why i live in south florida!) | ||
| Drkside79 |
Froggy are there really not any grated bridges in NYC? | ||
| Swampy |
I keep blacking out when I cross the Big Mac on the bike, I forget to breath and then my vision gets all goofy and I know I'm going! One time while crossing the Big Mac I kept saying "breath in.....breath out...." I still got fuzzy because I wasn't inhaling. You just have to let the bike do its thing, which is squirm under you. The other option is that you wait till 5pm when the summer maintenance shift changes and cross when they take the wide loads across because they open both lanes for you to cross, that way you can cross on the paved portion. The toll people have said that the faster you cross it the better you are, I have been passed on the bridge by a guy on a BMW that looked like he did it alot. | ||
| Drkside79 |
Honestly I'm glad that I'm not the only one that hates these awful bridges. lol (Message edited by drkside79 on April 05, 2010) | ||
| Froggy |
There is at least one, but I don't know where it is, last time I was over it, I was in a bus. (Message edited by froggy on April 05, 2010) |
