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Originally Posted by Easy Rider
I would think that the effect would be less noticeable in the tire tracks.......where the grooves should be flattened out some ????
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It's kind of hard to explain exactly, but there are five elements of discomfort involved:
1) First there are the grooves. These cause a fine wiggle, and I can almost ignore this after a while. It is similar to the road scraping wiggle, but these grooves are deeper. There is a little relief in the "tire tracks" but not much.
2) Second is what I call "scalloping." This is just weird and doesn't serve any purpose I am aware of, but it's as if a heavy machine came along and carved little half circular waves into the concrete about 12-18 inches on diameter. This causes a waggle of greater amplitude that combines with the fine wiggle, to give you, well, a wiggle waggle. The wiggle-waggle occurs on both wheels, independently, so there is a sort of third shimmy introduced by the two wiggle-waggles fighting each other.
3) California freeways are re-laned, re-directed, squished together and re-routed near constantly. As a result, the concrete pour of the original lanes don't match up with the actual lanes anymore and there are one to two inch "seams" running lengthwise, diagonally and otherwise, constantly, in and out of your path. When you hit one of these, it causes turbulence with the tires, the lean and the steering that you must correct for, or you will go down.
4) Fourth, the traffic is averaging at least 75 and many drivers cruise at 85. This means there can be a 20 to 30 mile difference in speed if you are only going 55. This is not a huge problem, but you need to be very vigilant about what is happening behind and to the sides of you.
5) The wind is fierce. I have no windshield. There is the 55 plus from the speed, and then there is the side drafts from cars and trucks. These also push on you and must be corrected for.
In spite of this, I still have hit the freeway - sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just to practice. But it's very nerve wracking and I don't think I'd be able to do it for long stretches.
I left out the Botts Dots. Those are fun too, especially if you are splitting lanes (legal only here in CA I understand...)