What are your favourite major roads?

Roads South of I70 in Indiana are very nice to drive. No mountains or valleys, but undulating, twisting strips of asphalt (reminds me of the Cherohala Skyway and the roads in AR used for the Razorback Run...yes, there are mountains...I'm referring to the roads themselves)...IN43, 58, 135, 45, 450, 550, 150... these are all in the SW quadrant of Indiana(MANY more thru Southern IN, West from New Albany to Evansville... too many to name). The SE quadrant has a similar number of fun driving roads.

Hopefully, we'll be able to drive them as a group in the not too distant future...

 Im going to mow the lawn and go for a drive.  The weather is so nice today with people coming out of their homes and walking the streets.  

 Im going to attack some tight corners and hit lift over a large dam in my area because the reverberation of the walls makes it sound nice. 

I'm lucky enough to live about 3 hours from the Dragon and have a lot of fun and scenic roads right in my area.  Being in a rural area, the road I live on is pretty fun for about 15 miles past my house.  There's some great curves and some that are either flat or actually banked the wrong way making it challenging, but rewarding.  Another fun drive for me is the part of Highway 127 that runs south from Jamestown KY over Wolf Creek Dam.  Being near a lake with a lot of creeks, there's also a bunch of roads that follow the natural ridges of the landscape and make for some scenic and nice driving on roads less traveled. 

 Just got back early. I had a wipe out and it wasn't fun. I have had wipe outs before in the rain and snow but never in the dry. 

 This is my fault.  This is suppose to be the last acceptable year for my tires before replacement. I had signs early on in my first drive of the year when I hit lift and the car pulled which should never happen but I shrugged it off thinking they were sitting  for too long and just need to be driven.  

Tires have plenty of tread but it appears they are heat cycled out and need replacement. I did follow the guidelines by Falken  but I should  have changed them much earlier since they are max performance summer and close to racing compound.  

 The car lost traction unexpectedly and all four wheels lost grip. It was a bit of a handful to recover so I didn't panic and just  tried my best to make minor corrections to keep it straight and then I purposely did a 180 so I wouldn't hit anything else in my path which slowed the car enough to gain grip as it rolled backwards.  I ended up with the rear tires in the grass. There was smoke either from he tires or the clutch. The car started right up everything was fine. Checked for property damage and there was none so I got the hell out of there.   

 I wasn't even driving that fast and it just decided to let go around a corner and skate. No grass stains, no mud and no visible damage but my pride and confidence is hurt. 

 Just a warning, make sure your tires are in order.  

@dev

Glad you're fine. Sounds really spooky. Was it in a turn? 

I've only accidentaly lost traction on public roads a few times, but the majority of the times have been while taking a right turn from a stop in very cold weather at the very start of my drive (less than .25 miles in). #cold summer tires Though, the other day I did take a opposite banked downhill sharp turn a little too fast in the rain and had to counter steer just a bit as the back kicked out. If I didnt still have my winter tires on with crazy hydroplaning resistance it would have been potentially bad.

Thanks for sharing your close call. I know sometimes it can be easier to just not mention it but it's a good reminder. Only takes a second. 

Almost mindlessly ran a red light today. Was thinking about a business deal while on the way to scout a location and caught myself a few feet into the intersection. Though, in my defense, with my height and seat position i cant see the traffic lights with the top up once i get to the stop line.

Regardless, glad you are fine.

Posted by: @dev

 Just a warning, make sure your tires are in order.  

Always.  Tires almost never last more than about 18 months for me.  If they still have tread on them at the 2 year point, then I donate them to the "Llantas Usadas" guys down the street from Discount Tire when I get my new ones... that way I don't pay a disposal fee and I help out a small business.

Posted by: @ria

@dev

Glad you're fine. Sounds really spooky. Was it in a turn? 

I've only accidentaly lost traction on public roads a few times, but the majority of the times have been while taking a right turn from a stop in very cold weather at the very start of my drive (less than .25 miles in). #cold summer tires Though, the other day I did take a opposite banked downhill sharp turn a little too fast in the rain and had to counter steer just a bit as the back kicked out. If I didnt still have my winter tires on with crazy hydroplaning resistance it would have been potentially bad.

Thanks for sharing your close call. I know sometimes it can be easier to just not mention it but it's a good reminder. Only takes a second. 

Almost mindlessly ran a red light today. Was thinking about a business deal while on the way to scout a location and caught myself a few feet into the intersection. Though, in my defense, with my height and seat position i cant see the traffic lights with the top up once i get to the stop line.

Regardless, glad you are fine.

 

Yes it was in a turn and I was not going as fast but it was fast enough. Worst part is, it was in a small road with hilly blind corners and if another car was coming I would have been smacked.  Considering the size of the road Im surprised I stayed on it until the very end where I let the rear drifted into the grass by letting the momentum of the slide carry me  to get off the road incase there was any incoming traffic. It was very spooky and I certainly never want that to happen again because in the moment I thought Im not going to come out of this without some kind of consequence but meraculously I did and now I don't want to squander it because my tires are a death trap.   

Posted by: @pwnzor

Posted by: @dev

 Just a warning, make sure your tires are in order.  

Always.  Tires almost never last more than about 18 months for me.  If they still have tread on them at the 2 year point, then I donate them to the "Llantas Usadas" guys down the street from Discount Tire when I get my new ones... that way I don't pay a disposal fee and I help out a small business.

  Here is my confession. In my case it was pure stupidity and I don't mind sharing. The tires I have are the Falken azin RT615. When I use to drive my car more often I would change out my tire every other year and I would replace them in sets. I would never let the tread go to the wear bars and although my fronts had enough tread. I would still change them out as a set because I believe that it matters.  

 Because my car is not been driven often I was on the same tires for 9 years with plenty of tread. I normally would change any tires out in 6 years tops but after going to the Falken website they said after 6 years you can inspect the tires for cracks and continue using them until year 10. I was under the impression from seeing other manufactures stating something similar and thought maybe tire longevity has improved and therefore you can go a little bit longer. My goal was to change them out on year 7 but I kicked it down the road. Last year the tires were fine and were griping as well as year 1 and just like that from sitting in storage they just didn't lose a little grip year by year they lost it like someone turned off a switch.  I have a feeling that when the tires get heat cycled out the grip falls off instantly and not progressively. I also think its possible that the rubber dried out.  I preach about replacing tires early and I didn't follow my own advise which landed me in trouble.  

 Just know just because a tire has treads it doesn't mean it has plenty of grip left.  

This is good to know, as I don't drive my Spyder any where near as much as I used to and still have plenty of tread left on the S-drives I've got several years ago -- I'm nearing year ten pretty soon and will need to go back and look at receipts to see when they were actually put on the car.  I purchased a full set of S-drives last year, after they were discontinued, and was able to get some of the last ones in stock (or so I was told).  It may be time for me to have the new tires mounted.

Thanks again for posting your experience for me to learn from. 

Posted by: @uncle-mush

This is good to know, as I don't drive my Spyder any where near as much as I used to and still have plenty of tread left on the S-drives I've got several years ago -- I'm nearing year ten pretty soon and will need to go back and look at receipts to see when they were actually put on the car.  I purchased a full set of S-drives last year, after they were discontinued, and was able to get some of the last ones in stock (or so I was told).  It may be time for me to have the new tires mounted.

Thanks again for posting your experience for me to learn from. 

  Check the date on the new tires. The clock is ticking once they are made.  I think for all-season compound  they are probably a little more resilient to being heat cycled out but for the class of tires we use all it takes is a few track sessions or time and they will be unpredictable. I wasn't even given a courtesy skid. It was like I drove on to a frozen lake bed and it was quiet no noise just smoke.  

@dev

That sounds a lot like how the old falkens that came with my car felt. They still had plenty of tread but they slid like crazy, without making any smoke or noise. Fun to hoon around on for a little while, but as I wrote about my bad experience in another thread, extremely unpredictable once perfect road conditions were gone. 

@RIA

Have you heard of the LightInSight?

https://lightinsight.com/product/lightinsight/

It's a piece of self-adhering fresnel lens. My favorite $20 mod for the Spyder. I can see traffic lights without hunching over. It does take some time to find the right placement for yourself, and it takes time to get used to using it... But I'll never go back. 

Here's my review of it on AdChat.... If you dare go back:

https://www.spyderchat.com/threads/lightinsight-a-review.36454/post-2117427

Maybe I'll crosspost it here later.

Hard to get nice driving roads being in NYC. There are small back roads in Long Island that are pretty nice and many end up in a small town with a beach vibe. As far as within the city the Jackie Robinson Expy is actually a really fun drive late at night when there is little to no traffic. I love hitting the FDR at night simply because of the scenery. For actually stretching the legs on the Spyder I like to go to Bear Mountain in Jersey, usually doing a loop involving Seven Lakes Drive. On the NY side Hawk's nest up 97 is a great spot, always a lot of cars/bikes and people do stop all over to take pictures so as long as you know the area its a bit easier. 

Posted by: @forminfunction

Hard to get nice driving roads being in NYC. There are small back roads in Long Island that are pretty nice and many end up in a small town with a beach vibe. As far as within the city the Jackie Robinson Expy is actually a really fun drive late at night when there is little to no traffic. I love hitting the FDR at night simply because of the scenery. For actually stretching the legs on the Spyder I like to go to Bear Mountain in Jersey, usually doing a loop involving Seven Lakes Drive. On the NY side Hawk's nest up 97 is a great spot, always a lot of cars/bikes and people do stop all over to take pictures so as long as you know the area its a bit easier. 

What is it like driving in NY city now that there isn’t much traffic. It must be unreal. 

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Tough out there for mid engine RWD cars, it's hard to contain the excitement!! Seriously though, within the city its mostly a ghost town but the speed cameras are still active M-F 6am - 10pm......not that I watch the clock or anything. Ironically at the time of the crash in that video traffic accidents were down from the same time period as the shutdown of schools/businesses compared to last year however fatalities are higher. Driving takes less than 1/3 the time it would normally take to travel between boroughs, it really hammers home how much of our lives are normally wasted in traffic.

ForinFunction,

have you been to the annual Bear Mountain MR2 meet in September?

I have only gone once but quite an experience.