Anyone else love speed bumps?

[ecycler]

Something occurred to me on my ride home from work. I curse speed bumps in every other vehicle, except for my FS ebikes! Some days I have a little more time and purposefully take the long way to nail some nice sets of berms along a greenway (as well as a few other fun features I have discovered,) but today I realized that I have been slowly, subconsciously adapting my route to hit as many speed bumps as possible on my way to work.

Instead of going around them which is generally pretty easy on a bike, I actually go out of my way to pick up speed, scan for the rampiest spot and see how high I can boost off it. They are all a little bit different and each one gives me a small rush when I get airborne.*

Anyone else? It cracks me up that these are to slow traffic down, but actually make the world a little bit more fun for some us! 8)


*Note: I ride responsibly and if there are cars or pedestrians around I slow down and feel a little sad inside, haha.

 

[MadRhino]

Speed bump is 3 way fun.
I can absorb it
I can use it as a jumping ramp
I can bunny hop them
8)

 

[melodious]

I always snicker when an SUV slows down when they see them. As if it could ruin their suspension. :lol:

 

[ecycler]

Depends on the 'SUV' we are talking about. Some of these crossovers that some fools refer to as their "truck" are nothing more than a unibody wagon with a taller roof and slightly larger wheels and tires!

 

[kneedeep]

With my junk scooters I drove the last 4 years I steered far clear of them, but on my new ride I am sure to aim for a few.

 

[dustNbone]

My ebike rides on 95 psi 32mm tires, so no. I do not love speedbumps. But I still go over them without braking, just means lifting my ass off the seat.

 

[Chalo]

Speed bumps suck. They suck to ride over; they suck as a reminder of how profoundly car drivers have ruined our lives for their momentary convenience.

I'd rather they were all replaced by speed and weight sensitive land mines that would neatly select out those whose combination of antisocial speed and unnecessary vehicle weight demonstrated that they didn't deserve to share space with the rest of us.

 

[RustyKipper]

Speed bumps, we have them everywhere in the UK. I remember last summer…..

If was a warm Friday afternoon riding home, I was feeling good, the weekend was here the sun was shining. I turned into a road that had quite a steep downhill decent of around 22%, some clown had decided speed bumps were necessary heaven knows how you are supposed to drive up it in the snow but anyhow, no motor or pedalling is necessary just freewheel down. There are a total of three speed bumps a few hundred feet apart, the first is taken fairly slow just following the contours as you are building up speed, the second is quite quick but by the time you hit the final one you are doing well over 30mph, as I said I was feeling good so as I hit the bump I pulled a little bunny hop…. the bike launched into the air like a gazelle leaping over a log….I flew through the air like a bird…. Wow! way cooool….just as some fool comes tearing around the blind corner in a car and appears dead in front of me…. I brake hard, nothing happens, the three feet of air under my tires seems to dulled the braking efficiency somewhat….gulp, I scan the front of the car for the softest part to hit, the car slams on its brakes just as I land and I manage to swerve into the middle of the road and miss the car by a hairs breadth.

 

[dogman dan]

You must have nice speed bumps where you are. The type they call speed humps, which go on a street. I hit those at speed no problem,, the speed limit, 25 mph that is.

Most speed bumps around here are in parking lots, and those could fold a wheel, or a fork, on anything less than a high end FS MTB. People actually drag the frame of the car on the ones at my bank. Makes that drive through nice though, people avoid it so never a line. In a truck, you do slow down a lot for that,, or you bounce your head off the roof.

 

[RustyKipper]

We have every speed bump known to man in the UK (the UK is very much anti car), in this area they tend to favour square speed bumps like these



In a car you have to hit them dead between the wheels or you will hit them hard, they seem to be arranged such that opposing vehicles end up sharing the same bit of road in the centre, and if you are riding a bike its common for a car to swerve in front of you to line up with one of these things pushing you into the kerb.

In residential areas we have hundreds of these



They can go on for miles so the journey in a car is carried out in a series of several hundred hops, and they are not always visible at night so dangerous on a bike if you don't expect one.

They seem to have been phased out now but there used to be some savage brick built speed bumps designed to do maximum damage to your vehicle at any speed. I always remember seeing a funeral hearse high centred on one.

I know the car park ones you mean, we have those in every shopping mall, with the original engine my Chevy truck it would stall every time I drove over one, probably something to do with the float in the carb.

 

[ecycler]

I should note that I do not enjoy speed bumps nearly as much on my hardtails and my FS bikes both have high-end dual crown forks like MadRhino's. The rockshox is an older model and more springy/jumpy (more fun for boosting) and the Marzocchi likes to soak up the bumps and I can not get it to jump as high off these great little yellow road ramps.

It appears the Russians enjoy speed bumps in their cars the same way I do on my bike! LOL
[youtube]RbmT39gTJCw[/youtube]

 

[Izits]

Sped bumps are not naturally occurring hazards, they are functionally no different than someone waiting by the side of the road to strike your tires with a baseball bat. A speed bump is just a mechanical machine that has been set up to automate the assaulting of your tires by a specific person or entity. When you drive over a speed bump, you are being assaulted.

If you drove by a machine that automatically shot your car with a paint ball gun, would you feel personally assaulted? A speed bump is no different.

When you find them on private land like a shopping center, feel free to ask to speak to someone in charge and lodge a complaint; use up some of their time. When you find them on a public road, now you've got one typical result of big government.

 

[RustyKipper]

Strewth, is that a 20KPH speed limit??, no wonder everyone is ignoring it

 

[dustNbone]

If it's in the UK it will be in MPH.

I've noticed that as suspension technology has improved in cars, the speed bump designers have felt the need to make sure they provide the same effect. They're nastier than ever, and the ones that piss me off the most are the ones that are unpainted, and unmarked. You just hit them out of nowhere because you're busy paying attention to your surroundings and other traffic instead of carefully scanning the road for intentionally placed obstacles designed to damage you and your vehicle.

Safety my ass.

 

[nutnspecial]

http://blog.parknews.biz/2016/04/actibump-a-speed-bump-you-actually-like/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_bump#Speed_cushions
http://nacto.org/docs/usdg/study_speed_humps_speed_slots_and_speed_cushions_johnson.pdf
https://www.ci.sandusky.oh.us/engineering/PDF/trafficcalming.pdf
http://www.usreflector.com/Html_products/Traffic%20calming/All%20speed%20bumps%20and%20humps.html
http://www.stmarysmd.com/docs/speedbumpsvshumps.pdf
Speed tables, humps and bumps. Circular, parabolic, and flat topped.
And don't forget speed cushions and slots, speed stars and mini humps.

Wtf it's nearly too much for any mortal man, just wanting to find the name of those 'reverse' 'ditch' speed bump things. But they remain non existent or at least unmentioned.
Please tell me they exist, reality is slipping

 

[boytitan]

How are speed bumps with out warning. I just see someone on a motorcycle flying off and dieing due to a speed bump. They create hazards instead of preventing them.

 

[Chalo]

How are speed bumps with out warning. I just see someone on a motorcycle flying off and dieing due to a speed bump. They create hazards instead of preventing them.

The speed bump just sits there. The hazard is always, always created by someone using a vehicle. You can think, "not my fault", but if you're the one bringing kinetic energy to the equation, in fact it is your fault.

If it weren't for motorists' callous disregard for others, there would be no such thing as a speed bump.

 

[The fingers]

I like the big smooth asphalt speed bumps, but hate those little hard rubber abrupt ones that bolt to the road surface. :x

 

[fechter]

Also known as "Undulations" here.

The suspension on my A2B sucks for those. I have to slow way down.

 

[hypertoric_amplituhedron]

How are speed bumps with out warning.

Well, sometimes they are

[youtube]pCzfTiIp97Y[/youtube]

 

[kneedeep]

Wow! Just Wow!

 

[Chalo]

Wow! Just Wow!

Wow for sure, but that wasn't a speed bump. It was some kind of frost related bucking of the roadway, hence no warning signs or stripes.

 

[DRMousseau]

I've seen a few of those "surprise" bumps,... poor road engineering and hot summer days! Seen a few from local gypsum mine activity too,... more like a shallow sinkhole!!! Wrecked a motor cycle on one myself,... I was lucky!

I wouldn't wanna outright admit to agreement with Chalo's comments, even feeling much the same as I do. But if the MAJORITY of motorists weren't so damn thoughtless and inconsiderate, speedbumps wouldn't exist ANYWHERE!!! But if you remove 'em,.... suddenly EVERYONE thinks the speed limit increased 10-15mph over that posted!!!

I hate 'em in every way personally, from public cost to personal property damage and worse. Bad enough I gotta watch for real hazards,.. why should public roads be a hazard in themselves?!?!

 

[MadRhino]

Here they are rounded asphalt bumps 6 to 10" high X 2ft
Normally very well identified with a sign on the side of the street and white paint stripes, often installed in a series of 2 or 3 that are 50 ft apart.

They are very efficient to slow down the cars in the surroundings of parks and schools. On a bike they are not much of a nuisance, it is a good occasion to pass ahead of the traffic. At night, they are fun to jump when the streets are deserted.

In the winter, many are destroyed by the snow cleaning operations. Every spring they need to do them fresh, not always at the same places. Lately, they introduced a new type of speed nuisance for cars that is much more dangerous to bikes. They doubled the width of the sidewalks at random places, by sections of 50 ft that are alternated each side of the street. On corners, big flower boxes that are taking part of the street width. A bike is in danger trying to pass cars in those sections, need to be ready at any time to jump on the sidewalk to avoid a cager who doesn't look in mirrors. In comparison, I love the speed bumps, find them not only fun but much safer.

 

[nutnspecial]

Have you guys seen the 'reverse' speed bumps? I swear to god I remember driving over them but can't remember when or where, and can't find mention of them online.

They're like a depressed/reverse/inverse/ditch/gulley version of a 'speed table'. Maybe a 6-10' long depression that's several inches deep that can 'bottom out' a speeding vehicle while tending to keep the energy more lateral.