It's really hard to explain. More instinctive than anything else. The bike has a tendency to drift. Thats OK to a point. You can't drift into oncoming traffic. So, you allow it to drift until it goes straight again. This will usually happen within a short time, seconds. Then, it will wander over to the other direction. You have to compensate without over compensating. Now, with a large groove, you have to steer into it and, over it. The best piece of advice is to slow down and/or, avoid it. Make any sense?

 

Milled roads are nothing compared to fresh tar and chips......it's like a gravel road only worse because the chips slide around on the pavement and it's like you trying to get traction with steel tires on concrete..

 

In Michigan many roads are grooved. The interstate near my office is grooved and on a curve. During rush hour everyone pulled a no reason panic stop from 70mph. I was on the brakes hard and not stopping like I should have been. Suddenly the bike started to slide out from under me. Without any indication, the rear brake was locked. No noise, nothing. I let off, straightend up, and got back on the brakes and got stopped. Scared the $hit out of me. That is the only time the bike has been out of my control. And I was totally unaware.
Got to work and realized that the pavement also tore the crap out a little patch on the tire.
I have new respect for grooved pavement.
Be careful.

 

Just like any other variable, keep your eyes on where you're going, not where you are. This applies to everything on the bike, turns, pot holes, grooves in the road, everything. Just relax and everything will be fine.

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bigtop1 and beendad pegged it. Marksman has valuable experience, too...experience I don't have and don't particularly care to have! I also think that if Marksman had a tense, tight grip on the bars, he might not have come out of it so well. Marksman, good way to keep your head, but if your rear tire suddenly found traction when you let off the rear brake you could have high sided it! Fortunately your traction sucked enough that all worked very well for you. And again, congratulations on keeping your head about you during it all.

Teek

 

I have learned to lighten up my grip on the bars...Let the bike hunt a little for its grip, and just relax and let it float along.....Your momentum will keep it heading pretty much straight enough as it hunts !Never once had any trouble using this method......The key is to RELAX and trust the bikes feel for the road, it knows where its going......And DO NOT panic and use the brakes......especially the FRONT brake ! Just relax and let er hunt a little.

 

No ones mentioned how they would handle a 3"deep grove filled to the surface with hundreds of tiny stones.......as you feel your front and rear tire fall into it. The relax and let your bike go where it wants method dosn't work. The bike wants to go down. I've been through this.All traction is gone, without using any brake. Any Thoughts?

 

In response to HD7585: Drop your legs on both sides of the bike to stabilize the drift and, slow down without hitting the brakes too much( if at all). You need to get off that kind of stuff. Your feet will help to keep the bike upright (hopefully) long enough to regain control. It's not a shamefull act to use your feet and legs to act as outriggers. The key to anything like that is still, to be looking far enough ahead to know that its coming. Then, not to panic and, over- react. Not a good experience, to be sure. The use of the throttle can also be of benefit in this if the gap with the gravel is not too far apart. Hitting the throttle a bit will lesson the weight on the front wheel so it won't dig into the gravel as much. Depends on the situation.

 

In response to evilengineer and his advice to "man up" and "get some training"..... I man up every time I jump on the highway mixing up with careless cagers and I have taken the beginner and advanced MSF training and never have they given any advice on running on milled highway.

I rode over almost 1 mile of milled roadway - including curves in the road - the other day (major highway, with cager ans truck traffic moving well over 60 MPH through it and around me ) and I have to say it was the most unpleasant scarriest 1 mile I've experienced on my Harley to date.

The bike drifted either side of centerline almost into the other lanes, despite my attempt to not panic and let the tires track as they will.

In short, milled roadway is all part of riding among other hazzards, but to me it's the most scariest, despite 'manning up'....

 

Metzler Lasertec. The original tires that came on our 883 were terrible over the groves. In Sturgis, some friends of ours at the campground said to get a Mezlaser front tire. We did and haven't had a problem with grooves since. The mezlaser has been replace/renamed Lasertec. It is the one with the chevron tread pattern. Best front tire made. The crotch rocket racers were using them for rain tires. Dunno if they still do. I have the ME 880 Marathon on my bike, but the 16" wheels don't have near the problems as the narrow 18" ones do.