Fifty Plus (50+) - Rocks on my road.........

They've done it again. Every decade or so they come and repave my road with the latest and greatest version of Chipseal 4.3. Years ago, it was very fine, almost like sand and in relatively short order wer were back to smooth pavement. It has progressed through several versions of ever larger rock, most of which didn't stick and eventually was picked up by the road sweeping crew.

This time, however, they seem to have outdone themselves. The rock is smaller, on the order of 1/2" in diameter (but diameter doesn't do it justice because its not round) The oil/tar/glue however seems to have gone on thicker than ever this year, and the "rock" is uniformly glued down across the whole road width.

This does not bode well as it doesn't appear that this rock will be going away anytime soon. I now have a road with the consistancy of a corse file that looks like it will shread tires (and flesh for the unlucky) for years to come. I guess I'll be hauling the bike out to other locations to ride for a while.........................sigh.

The politicians/road departments in northwest Arkansas have become enamored with this heinous form of punishment as well. That which we rode over today is about a year old, so there is little loose gravel, but it's still like riding over a wash board. It's a commie plot against cyclists! You have my sympathies.

Paving here is of various varieties - but I must say I have had a lot of fresh & nicely paved roads this year in unexpected places. NYS must be taking advantage of the high asphalt prices to get all thier paving done this year...

new chipseal is not my fav, but it beats cracked broken pavement with potholes.

http://home.comcast.net/~avzander/DSC01569.JPG

Here is what my personal chipseal looks like. Sigh


While your at it check out the telephone poles as the road drops away. Its only fun to live on the top of a hill like this half the time...............and now I don't really dare to go down it.

The only good thing I can think of is that this is winter snow country and the plows will help smooth next years road surface.

They used sharp rocks on a few rural roads near me this year. I read a local forum where over 20 cyclists reported getting flats off of a recently chip-sealed road. One of them had 3 flats within a 5 minute period.

http://home.comcast.net/~avzander/DSC01569.JPG

Here is what my personal chipseal looks like. Sigh

You live in a very beautiful place!

I am fortunate to live in the high desert, and I think that protects me from the chipseal brigade somewhat. It gets so cold here, for so long, that chipseal doesn't hold up and comes off in big chunks each spring. I think the county got tired of redoing chipseal roads and now re-paves with old-style asphalt that seems to hold up better. There are still a few chipseal roads, but they don't seem to be re-paving them with chipseal anymore.

Nice neighborhood, big stones, better obey that speed limit sign
it you venture out there.

Ouch! I wouldn't want to fall off my bike and land knee-first on that.:eek:

That sure is a beautiful neighborhood though.

It may be worth complaining, especially if the work was contracted.

Many of the rural roads around here (above Sacramento) are pretty rough. But some have just been repaved. I will have to say they are smooooooth. I love the sound of a bike on a smooth road.

...One of them had 3 flats within a 5 minute period.

If someone can fix flats THAT FAST, I don't see a problem!.

Put some tough and fat tires on Dormouse and go for a ride.

The Dormouse can ride on anything with IRC Mythos tires but the White Rabbit would not last 50 yards, even with kevlar anti flat belts in the tires.

I remember chip and seal when I was a kid growing up on Long Island. I remember playing touch football on that crap when a friend tried to make a sharp turn and that stuff caused his feet to just slide out from under him, smashing his face on a steel car bumper. (yes car bumpers used to be made out of steel). He almost lost an eye. I also remember all the dust that got kicked up whenever a car drove by. You'd think after all these years they'd have found a better way.

It may be worth complaining, especially if the work was contracted.

+1 There is a chance that if contracted, the contractor is not using materials that are within specifications. If this is the case, the contractor should be brought to task.

If someone can fix flats THAT FAST, I don't see a problem!.

That was 5 minutes of riding time ... and I'm only going on what he posted. He said he got his 2nd flat within 1 minute of having fixed the first one.

These jobs go to the lowest bidder . . .
You may not have chipseal in SLC area, but 80 miles north, up in Logan, they've just finished chipsealing some of the roads.
First they dump the chips; about a week later they put some thin tar down.
Patchkits are sold to fix flats . . .

http://home.comcast.net/~avzander/DSC01569.JPG

Here is what my personal chipseal looks like. Sigh





That's a nasty looking surface:eek:

Our city has been repaving this year and this is the first time they've used chip & seal. It doesn't look anything like what they've done in your area. It's just a thin coat of very fine chip.

Thankfully they redid my street last year when they were still putting down new asphalt.

That surface looks like what they put down as the final prep layer before adding asphalt. All the jagged surfaces make the asphalt bond better.

I guess I'm luckier than many posters. I get flats once in a while, but I can ride on all kinds of surfaces with cheap road tires without flatting.

That looks a lot better than the ground up arrowheads and old spears they use around here.

I feel your pain. The 200k brevet I rode yesterday already had a considerable amount of chipseal, and it turns out they had just added over 20 miles of new chipseal near the beginning that was extremely rough. Just in case the 105 degree temperature wasn't enough to make it a tough 131.8 miles...

These jobs go to the lowest bidder . . .
You may not have chipseal in SLC area, but 80 miles north, up in Logan, they've just finished chipsealing some of the roads.
First they dump the chips; about a week later they put some thin tar down.
Patchkits are sold to fix flats . . .

I wonder why? Logan is way colder in the winter than here in Salt Lake. You'd think they would have worse problems with chipseal coming off. Maybe SL County is feeling rich...?

After running into chipseal on a couple of long rural rides this year I've decided my next set of tires is going to be 28c (up from 25c).

I sympathize with you. They don't seem to use that stuff up in my area. Then again, it appears that many areas don't seem to even DO road repairs to start with. It does look like good MTB terrain if that's any consolation.

http://home.comcast.net/~avzander/DSC01569.JPG

Here is what my personal chipseal looks like. Sigh

THAT'S chipseal?? Wow! I thought it was the beige gravel they sprinkle on the roads up here. I'm not sure I've ever seen that.

Our city has been repaving this year and this is the first time they've used chip & seal. It doesn't look anything like what they've done in your area. It's just a thin coat of very fine chip.



I may have spoken too soon. One of the roads where they spread the very fine chip was paved with asphalt yesterday:D Hopefully they'll be doing this to all the roads where they spread the fine chips.

The politicians/road departments in northwest Arkansas have become enamored with this heinous form of punishment as well. That which we rode over today is about a year old, so there is little loose gravel, but it's still like riding over a wash board. It's a commie plot against cyclists! You have my sympathies.

PA also. Gov. Ed "Taxdell" will leave a legacy of 2 terms in office of making every road in the state unusable to cyclists. He Fast Eddie gasoline is still over $3.75 a gallon!

The worst thing about the chip seal jobs is the loose gravel, which should have been swept up, is piled up on the shoulder of the road and a certain crash if you wonder into it. The other thing the great PENDOT has been doing to ruin the roads is cutting "Drunk saver" grooves in the shoulder making you ride your bike in the road.

You'd think after all these years they'd have found a better way.

Ah, you see, there's your mistake. The goal is not "better", it's "cheaper".

SP
Bend, OR
- where I've been riding on chipseal for so long, I've almost forgotten what asphalt is like.

If you want bad road surfaces- go to France. Motorways and the Better roads are good. But there is one level of road designated "D" for Diabolical. These are small local link roads and some are just Farm tracks with hard core to fill the holes in and Tar. Had some on my training rides last year and there I was gaily going up a slope at around 8MPH and feeling good- Suddenly slowed down to about 4. The tar under the pebbles that had been put on the road had melted and I was aquaplaning on 2" deep tar. This section was for about 1 mile uphill. Got to the turn round point and a fast downhill. Luckily I noted where the melted tar was and slowed. Found out why there was 2" on the other side of the road. The camber of the road and the melted tar meant that I was now riding on 2" of loose pebbles. The tar had run down the camber. I say tar but it was more like very thick grease.

Got back to the campsite and mentioned to another cyclist and apparantly this road is never used by locals. I was lucky in that I had gone there in the morning- In the afternoon the melted tar is deep.