Digital Gee

I live in a neighborhood which was first established in the 1920's. In fact, our neighborhood Park, Trolley Barn Park, sits on the spot where the original streetcar terminal sat, and not far away are homes on the place where a major Ostrich "ranch" once existed, back when ostrich feathers were a precious commodity in women's fashion.

But I digress.

The streets around here are famed for cracks and potholes. However, the city is slowly but surely repaving them, a couple of blocks at a time. And when they do, it's such a joy riding on the freshly paved (well, a few days old) streets. Smooth, quiet, mmmmm...

About half my morning "commute" (really just thirty minutes of cardio) is now repaved. I love it!

howsteepisit

Ahhh the smooth ride of fresh asphalt. But then up here they are so in love with chip seal that I have seen them chipseal over fresh ashalt.

DnvrFox

Interestingly, the house in San Diego where I spent my early years up to about 9 years old at 1219 Essex (since torn down) had a roof that had been moved from the original trolley roundhouse. It was a strange "roundhouse" roof and was featured at least once in the newspaper.

Floyd

Yes, Yes and Yes...we have some new asphalt in town. Dang nabit not where I do most of my riding, however I do get to enjoy the smoooooooooth once in a while.

Little Darwin

I remember once a couple of years ago rounding the bend in a road and noticing the roughed up road just in time to get up off the saddle... they had roughed up the road for a new coat of asphalt. It was the roughest ride I had in a long time, and I was irritated for a few seconds until I realized that it was OK, because I knew that the next week when I did the loop again it would be the smoothest ride in a long time.

VolGirl

A similar joy is new roads. On a couple of occasions, when they were building new stretches of highway and they were essentially ready, just not open to vehicles, I have had a whole road to myself. That's really great.

Tom Bombadil

It is nice to roll on. When I come off of my gravel trails and hit freshly paved asphalt, the difference is startling.

Next year they are supposed to pay 9 miles of the trail to Madison. So I'll be able to take 18 mile rides on fresh pavement, beginning right at my sub-division. I'm looking forward to it.

maddmaxx 

New asphault is as silck as goose stuff when wet....

stapfam

It's coming on for winter-What are you doing on the road?

Roads are too hard and abrasive to go out on at this time of the year. You should be out on the trails- noting the position of the piles of leaves and 6" of mud so that when you do fall off- you will have a soft landing.

Cone Wrench

A large portion (about15 km) of my regular 50-km route has just been repaved, but it doesn't seem as if I will get to ride on it until next spring. I hope the winter and spring thaw don't wreak too much havoc on it. There is still one downhill portion of the route which looks like the Ho Chi Minh Trail after a B-52 run. If that ever gets repaved the whole route will be like heaven.

brokenknee

Ahhhhh, I love the smell of fresh asphalt in the morning.

Beverly

How much are they going to pay it

CACycling

Our city has been repaving like crazy the past year and it is great. Except they are using a really thick (1/16" - 1/8" thick) material instead of normal paint for the bike lane markings. Really interrupts the nice smooth ride.

Tom Bombadil

I've been substituting words lately. Is that a senior monument?

Louis

This time of year is perfect for riding on fresh asphalt, but on a hot summer day it's almost like applying the brakes. Skinny road tires tend to sink in under those conditions.

cranky old dude

I used to enjoy freshly repaved roads but now I hate them.
Why? Well it seems that it is too expensive to pave in such a
way as to have the manhole covers and sewer grates on the
same plane as the road surface. So every repaved road seems
to have approx. a 2" drop to each of these hazards.

Yet I still remain happy for you, see how I am?

Happy Trails

Makeitso

Here where I am they always cut the road down and then pave it back up to the original level.

New pavement hurts as bad as old pavement to land on unfortunately.

wobblyoldgeezer

There is indeed something special about fresh asphalt - and I'm glad you've enjoyed smooth running on it.

My appreciation is, however, entirely negative.

The only brand new vehicle I've ever bought (I had a few brand new cars bought for me when I was covering a lot of miles on behalf of a consulting company, but they weren't really mine) was a Ducati motorcycle. Bought it with real after-tax money after a lot of drooling research - silver 944. A true beauty.

Picked it up from Central London, took it easy, a number of swooping curves to get rid of the shiny wax on the tyres, and set off along the A272 in southern England, a road beautiful enough to have its own web site!

All is delightful - until there's a line of traffic and lane dividing cones (too narrow to u-turn). Yes, new asphalt being laid, still sticky and steaming. Hot asphalt and new wide and well warmed up tyres - a very effective adhesive and spraying effect all over the new paintwork, the forks, the brake discs, the exhaust pipes. 3 years worth of typical wear and tear, paintwork abrasion, scores on the discs, burnt-on blobs on the pipes, damaged fork seals, on a 2 hour old bike.

(I might have let on through previous posts here that I like my new stuff to stay new?!!)

Oh yes, there's something special about new asphalt. Grr

jppe

With all the growth and updating of roads in the area I live in we have lots of opportunities on fresh stuff. It's becoming more common to have a ride interrupted waiting on one lane traffic in work zones as lanes are reduced down for the paving.......I think the asphalt guys are doing pretty well around here right now.

djnzlab1

HI,
My local street was selected to be upgraded and ground down a couple inches I believe to word is Milling the road. That will be great when its done, but right now it's a really rough ride to get out of my neighborhood.
ALmost bone jaring,,, hehe
I have to watch for all the new pot holes that have sprung up since the milling for some reason rain seems to help the holes to deepen, some are pretty steep.
I wouldn't cross them on a MTB..
I need to leave at 0630 am tomorrow and catch to Roadies at Fat Frogs and chase them for 26 miles with my vintage steel bike.....
Doug

BRNRBR

Due budgetary problems in both California and San Diego, the repaving of roads will come to a complete halt. We must cut back on services.

Also, anyone seen or heard getting any enjoyment of or from recently repaved roads will be subject to the enjoyment tax. Taxes, yes taxes. We must increase our income to help balance the budget you know!

That is all.

rm -rf

I rode on a mile of that, where they ground it down before repaving. Even standing up, there was so much vibration, my vision was getting blurry by the end of the mile. The road is really smooth now, of course.

Even uphill climbs are better if the road is smooth.

Tom Bombadil

It is really good on toast with a little blackberry jam.

Digital Gee

Sigh.

FrederickH

When, and IF, the local townships around here do manage to repave a local road, they will usually tar-and-chip it within the year.