bruce19

I wonder why they don't chip seal the interstates?

1986raleigh

Chip seal is normal here, yesterday I rounded a blind 90 degree turn which is at the crest of a small hill at about eighteen mph. When to my surprise I discovered a county patching crew stopped dead in my lane spraying a patch across the incoming lane, no warning no flag man, just a honking big truck stopped dead in my lane shooting loose ground limestone across the only place I had to go. Pucker factor, oh crap, feather brakes, bleed off speed, no lean and steer around with gravel spraying my bike and the tires picking it up in the tar sticking to them.

I must have been holding my mouth just right no wipe out, but I paid back the luck God with pedaling into an eight mph headwind the last eight miles of the ride...

1986raleigh

Heavy trucks.

Jseis 

Parts of the Aberdeen freeway (not an interstate) were chip sealed. Chip seal here is great for auto/truck winter traction but wears tires like crazy. We get heavy truck. But we've mild weather. I can't see chip seal holding up well in freezing cold weather areas.

Fox Farm

As a kid growing up in Connecticut in the 1960s, the crews would put down oily tar on the paved roads, and then rather than stone chips, they used sand. It was crazy! The place was like a beach in an oil refinery for weeks!

Wildwood 

not only do I prefer a 28 rear on these roads but for longer rides I double glove the hands.

I was especially mad at this chip seal operation because I missed my chance to pedal it smoothly. Good asphalt (tarmac) is just so much nicer.

Astrozombie

But did the guy buzz you or no?

bruce19

Last week I passed a crew just starting to chip seal. I got about 1/2 mi. down the road and was facing a short but pretty steep hill. Couldn't shift down to my small ring. Ended up cross chaining and going up in 50x27. it really sucked and I was pissed because it was a new SRAM Red Yaw derailleur. Later discovered that some of the grit from the road crew had lodged in the front derailleur. Another reason to hate chip seal.

LesterOfPuppets

Auto glass shops wonder the same thing.

hfbill

On a recent century ride from Oneonta to Skaneateles NY, I was having a great ride on Chenango County RT 16, until I came upon a recently (and poorly) done Tar & Chip job. I can see Tar & Chip being used on very small local roads perhaps, but this county road was well traveled by tractor trailers, motorcycles, cars & bicycles. It was 4 inches deep in loose stone in many places. I suffered through 5 miles of agony on this garbage before I had a chance to get off and detour 6 miles around it to a properly surfaced road. In that five miles, I saw several large tractor trailers that were obviously struggling to keep their rigs on the road, ditto the motorcycles and me. I also got peppered with stones by every vehicle that passed by me. They obviously just put down the tar and then dumped the stone on without any attempt to roll it or pack it down. Whoever was responsible for this appalling situation should have been arrested & charged with reckless endangerment!

DrIsotope

Here in Inland Southern California, we have a special relationship with chipseal. The roads here can be really bad in places. I call it "California Cobblestone," because it's really just a loosely interlocking grid of broken asphalt chunks. So when they chipseal over it, great-- anything is better. But then this is California, where it rains 10 days a year. So the chipseal "lasts" a really, really, really long time. There are some roads that were sealed in the 70s, and they just leave 'em. That road texture is... savage.

Then a new development, or warehouse, or whatever goes in, and the road gets refreshed... for that 50 or 100 yards that faces the new build. So we get a few seconds of smooth sailing in between the long stretches of California Cobblestone. Another CX bike rider here-- because I don't want to stay confined to the limited areas with well-maintained roads.

Dan333SP

@WalksOn2Wheels

This zombie thread is right up your chipsealed alley.

DrIsotope

Only 2 years. Just proof the search function works. Nobody is gonna beat the guy a few weeks ago that dug up one over 11 years old, unless they do it deliberately.

WalksOn2Wheels

Yeah, I saw this. For what it's worth, though I got no sympathy in the addiction thread when my favorite road got destroyed, all my local riding friends are pretty pissed about it.

At least whatever road this thread is taking about eventually smoothed out. Mine is all shoulder and will forever be trash.

Jarrett2

Any time someone asks me why I ride a steel road bike with 25mm Gatorskins in Texas, I'm going to pull up this thread

Jarrett2

In my neck of the woods, they chipseal over bad gravel roads. It turns into the roughest crap I've ever ridden on. It's hard to tell a difference between it and a regular gravel road.

cyclezen

wait til the plows get a few months on this... a special kinda hell

bruce19

In the end it will, once again, break down prematurely and recreate those potholes if it's anything like the chip seal we have in New England. Cheaper initially but in the long run it will be re-done more frequently.

Jarrett2

You want to know what sucks?

Riding up a 13% Texas chip seal hill with a head wind and a heat index of 108

My riding buddy calls it a "character builder"

merlinextraligh

By now the road in the OP is likely reasonably smooth.

cthenn

First chip in my paint job courtesy of county chip seal. Naturally they were still working at 630 and the chip hadn't even been swept. Plow right into fresh tar and chip, which then sticks to my tires which then jams up in my brakes and wedges in between my frame and crank. Pinky finger sized chip and scratched carbon. Brakes also scratched up. Fuggin aholes...

10 Wheels

Texas

Trsnrtr

What he said. Money is tight and chip seal is a life extender and will be continued to be used no matter how much cyclists hate it.

Perfectly rational method of maintenance for many types of road. I had an annual multi-million dollar budget for my county* and used a combination of resurfacing, cracksealing, recycling and "OH, NO!" sealcoat. The method used on a given road depends upon a lot of variables not obvious to the average person.

I wish I had a nickel for every person who complained about us spending money on a road in "perfect" shape when any half-ass road engineer could see the need for maintenance in seconds. I could of retired earlier with all of those nickels.

*In Illinois, there are state, county, city and township road maintenance with separate funds for each. For example, my county which was about 14th out of 102 counties only maintained ~228 miles of highway and every penny was weighed carefully being spent.

12strings

Just because we understand why they do it doesn't mean we I've to like it...

LesterOfPuppets

and whiskey!