Originally Posted by
LesterOfPuppets
I've been on some melted roads in the US. Doesn't affect bike riding all that much. Sometimes buses make severe depressions in the road surface at stops.
Stopgap resurfacing can be a *****. Around here I ride on slurry seal which ain't bad, to chip seal with reasonably sized aggregate which ain't bad after a couple of months to chip seal with mondo 1" aggregate which never gets good except in the tire tracks of the road.
The worst part is that my county chipseals even the bike lane or shoulder even though that part of the road sees little wear. The county could probably save thousands of dollars by not chip sealing the bike lanes and shoulders.
Les, the chipseal around here is butter compared to the stuff they put down in Eastern Washington. It's way chunky- I'd consider a balloon tire bike with Schwalbe Big Apples if I were riding there all the time. I've ridden the Yakima-to-Prosser Wine Trek ride a couple times and thought I was going to lose fillings each time.