Originally Posted by
CJ Str3tch
Grespc15C, I was thinking the same thing - made me wonder if the stuff we see in Madison is better or worse? I've heard that the seal we have on our roads causes more flats, but I haven't experienced that (yet!). And, yes I still see new applications of it in the suburbs.
I wonder another thing, which is whether it even works to prolong the life of the roads. Maybe it's snake oil. One street in particular along my commute was just as lumpy a few months after chip-seal as it was before the treatment.
And of course different climates have different road problems. Here, the main killer of roads is freeze-thaw cycles. To protect a road from breaking up, it actually has to be sealed well enough that water doesn't get into the cracks
I've had my share of flats thanks to cheap tires, but most seem to be the result of glass on a certain stretch of bike path. At least, the flats that weren't self inflicted by careless tire installation.