Bandera

All,

I recently built a new road bike up w/ clearance for 28mm tires and fenders, not so very odd elsewhere but it does not rain here anymore and might not ever again. Today I found a good reason to mount the mudguards: TXDOT is dumping massive piles of gravel adjacent to my favorite roads in the Hill Country in preparation for the TXDOT Chip Seal Festival when millions of gallons of petro-goop are dumped on perfectly well paved roads and ceremoniously covered with a layer of ball bearing like pea gravel, debris and grit. Should keep the Plastic-$$$-Wunder bikes, Harleys and Ferraris in the garage until it bakes in.

Regards,

-Bandera

StephenH

I've never heard of fenders being useful for chipseal, and roads periodically getting chipsealed when they get too smooth is just a way of life.

Bandera

Having a layer of fresh petro-spooge, grit and pea gravel whanging off one's fenders rather than one's frame and nether parts is not useful? OK, fine. It is TXDOT Chip Seal Festival: enjoy, it will bake in eventually.

On another point, isn't "roads periodically getting chipsealed when they get too smooth is just a way of life" a waste of taxpayer money? Too Smooth? Chip seal it into a nasty environmental mess that fouls up every vehicle that passes over it and charge the taxpayers for making a good road worse.


-Bandera

unterhausen

let us know how it works out. We get chip seal occasionally, but they seem to use smaller stones that what I have seen in Tx

I think some of my older bikes may still have goop on them from Virginia chip seal festivals, they used something a lot like oil for the bonding agent

Bandera

U,

"Microsurfacing is a blend of emulsified asphalt, water, well-graded fine aggregate" -TXDOT

That translates into a nasty soup of petro-slop, run off, grit, spooge and gravel.
I highly recommend fitting mudguards before venturing onto fresh chip seal, as always do what you like.

BTW:

"well graded" is relative, the descents in the Hill Country w/ fresh chip seal may be very exciting if one is not operating a Rally car: YMMV.

-Bandera

Hydrated

All I know is that I love the word "spooge"... well... and that I never venture onto fresh chipseal. Ever. In any vehicle.

Commodus

Yea, there is lots of stuff lying around on the road that I don't want sprayed up at me. Fenders are good for this!

Clarabelle

We periodically have the same problem where we live. I hate the junk. My brother lost a good pair of running shoes thanks to a rock penetrating thru his sole. What really bugs me is because we don't get really hot here, it takes months of tires rolling over the stuff for it to pack down and become smooth, which means it never happens on the shoulders and bike lanes. Window dings, car dings, bicycle "gooed." YUCH!

photogravity

Given the real meaning of the word I, too, find this exceedingly funny. I'm not fond of chipseal, but if there's a road I need to travel that's freshly chip-sealed, I just deal with it rather than try to avoid it.

photogravity

When I lived in PA, I always shook my head at how badly maintained the roads were and how the various towns, villages, boroughs, cities, etc. all dealt with road surface issues in nearly the same manner: chipseal. I would rather drive or ride on an unpaved road than one that has been freshly chipsealed. It seems the township where I lived would rather chipseal the road where I lived on a yearly basis than to pave it. It simply made no sense to me.

michaelcycle

It's all been covered in detail here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/856484-Chip-seal