after watching snipits of paris-roubaix last night, i was interested in the seemingly spontaneous crashes that took place on the cobblestone sections. i have never ridden on that type of surface myself.

are they just slippery on the surface? tires get caught in the grooves? other?

on a side note, the bikes set-up specifically for that race looked pretty sweet, i would imagine the tires used would need to utilize a compound designed to handle a whole mixture of surfaces, overall that race looks very challenging.

A lot of the crashes are caused by sections that are very slippery from water and mud on the cobbles and also the fact that they bounce the bike around so you are losing traction. If you get bounced up midway through a turn your tire will lose contact, come down and slide out from under you.

I've ridden cobbles in france, and in my little bit of experience, momentum and lack of sudden movement are key. Not bad at all if you keep your speed up and make small adjustments.

Those square cobbles are for wussies. Try riding spherical cobbles - they'll do a number on you and your wheels.



(but seriously - much harder; they'll turn your wheel for you if you don't hold on tight.)

I rode them in Belgium and Holland. Luckily it was dry both times. Shook the b'jesus out of me. Look Here for tips.

edit. I watched the video and learned nothing useful about cobbles. Sorry for posting it.

+1.

Any big news yet, rollin?

I ride on them every day on my commute, and when they are wet they are damn slippery, and dependign on the layout of the stones it's quite possible to get a tire stuck between them.

That being said, I have an acquaintance who is a former pro rider who rode Paris-Roubaix and once commented to me that his SAG wagon guy was a former rally car navigator who said Paris-Roubaix was the worst road he'd ever ridden on.

Nothing yet Doc. One week over now. Mum is well, baby is well, doctor is happy. I'm going crazy but clearly that doesn't count for anything!

I've been practicing.... ehhhhmmmm "Yes Dear"; "Absolutely Dear"; "Whatever you say Dearest"; "I'm here for you Dear...."

I just love them. Really. The trick is to ride really really fast. It makes you bounce less. I'd rather have cobble stones than slow concrete roads...

I ran on cobbles in Prague. They hurt my feet and my ankles ended up sore the next day. I couldn't even imagine riding on them.

There's a loop around a state college near me that has 2 sections of cobbles, each are very short...only 20-30 yards. Hate 'em. What's an otherwise very nice loop of road (decent pavement, very little traffic) that would be perfect for doing intervals, etc., and you've got these two absolute momentum killers in there. I couldn't imagine doing a race on them.

At a charity ride last year, there was about a 5 mile section of road that the state was in the process of repaving. Prior to putting down new blacktop, they scar up the road which grinds big grooves into the pavement that help "hold" the new asphalt. Anyway, they "scarred" this 5 mile section right before the ride, so it was too late to re-route things. At the first rest area afterward, half the people there were digging into their seatbags for allen wrenches to tighten up all the stuff on their bikes that had come loose. Bottle cages, headsets, speed sensors....

Anyway, no interest in riding them. A lot of fun watching others do it.

Closet I've come to cobbles was on stage II of the San Dimas Stage Race, in the main climb on the course right near the top there was a strip of cobbles really pissed you off and ruined your rhythm. They were baby cobbles compared to the pave at Roubaix though.

I've ridden them in France and Belgium. In France they were just short sections of more brick-like cobblestone and weren't too bad. The ones in Ieper, Belgium were much rounder ... like riding over a series of bowling balls.

When I went to Belgium (Brasschaat, north of Antwerp, on Dutch border) for my very short racing trip, I trained pretty much daily on cobbled sections of road. This was true simply because I had to ride on cobble roads just to get out of my parent's neighborhood.

Of course I'd dreamed about riding cobbles forever so I took every opportunity to ride them. At home I'd ride cobbles next to Central Park (between the park and the sidewalk), or in driveway entries where they cobbled the first 10 feet of driveway, etc etc etc. I also rode on dirt roads for a long time, and enjoyed beating up my bike on rough roads.

Mind you in Belgium I had a Cannondale 2.8 frame, AL fork, so a very rigid bike. I had 28H FiR Isidis (box section) rims I think, with tubulars of some kind (CX/CG probably). No extra tape, very aggressive position (14 cm stem, flat, slammed down). A lot of disapproving clucks by other racers and their dads.

I didn't mind riding cobbles, but there are different flavors. The rougher the cobbles, the more fun. Smooth cobbles seem like a waste - might as well brick or pave the road and save some money. On the rough stuff you have to go fast (smoother, 27-28 mph or faster) or very slow (10-12 mph), hold the bars loosely (smoother), and use your big ring (keeps chain from bouncing as much). We ran moderate pressures, 100-120 psi. Longest stretch of cobbles maybe 2-3 km, but if you find a block surrounded by cobbles you could have yourself a cobble crit.

City cobbles are terrible, like riding on big blocks of melting ice. Oil, antifreeze, diesel, and the inevitable rain combine to make them super slick. Plus just when you think it's as bad as it gets, you get some tram tracks going at about a 30 degree angle to the road. Cornering is tricky when you're going fast in the wet, I just slowed down, and racing wise I just followed the others.

Most of the races had some cobbles in it, we went too fast for me to make any judgment on how to ride it ("well, riding in a 54x12 in the drops didn't work...."). Also I got dropped within a few minutes of starting pretty much every race. Max speed in my first race was over 70 kph (43 mph) and I got dropped so hard in 5 km that I was pulled (means I was 3 minutes down I think).

But overall it's much like riding mountain bikes (or 'cross, but I haven't done cross).

Driving on cobbles is a pain. I keep thinking shock absorber companies sponsor cobble streets. Nothing romantic about driving on them.

cdr

I live in Edinburgh which still retains many of its cobbled streets around the Old Town and other sections, no doubt largely because of its status as a World Heritage Site. Frankly I hate the damned things. In the wet they can be lethal and in the dry they will happily shake your soul free from your body if you ride on narrow road tyres as I do. You can grip your bars loosely and be as careful as you want, but the continuous jarring will wear you out. I try and avoid them..

Matthew

A few times yes.
Never had much of a problem..
There are a few cobblestone roads in calgary.

We have quite a few brick paved streets here in St. Pete, a section which we pass at the beginning of many of our club rides. While hardly pleasant they're no big deal either, as long as they're dry. Wet, it's a whole 'nother story...

the steepest public street in the world is all cobbles...and yep, i've ridden it =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANDJF...eature=related

Citation needed.

Found it...

Baldwin Street in Dunedin, NZ is supposed to be the steepest paved street in the world, and it's not cobblestone.

https://www.bikereader.com/contributo...ley/hills.html

ridden and raced.

I've been waiting to get home because I always love an excuse to post my cobbles pic.

The old city, Vaison La Romaine, Provence.

These are the only cobblestones I like:

such a great pic.

cobblestones? i see no cobblestones.