Reassure me about the road surface.

Eau Rouge

I noticed tonight that the council people (I think it's one of the neighbouring ones) has started to put stone chippings on some of the local single-track roads, the very roads I do the majority of my cycling on at the moment. Tonight as I drove along them to see what they had done the roads were basically covered in what amounts to gravel, and pretty much impassable on 23mm bicycle tyres, especially the downhill bits.

I know this is a cheap bit of road surfacing that is used all over the place, but I haven't come across it since taking up cycling again, previously I was in a car, and a few days later the stones were "cleared" enough by traffic not to be worried. I know suspect that actually the stones were cleared to just off the car-tracks, pretty dangerously for bikes.

Does this stuff get sealed, cleared, become passable on 23mm tyres over time and how long is that time likely to be. I find it hard to believe in "health and safety Britain" that this sort of resurfacing is even allowed.

In the meantime I'm going to have to find some new loops to ride. Silver linings and all that.

Mossrider

Depends on use but I normally leave them a couple of weeks before I venture back. Stone chippings are a big hazard in rural West Yorkshire. Avoid.

roger_merriman

rather depends how much traffic the lanes get, the surrey lanes gets a lot more traffic than the lanes nr my folks place so clear a lot quicker, though chippings can remain in parts.

as long as one kept the speed down i'd of thought they would be passable though not much fun.

lost_in_thought

They do that round my way in essex every so often, takes a couple of weeks to pack down. However, having ridden a road bike on dirt and shingle roads in oz, as long as you're careful you should be fine.

AllTheGear

They do that round here too. There is a hill (if you can call it that near Cambridge) where I can hit 42mph. The road surface has big, new, sharp stones stuck to it. If I went down it would grind away clothing, flesh, bone... scary. No R-Sys for me!

gbs

Eau Rouge wrote:

I noticed tonight that the council people (I think it's one of the neighbouring ones) .

Shouldn't we name and then shame these CCs?

gbs

Eau Rouge wrote:

I noticed tonight that the council people (I think it's one of the neighbouring ones) .

Shouldn't we name and then shame these CCs?

emdeef

This is pretty much universal on minor roads. Parts of my commute are over roads treated thus in the past, some on council estate roads and some on a single track rural road. Both are OK now if a bit uneven in places. I was dismayed by the treatment of the rural road in particular because it was very smooth prior to treatment (although with several dangerous holes), but it is little different now. All the roads were best avoided for a week after treatment, but soon bedded down. After a few weeks the surfaces were surprisingly smooth. I do commute on a mtb with front sus and semi-slicks but I think it would be fine with narrower tyres..

roger_merriman

what i notice about these dressings is they hide lumps and bumps more so there is the danger of not noticing a lump or depression in the road, this said a dropbared road bike is fairly untolerant of (at least compared to other traffic) the road surface, so one has to take care.

Christophe3967

Lots of this going on around the Surrey Hills just now, not much fun to ride on, then having to remove the tar from your bike, shoes and socks. But hopefully they'll have settled down a bit by the onset of winter so it won't be quite such a lottery on some of the lanes...

Headhuunter

They've re surfaced the cycle lane along Tooley Street past London Bridge station recently with tiny flecks of green gravel. I think it's pretty much been compacted into the road by the traffic now, but the 1st day I rode along it, there were little chips of green flying everywhere and I was just waiting for the inevitable p*ncture. I now avoid the cycle lane and ride in the middle of the road along that stretch and will do until I'm sure that the surface has been properly finished.

fossyant

Our council has just done the 'dressing' on our main roads, in patches..... lethal. Takes a few weeks to pack down - just covering up the pot holes so you can't see them.

tardington

If you mean the sort of gravelly kind, it is crazy skiddy on corners - just about went into a fence the first time I experienced that stuff. :shock:

emdeef

As fossyant said, only cursory attempts are made to patch the road before covering and perpetuating the humps and depressions which are difficult to see.

I did have a flat from a needle like bit of gravel soon after my rural road was covered.

Stone Glider

Round my way the contractors, last year, managed to patch minor roads with tarmac which quickly deformed into a "washboard" profile. Horrible on a bike and probably noticeable in a car.

That is the probable reason that another contractor is busily digging out the old patches and doing it properly this time! No doubt the previous firm had quoted the lowest price but the patches have lasted less than a year! Not exactly value for money :x

SimonLyons

Last year, East of Nottingham.. east of Bingham the process was as follows

Scrape road to create more holes.
Thin layer of tarmac - then 1inch of gravel for 3-4 days.
Clean up the gravel on road - leaving lots in the gutters + edge of road + middle of road -don't clean any cycletracks next to road.
Cycle slowly and get gravel pinged at you by cars for ~1 month (not fun). Car tyre track bits get cleared quicker.
You may also find if one road is being done like this alot of them will be done over a period of time.
In most cases I could pick a different route.

They are OK now but as someone else wrote the holes are disguised.
In fact one of the roads has subsequently had some of the holes filled in.