Slippery roads

amaferanga

Is anyone in sheffield (or anywhere else) finding a lot of roads extremely greasy at the moment? I had a few microslips just turning at junctions today while doing a modest speed and even had to stay in the saddle on a hill I usually stand up on cos I kept losing traction.

Made me wonder if they were using grit mixed with molasses here.

Tom Butcher

Yes had one rear wheel slide when I wasn't really pushing on that much - I think it must be something to do with the salt but not sure they are still mixing it with molasses. I remember one chain gang ride last Winter everyone commented on it and that was just after a cold snap.

amaferanga

I'm pretty sure some councils do use the grit/molasses mix, but not sure which ones.

graeme_s-2

Last time the grit/molasses mix was discussed here, didn't it turn out that some of the areas people were claiming were slippier than usual hadn't been treated with molasses? I also seem to recall that the research suggested that the molasses actually improved traction rather than having a negative effect on it.

amaferanga

Graeme_S wrote:

Last time the grit/molasses mix was discussed here, didn't it turn out that some of the areas people were claiming were slippier than usual hadn't been treated with molasses? I also seem to recall that the research suggested that the molasses actually improved traction rather than having a negative effect on it.

I think the research concluded that when used at 3% concentration the Safecoat stuff didn't make the roads more slippery, but who knows what councils got up to when they became desperate to conserve supplies of grit.

chopperHarris

Came off going through Greenwich on my way home on tuesday night, went into a tight right hander slowly and the front just wiped out instantly, got a nice bit of gravel rash on my right cheek (the one on my face!) and my left hand was a bit swollen yesterday so forced me onto the Motorbike instead for the day, dont think it was grit related though just an acumulation of greasy shite on the road and the fact im still running summer 23mm slicks

damnedinflames

some corners and closer to the curb are definately full of loose material - I just put this down to the grit and general debris from the snow and not having any decent rain recently.
That said when I park up in the train station of the morning I have noticed a suprisingly tenuous brown 'paste' inside the wheel treads - I'm still running quite big nobblies after the snow and not noticed any loss of traction