Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
This morning while riding to work, I had done about 23 of the 27km commute, when I felt that sinking feeling again, and noticed that my rear tube had started deflating. I immediately knew why, because some time this week, an inner-Melbourne road lane that I typically use on my ride to work had been resurfaced in a coloured material, to highlight the fact that it was a bus/bicycle lane.
The only problem with this is that the local councils here use some kind of ground glass to colour the lanes like this! The chances of getting a tyre and tube punctured by this material is pretty high, and this isn't the first time I've had a puncture from this stuff. As soon as I removed a sharp chunk of glass from the rear tyre, I could see where it came from. I had even avoided the newly recoloured lane when riding in this morning, using the lane next to it, but some of the glass had probably spread to other lanes and nearby roads, because I clearly hadn't succeeded in completely avoiding it.
One of the forum members on the Bicycle Victoria forums is a road engineer, and when I previously questioned the need to use this ground glass for colouring road lanes, he denied that there was any issue, claiming that it doesn't cause punctures, so I had no luck convincing him to do anything about it.
I'd be interested to know what the UK uses to colour bus and/or bike lanes, and whether it increases the risk of punctures.
For now, I'll just be avoiding this particular part of my ride to and from work, because there are alternative routes I can take (and hopefully they haven't had the coloured ground glass treatment recently
).
The only problem with this is that the local councils here use some kind of ground glass to colour the lanes like this! The chances of getting a tyre and tube punctured by this material is pretty high, and this isn't the first time I've had a puncture from this stuff. As soon as I removed a sharp chunk of glass from the rear tyre, I could see where it came from. I had even avoided the newly recoloured lane when riding in this morning, using the lane next to it, but some of the glass had probably spread to other lanes and nearby roads, because I clearly hadn't succeeded in completely avoiding it.
One of the forum members on the Bicycle Victoria forums is a road engineer, and when I previously questioned the need to use this ground glass for colouring road lanes, he denied that there was any issue, claiming that it doesn't cause punctures, so I had no luck convincing him to do anything about it.
I'd be interested to know what the UK uses to colour bus and/or bike lanes, and whether it increases the risk of punctures.
For now, I'll just be avoiding this particular part of my ride to and from work, because there are alternative routes I can take (and hopefully they haven't had the coloured ground glass treatment recently
).
.
