the council have spoilt my commute

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gary r

Guru
Location
Camberley
by gritting the road, my nice prevoiusly fast descent on my commute home now has to be taken at a crawl,Making sure i stay in the car wheel tracks otherwise risking a tumble.I hate it when they do this!!
 

Joe24

More serious cyclist than Bonj
Location
Nottingham
They have 're-surfaced' the road at the top of the road i live on. It was done on friday, and the stones put down are still there. I thought the stones had to be swept up after so long?
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Ahh, yes, the old cookie of 'top dressing' a road. Dunno quite what its about, seems to be soft tarmac and gravel poured on top of the old road, so it covers some of the bigger cracks and cheaply extends the life of the road. Makes cornering a bugger till the gravel starts to clear.
 

Maz

Guru
D'you ever get those bits of gravel that stick to your tyres and no matter how hard you pedal, you just can't spin them off? Then when you come to a standstill they just drop off!
 
OP
OP
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gary r

Guru
Location
Camberley
riding with mudguards on newly gritted roads is the worst! great big chippings wedged under your mudgard & stuck to your tyres
 
They resurfaced the road when I was commuting from my parents house and like people say it was a nightmare. When it finally finished it was like a billiard table for a month but no markings, i.e centre lines, bus stop and cycle lanes. However when they finally got round to lining it had subsided so bad they had to rip it up and start again :-<
 
Why will the Brits never ever learn that if you do a job properly, you only have to do it once. If you do a cheap job, not only is it cr@p, it is also has to be redone so many times it always costs more that doing it properly first time round!

I loathe the chipping stuff, on a ride last week we went over a chipped section and not only did handling get tough, but overtaking cars would fire chippings at us with their tyres.

One hit the lead guy in the glasses, cracking the lens but luckily they didn't break, and I got hit in the leg by a chipping. It really hurt but I disregarded it and forgot about it until about half an hour later we cruised to a stop for a quick nature-break and I noticed it had cut me, and blood had run all the way down my leg!

It looked very hardcore, but the actual cut is tiny :biggrin:
 

domd1979

Veteran
Location
Staffordshire
Chippings are used precisely because it saves money in the long run on road re-surfacing by prolonging its life. I'm not saying they're ideal to cycle on in the period immediately after they've been laid though.


Jacomus-rides-Gen said:
Why will the Brits never ever learn that if you do a job properly, you only have to do it once. If you do a cheap job, not only is it cr@p, it is also has to be redone so many times it always costs more that doing it properly first time round!
 

Keith Oates

Janner
Location
Penarth, Wales
Maz said:
D'you ever get those bits of gravel that stick to your tyres and no matter how hard you pedal, you just can't spin them off? Then when you come to a standstill they just drop off!

:biggrin: and I thought that only happened to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

pompey

New Member
Location
Addlestone
I hate it when they do that - it might make the surface grippier for cars and cover up some of the smaller bumps, but afterwards the larger bumps are more difficult to spot because of the even colour of the new surface, and you end up with a more uncomfortable ride. Grrr.
 

buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
really naff road on one of my cycle routes, pot holes, rough surface, which then turns into a nice bit of smooth road, pleasure to ride on.

what do the council do?

top dress with those damn chippings on the smooth bit and make it all rough so i have to pedal twice as hard. typical.
 
D'you ever get those bits of gravel that stick to your tyres and no matter how hard you pedal, you just can't spin them off? Then when you come to a standstill they just drop off!

and when they first do it the tar helps with the adhesion process, then, after the 4x4s have compressed some of it all the really sharp stuff seems to lie on the top, and gets sprayed all over pavements so it gets into shoes when you get off, and gets in the house and sticks to the cats...

... I don't like it either...
 

col

Legendary Member
And the 20 mph sign,warning cars of new chippings is normally ignored.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Our council re-surfaced one of the roads I commute on - bit of a nightmare the first day as everything was covered in loose grit, even the cycle lane. Day two, it had been swept, and was fine. Good on my council then !
 
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