[bbeauchaine87408]

They finally got around to ruining my commute to work. I have always been lucky enough to enjoy a hill climb up a 17% grade with twisties and switchbacks that just happened to be right on my path to work any day of the week. Early in the week the signs show up announcing that chip seal is going on the 24th-25th. Ok, so the road is never going to be the same, it will be absolutely undriveable for two weeks, so I better get my last hurrah coming home from work. Coincidentally, the wife decides to ride 2-up for our car pool, something she almost never chooses to do.

So now I'm coming home after dinner out, and it's about 7:15. The signs on the road announce oil and rock on the roadway, but since they had previously announced the work wouldn't begin until today, I thought the work crews had simply set up the signs before going home for the night. That was my mistake.

Halfway down the hill I come off of a turn with the sun in my eyes, not blazing but not going nearly as slow as I would be if I expected to hit loose gravel, and, well, you know what happened. A very tense handful of seconds of profanity and sphincter tightening on a steep downhill. The story ends happily enough - no traffic in the oncoming lane into which I had to drift, no dropped bike or locked up tires or sliding - but I didn't let on to the wife just how close we came to fubar.

Just one more reason to hate that stupid road surface from hell. It's not just the side streets any longer. My county is covering everything but the most heavily traveled routes in it. It's bad enough for the riders, but my other two wheeled transportation can't be used on it at all, even after they sorta sweep up the debris. I'm not sure keeping the gas tax down a nickel is worth it.

 

[rgbeard]

Learning to ride on irregular surfaces is a skill that will prove handy unless you can 100% limit yourself to paved and familiar roads.

I've had to go plenty on chipseal, loose sand, grooved pavement, metal plates, metal bridges and other fun surfaces.

 

[bbeauchaine87408]

Learning to ride on irregular surfaces is a skill that will prove handy unless you can 100% limit yourself to paved and familiar roads.

I've had to go plenty on chipseal, loose sand, grooved pavement, metal plates, metal bridges and other fun surfaces.

Riding on chip seal isn't hard. Riding on chip seal the day they lay it down on a 17% grade in a turn is a notch higher on the difficulty rating when you didn't expect it to be there (even if you should have).

The only rode surface that has ever dropped me was ice on a highway cloverleaf overpass 30 years ago on my way to school. Thought I was bleeding out before I realized that I'd landed on my thermos of coffee in my backpack.

 

[rgbeard]

Riding on chip seal isn't hard. Riding on chip seal the day they lay it down on a 17% grade in a turn is a notch higher on the difficulty rating when you didn't expect it to be there (even if you should have).

The only rode surface that has ever dropped me was ice on a highway cloverleaf overpass 30 years ago on my way to school. Thought I was bleeding out before I realized that I'd landed on my thermos of coffee in my backpack.

17% grade + Fresh Chip Seal just means it's more fun!!!

I'm really glad you got out of this one incident-free. Sometimes what our passengers don't know is best. Applies to more than motorcycles.

 

[BrianInPA]

Throw a co-rider into the equation and that really makes the seat adhere to the jeans!

 

[dedgar]

A friend of mine and I were out for a paved back road ride a number of years ago. The county had just put down the seal but not the chip. So heavy oil but no gravel.
Worse, they stop at the apex of a corner.
Worse, there was a big tree and a couple of bushes in the crotch of the corner so you couldn't see the oil till you were right on top of it.
Worse, the fence on the other side of the ditch on the outside of the curve was barbed wire.
Worse, there was an oncoming car.
My friend was in the lead. He went down when the bike hit the oil. I didn't have time to do much anything besides see him sliding down the road. Then I hit the oil.
His bike somehow ended up on my left big toe breaking it. We both had a bit of road rash. The bikes were scraped up a bit but nothing on the bikes was broken.
The lady in the oncoming car ended up in the ditch to avoid hitting us or the bikes. We were able to get her out without any trouble or damage. (No damage except for the now permanently embedded finger prints in the steering wheel.)

 

[Chromo]

I think it's not to SAVE a nickel on Taxes but cause accidents where fines can be collected! OR it's because the engineers have no clue today how to build a decent road, and the crews do anything they can to cut corners and costs and still go 1 billion over budget!

Since HY 63 here was redone so STUPID a few years ago I have seen in person more accidents of every type! Several resulted in death at scene for certain, I was there when they were hauled away!
AGAIN this morning riding at 4:30am I passed an over turned semi laying on side at side of road, about the 3rd or 4th this year!
Head on collisions are worse than ever!

Some butt head somewhere thought it was a good idea to pave the shoulder of the road in spots and make a 2 lane HY a 3 lane HY!
So for a few miles you got 2 lanes north 1 lane south, then 2 lanes south and 1 lane north, repeat for about 30 miles!
Since the extra lane was actually a shoulder of the road it does not support the weight of traffic and is all messed up, dips, ruts, repairs already, and just a mess!
Add to that that if you break down there is now NO shoulder to pull off onto! Just a sudden drop into a ditch or WORSE!

They end 2 lanes merging into just one lane entering a curve or about 1/2 way through a curve also several places! I've seen at least 3 wrecks at those points and almost been hit 3 times myself at least. 2 of those wrecks I saw people died!

The problem with road construction is the people in charge are just plain morons! I made a point of telling that to a worker once in detail, and when I returned later in the day some problems had been fixed!
Idiots had done some work and made about a 3" bounce from normal road to bridge and back to road. Not a nice taper, like a 3" high curb to bounce over!
It had been like that on 3 bridges close together, 1 north, 1 south, and one going both ways, for about a week.
I got stopped at wrong time in front of the pack and told the guy holding the sign how dangerous that was to bikers and especially when road was wet out, I said whoever was in charge was an idiot and going to get a biker killed and end up with a nice lawsuit over it.
Yep I returned about 9 hrs later and they had tapered off those hard hits on all the bridges but one and was working on it right then!
I guess that worker holding a sign did say something to express my concerns to his boss because the bridges were a death trap waiting to happen for weeks till that day!

In the rain I actually saw one biker hit the hard "curb" and bounce over it and go fish tailing side to side just a day or two earlier. A main HY through this area! That guy almost lost it! Since I live here I knew how bad it was, but anyone just riding by on a ride would not have!

 

[JerryH]

I think AZ is the road construction capitol of the country. You can't get ANYWHERE without running into it. Yet they have closed almost every rest stop in the state to save money. Oh, and be careful how you talk to "road construction workers" I made the mistake of calling one a moron or something to that effect once, and 2 minutes later a cop showed up and threatened to cite me for disorderly conduct. Road construction workers are considered government employees, even if they are working for a private contractor. They have all the rights.

 

[wilmo]

That is the favorite way to screw up a perfectly good road around here, too. BTW chip seal is short for 'chipped paint and windshield' which is the actual description of the process. The damn rocks end up in the center of the road and on the shoulder. Once you're in one of the tire grooves you have to stay there in that thin line. Obviously, the geniuses that came up with that idea don't ride...

 

[Knob]

I take it you're talking about what we call tar and chip here. Tar and chip is about all we have in our county besides gravel and a few asphalt which are almost all state roads. They aren't too bad after they get packed in a bit but the crown of the road is something to avoid. You're right though, if you don't expect it they will make you tighten up. For me the soy beans in the corners and intersections are what make me have to change my drawers.

 

[rpeters549]

We have been doing chip seal around here for years. Hate it. Our little town contracts to the County for road maint and they chip sealed all the in-town roads. Its like gravel on pavement for the first few months until all the loose rock is off the road or driven in, and I still don't trust the surface for high lean angles.

 

[Bike...and Dennis]

I have been to most states and for those who haven't been there, the chip seal in Central Oregon really does excel. It's a special high-tar, low-stone mix that makes motorcycling through it much more fun. Then, when you're done with the sport part, you get to spend a few days trying to clean the goo off your bike.
The only competition to Oregon I found was a low-tar mix in Kentucky. The gravel stuck better to tires than it did to the road. That made the roadway a land of flying stone long after the chip seal was passed. Windshields, paint, headlights, and of course bare skin, were all common targets for those little projectiles.

 

[rpeters549]

Today while I was in bed they chip sealed a stretch I take on my way to work, about 5 miles of two lane rural. They did a better clean up job than normally and the ride to town to get my daughter this afternoon was not too bad. Of course going in to town tonight with a black road without paint will be neat. I hope those cagers keep to their own side...

 

[exavid]

There's a lot of resealing the roads in town here right now. Actually not bad to ride on though with our temperatures in the 100s of late it's a good ideal to take it easy on the curves, even the rocks are melting.

 

[Ken Bergen]

I wasn't riding on the road at the time only off road but thirty years ago they decided to lay asphalt over the old concrete road going past were I worked.

Their first step was to lay down tar and they didn't pave over it for a few days.
The parking lot was covered with 6" pyramids of tar that dripped out of the wheel wells of the cars.
Needless to say the tar got tracking into the building and ruined every carpet.
I have no idea what new carpets cost or who paid for them.

On the plus side all the cars got free undercoating.:claps: