what's the worst riding surface?

My vote is for wet shale. I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

I've recently heard some complaints about chip-seal,
although I've never yet personally encountered it.

I know of a number of local urban residential street-side
spots where the pavement doesn't go all the way across
the street -- the car-parking areas along the sides of the
streets have this finely ground, floury sand/dust that bicycle
(and motorcycle) wheels like to go sideways on, and steer out
from underneath their riders. Those were typically near
neighbourhood corner grocery stores in the Vancouver's East End[*],
which are now an endangered species. On sultry July evenings,
little garbage tornadoes favour those spots, and kick grit into
the eyes of bystanders.

And in some areas The City has for some inscrutible reason
thought it would be oh so artsie fartsie to inflict short
sections of brick cobbles instead of the usual asphalt.
So when it's raining, you have to suddenly adjust your "feel"
of the street from asphalt to wet bricks, and then suddenly
back to asphalt again.

And we have a few (very few) concrete streets. I loathe 'em
something fierce.


cheers,
Tom

[*] Those little neighbourhood corner grocery stores
so enhanced the experience of urban riding.
I nostalgically lament their passing.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On May 24, 7:28 pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:
My vote is for wet shale. I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

This fine crush dark gravel I rode on fifteen miles out from the city
today was quite challenging as they'd poured some fresh to fill in the
ruts-but it was pretty easy to control on a fixed gear and the pretty
scenery made the challenge well worth it:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVY0AuS

Fresh snow on packed snow and ice would get my vote as worst surface
by far.

In article ,
landotter writes:
On May 24, 7:28 pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:
My vote is for wet shale. I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

This fine crush dark gravel I rode on fifteen miles out from the city
today was quite challenging as they'd poured some fresh to fill in the
ruts-but it was pretty easy to control on a fixed gear and the pretty
scenery made the challenge well worth it:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVY0AuS

Yikes! Pollen! ahh ... ahh ... ahh ... ahh-Chooooo! :-)

Actually, a very pretty & lovely environment.
You're blessed.

I don't mind crush gravel (as long as I don't have
to shovel it,) or pea gravel, or pit-run. It's
egg gravel that gets my goat. It's like a roadful
of babyheads. You can't even comfortably walk,
let alone ride on it. I guess that's why logging
companies like it so much -- logging trucks can
easily scoot over it, but nobody else can.

Fresh snow on packed snow and ice would get my vote as worst surface
by far.

I don't even contemplate riding on snow & ice.
I don't even like walking on snow & ice.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Tom Keats wrote:
My vote is for wet shale. I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

I've recently heard some complaints about chip-seal,
although I've never yet personally encountered it.

...

Chip seal is just rough. Other than that, it is tacky and a decent
surface to ride on if you don't mind the vibration. You don't want to
fall on it, though.

Some of the newfangled decorative brick is good to walk on but slick for
bike tires even when it is dry. Rails, trolley and rail crossings are
treacherous all the time. Those are the surfaces that I avoid, wet or
dry. I don't ride off road. I am sure there are many off road surfaces
to avoid.

On May 24, 7:28*pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:
My vote is for wet shale. *I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. *It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

I've recently heard some complaints about chip-seal,
although I've never yet personally encountered it.

I know of a number of local urban residential street-side
spots where the pavement doesn't go all the way across
the street -- the car-parking areas along the sides of the
streets have this finely ground, floury sand/dust that bicycle
(and motorcycle) wheels like to go sideways on, and steer out
from underneath their riders. *Those were typically near
neighbourhood corner grocery stores in the Vancouver's East End[*],
which are now an endangered species. *On sultry July evenings,
little *garbage tornadoes favour those spots, and kick grit into
the eyes of bystanders.

And in some areas The City has for some inscrutible reason
thought it would be oh so artsie fartsie to inflict short
sections of brick cobbles instead of the usual asphalt.
So when it's raining, you have to suddenly adjust your "feel"
of the street from asphalt to wet bricks, and then suddenly
back to asphalt again.

And we have a few (very few) concrete streets. *I loathe 'em
something fierce.

cheers,
* * * * Tom

[*] Those little neighbourhood corner grocery stores
* * so enhanced the experience of urban riding.
* * I nostalgically lament their passing.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

From a strictly roadie POV, my vote goes to old brick streets. Over
time, the inevitable shifting of the base makes for an unpredictably
wave-like surface even in dry conditions. Add even the slightest bit
of moisture (rain, heavy dew, or the runoff from people washing cars
or watering lawns) to brick that has been worn smooth by years of
traffic on it and you get something as slippery as the proverbial snot
on a doorknob. The only good things about those streets are their
usually low traffic volumes and their low drag coefficient when wet
cuts down on road rash when one does fall. I've found even the latter
to be a mixed blessing because what stopped my sliding after a fall on
one occasion was the tires of the parked car I slid into and the
"convenient" stopping power of a concrete curb on a second occasion.
Luckily, in both cases my head acted as a bumper so damage was
minimal. g

Regards,
Bob Hunt

Metal grid bridges are low on my list.

--
Mike Kruger
"You have to be careful if you are reckless." - Richard M. Daley

On Mon, 26 May 2008 21:03:09 -0500, "ZBicyclist"
wrote:

Metal grid bridges are low on my list.

Just below freshly poured concrete or wet wooden planks laid length
way so there are gaps parallel to your direction of travel.

Cross laid planks are easier. Unless they're creosote soaked and rain
slicked but, if given the choice, I'll take them over metal grid
decks
--
zk

On May 24, 11:22*pm, landotter wrote:
On May 24, 7:28 pm, (Tom Keats) wrote: My vote is for wet shale. *I've encountered
strafications of it that are bad enough when
dry, but when moistened, all those leaflets
form a slimy external layer of mud, so they
merrily slide over & under each other. *It's
like accidentally slipping on cow patties on
a dewy early morning.

This fine crush dark gravel I rode on fifteen miles out from the city
today was quite challenging as they'd poured some fresh to fill in the
ruts-but it was pretty easy to control on a fixed gear and the pretty
scenery made the challenge well worth it:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVY0AuS

Fresh snow on packed snow and ice would get my vote as worst surface
by far.

Crushed rock freshly laid. A lot like your gravel but the stones are
typically the size of a large marble. It's very popular around here
on the unpaved roads. Luckily it is limestone so a couple of weeks
with some decent automobile traffic reduces it to something very much
like pavement as long as one stays in the car tracks.

Actually the very worst I've ever seen was slag, presumably from the
Sudbury nickel mines used on the Cataraqui Trail in Eastern Ontario.
Canadian National Railways used/uses it as railway ballast. Clearly
put down by someone who has never ridden a bike. That section of
trail looks a lot like a section of the Cataraqui Trail.

John Kane Kingston ON Canada

what kind of surfaces, man-made, intended to travel on ones?
Tar & rock roads right after they dump a fresh couple inches of pea
sized rocks on 'em and before the cars smoosh it all down into the
tar.

Wet leaves or silt on top of concrete will sneak up on you.

But the worst is a big stretch of rocks that are about the size of
your head, you're likely to hurt your self portaging though it too.

Not a road surface per se, but a freshly poured curb/driveway where the
concrete is left several centimeters above the asphalt surface, I assume for
future pavings, is double-plus-ungood.

Hitting it straight on isn't a problem. Of course normal usage is to turn
into the drive from the street. Any sort of wet/cold weather and it is my
most likely moment of unintended dismount.