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What's the point?



 
 
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  #21  
Old January 19th 19, 10:10 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
[email protected]
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Posts: 1,261
Default What's the point?

On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 10:19:18 AM UTC-8, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 12:39:01 PM UTC-5, Frank Krygowski wrote:
Snipped
I live on the edge of a metro area that was settled and farmed early in
Ohio's history. All those little farms needed road access, so there are
hundreds of little paved ex-farm roads to explore, although the paving
is far from excellent. Supposedly, in the 1950s or so, the county
engineer made a name for himself by paving hundreds of miles of gravel
roads, but he did it on the cheap. We pay for it in potholes ever since..

So in my immediate riding area, there are few gravel roads. But about
40 miles north is an Amish area with lots of them. I used to run our
club's annual century ride which passed through that area, and at times
it took considerable research to find paved roads we could use.

I'm not averse to riding gravel on 32mm tires or even the 28s I normally
use, provided it's not too coarse. But it's occurred to me that it might
be fun to rent a B&B in that Amish area and spend time poking around on
a gravel bike with wider tires. Traffic would be light and/or
horse-drawn. The Amish tend to be friendly toward people on bikes. (I've
had teenagers in buggies race me.) The countryside is picturesque,
including quite a few covered bridges.

Maybe someday before we get too old.

--
- Frank Krygowski


Ever had the pleasure of riding outbound on a gravel road early in the day and on the way back in the afternoon discovered that they just dumped a few inched of nice fresh LOOSE gravel? that happened to a friend and me on a long gravel road ride a few years ago. Even our 2.125 knobby MTB tires had trouble getting through that stuff let alone riding it in a straight line. Man, what a workout that was!

Cheers


Because of the heavy rain around here - season normal - they freshly graveled most of the Bay Trail south of the San Leandro Marina. Did it on my Basso with 25 mm tires. No problems at all other than exhaustion. The last mile or so was a park and they didn't gravel those. Nice mud puddles to avoid.
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  #22  
Old January 20th 19, 04:19 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
David Scheidt
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Posts: 1,346
Default What's the point?

Frank Krygowski wrote:
:On 1/18/2019 11:35 PM, James wrote:
: On 19/1/19 12:14 pm, wrote:
:
: Where are you located where you ride a gravel bike? I've found really
: few places where those are practical though I have two presently.
:
:
: In Australia.Â* Nearest capital city is a 3 hour drive away.Â* Nearest
: town is a 15 minute drive away.Â* If I ride in the opposite direction
: from the nearest town, the bitumen runs out within 7 km and there are
: gravel roads beyond and to each side.Â* There are hundreds of kilometers
: of gravel roads through the state forest and national parks nearby.
: Coffee shops are few and far between though.

:I live on the edge of a metro area that was settled and farmed early in
:Ohio's history. All those little farms needed road access, so there are
:hundreds of little paved ex-farm roads to explore, although the paving
:is far from excellent. Supposedly, in the 1950s or so, the county
:engineer made a name for himself by paving hundreds of miles of gravel
:roads, but he did it on the cheap. We pay for it in potholes ever since.

Lots of midwestern gravel roads were paved by covering them in tar,
dumping fine crushed rock on them, and rolling a roller over it.
Repeat enough times, typically once a year for 3 or four years, and you
have a proad that someone who isn't a pavement geek would call paved.
One advantage of roads done like this is that they're a reasonably
flexible pavement, so they perform well with frost heaves. if they're
exposed to high volume traffic, the surface wears out rapidly. if
they're exposed to excessively heavy trucks, they get ruts.


--
sig 123
  #23  
Old January 20th 19, 02:44 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Theodore Heise[_2_]
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Posts: 132
Default What's the point?

On Sun, 20 Jan 2019 03:19:08 +0000 (UTC),
David Scheidt wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
:On 1/18/2019 11:35 PM, James wrote:
: On 19/1/19 12:14 pm, wrote:
:
: Where are you located where you ride a gravel bike? I've
: found really few places where those are practical though I
: have two presently.
:
: In Australia.?? Nearest capital city is a 3 hour drive
: away.?? Nearest town is a 15 minute drive away.?? If I ride
: in the opposite direction from the nearest town, the bitumen
: runs out within 7 km and there are gravel roads beyond and to
: each side.?? There are hundreds of kilometers of gravel roads
: through the state forest and national parks nearby. Coffee
: shops are few and far between though.

:I live on the edge of a metro area that was settled and farmed
:early in Ohio's history. All those little farms needed road
:access, so there are hundreds of little paved ex-farm roads to
:explore, although the paving is far from excellent. Supposedly,
:in the 1950s or so, the county engineer made a name for himself
:by paving hundreds of miles of gravel roads, but he did it on
:the cheap. We pay for it in potholes ever since.

Lots of midwestern gravel roads were paved by covering them in
tar, dumping fine crushed rock on them, and rolling a roller
over it. Repeat enough times, typically once a year for 3 or
four years, and you have a proad that someone who isn't a
pavement geek would call paved. One advantage of roads done
like this is that they're a reasonably flexible pavement, so
they perform well with frost heaves. if they're exposed to
high volume traffic, the surface wears out rapidly. if they're
exposed to excessively heavy trucks, they get ruts.


At least parts of today's Indiana does a variation of this, called
chip and seal. A nice smooth asphalt surface is put down, and
then gravel is spread over top--but not rolled into the asphalt.
It's just left loose for traffic to press down into the asphalt
over time. The loose stuff is pretty dicey to ride on, but once
it's packed down it's tolerable.

Northern Indiana has an almost complete grid of roads at mile
intervals. In the rural areas, they are maybe half paved and half
gravel. And the gravel roads seem to use a different type of rock
than the chip and seal. It's at least coarser (larger pieces),
but the pieces also seems to have sharper edges. Over time it
gets pressed down into the dirt (which can make for a pretty
rideable surface), but it's really hard to ride on when newly
laid. I've also run into the tar and rock method David describes,
but not very often.

Back in Nebraska (at least the eastern parts), the same type of
road grid exists, but a somewhat smaller proportion of it tends to
be paved. I don't recall ever having run into chip and seal
surfaces in Nebraska.

--
Ted Heise West Lafayette, IN, USA
  #24  
Old January 20th 19, 05:19 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,538
Default What's the point?

On 1/19/2019 10:19 PM, David Scheidt wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
:On 1/18/2019 11:35 PM, James wrote:
: On 19/1/19 12:14 pm, wrote:
:
: Where are you located where you ride a gravel bike? I've found really
: few places where those are practical though I have two presently.
:
:
: In Australia.Â* Nearest capital city is a 3 hour drive away.Â* Nearest
: town is a 15 minute drive away.Â* If I ride in the opposite direction
: from the nearest town, the bitumen runs out within 7 km and there are
: gravel roads beyond and to each side.Â* There are hundreds of kilometers
: of gravel roads through the state forest and national parks nearby.
: Coffee shops are few and far between though.

:I live on the edge of a metro area that was settled and farmed early in
:Ohio's history. All those little farms needed road access, so there are
:hundreds of little paved ex-farm roads to explore, although the paving
:is far from excellent. Supposedly, in the 1950s or so, the county
:engineer made a name for himself by paving hundreds of miles of gravel
:roads, but he did it on the cheap. We pay for it in potholes ever since.

Lots of midwestern gravel roads were paved by covering them in tar,
dumping fine crushed rock on them, and rolling a roller over it.
Repeat enough times, typically once a year for 3 or four years, and you
have a proad that someone who isn't a pavement geek would call paved.
One advantage of roads done like this is that they're a reasonably
flexible pavement, so they perform well with frost heaves. if they're
exposed to high volume traffic, the surface wears out rapidly. if
they're exposed to excessively heavy trucks, they get ruts.


Sounds like you're talking about "chip seal." We have some of those, but
mostly in neighboring counties, IIRC.

Given the choice, I prefer real asphalt paving, because chip seal's
rougher texture gives a lot more rolling resistance. But it's better
than loose gravel, at least once the motor vehicles pack it down.


--
- Frank Krygowski
 




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