Road surface dressing rubbish

[Wades]

Took a different route to work this morning but went my normal route home and found one of the lanes I use had been 'resurfaced' with this loose gravel surface dressing stuff. No alternative but to plough on...big mistake.

Was a bloomin nightmare, sliding about all over the place, got sprayed in gravel by every car that sped past on it, had a stone lodge itself in the rear brake calipers and worst of all totally ruined my average speed!

Don't even want to think about the poor Secteurs paint...

Anyone else had a ride ruined by this stuff? Share the misery!!!

 

[gavroche]

What? No punctures?

 

[Simba]

Can't say I have but the main road near me is a B road and it is in a terrible state, the side going into town is cracked for about 2 miles.

 

[Wades]

What? No punctures?

No actually. But thanks for finding the silver lining!

 

[User16625]

Took a different route to work this morning but went my normal route home and found one of the lanes I use had been 'resurfaced' with this loose gravel surface dressing stuff. No alternative but to plough on...big mistake.

Was a bloomin nightmare, sliding about all over the place, got sprayed in gravel by every car that sped past on it, had a stone lodge itself in the rear brake calipers and worst of all totally ruined my average speed!

Don't even want to think about the poor Secteurs paint...

Anyone else had a ride ruined by this stuff? Share the misery!!!

Yeah once. Was more concerned for my eyes than anything else tbh. Cars passing at speed end up throwing the stuff at you. Its crap riding on roads like that even on my mountain bike.

 

[JonnyBlade]

Came across one of the Meon area roads that was being completed with the same crap ......... on a warm day .......... tar on the carbon ............ not happy

 

[julesdavis1965]

my sons a tarmaccer , and he volunteered to resurface my garden path in anti-skid stuff (sorry thats not the technical name) hubby is disabled so we thought it would be helpful,i just wanted path levelled really. it was exactly how O.P. describes a flipping nightmare just to walk on never mind ride. i was the only one who fell arse over elbows tho.

Took a different route to work this morning but went my normal route home and found one of the lanes I use had been 'resurfaced' with this loose gravel surface dressing stuff. No alternative but to plough on...big mistake.

Was a bloomin nightmare, sliding about all over the place, got sprayed in gravel by every car that sped past on it, had a stone lodge itself in the rear brake calipers and worst of all totally ruined my average speed!

Don't even want to think about the poor Secteurs paint...

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Anyone else had a ride ruined by this stuff? Share the misery!!!

 

[Madcyclist]

One of my regular roads on the way to work had a dose of the same treatment Monday night, good excuse to extend the ride in with a nice diversion every day since !!

 

[barongreenback]

Awful stuff. Loads of the Worcestershire country lanes have been resurfaced with this rubbish over the Summer. Even when most of thenloose stuff is gone it feels like cycling through treacle compared to a well surfaced road.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Appalling stuff - and such a waste of (our) money. Within a year or so bald patches will have developed and the roads will be even worse than they were before they were surface dressed. There has been an epidemic of this around here and my evening 15 mile circuit around the lanes became unrideable for 3 - 4 weeks. Long stretches of the lanes ruined had been beautifully resurfaced over the last 18 months (after many reports to 'fill that hole') and were a joy to ride on. Alas no more. Even worse are the roads which hadn't been repaired before being surface dressed! I have had to change my tyres from Pro3Race to Gatorskins after the Michelins cut up so badly.

 

[ELL]

I have the same on one of the roads I ride. Grey stone chippings everywhere and after a month its all bedded in and all the old bumps and holes are back. absolutely pointless

 

[Ericck]

When I first saw these gravel surfaces, thought they were a temporary measure, now they are everywhere. As stated, a waste of money and dangerous to all on two wheels

 

[Deleted member 1258]

On a reliability ride some years ago, 55 miles, riding with some lads I didn't know, as we were getting towards the end came across a lane that was closed except for access, carried on through and hit the newly surfaced road at the bottom of a short sharp descent, almost ankle deep in loose chippings, I was surprised we had no fallers, sat there trying to stay on and ride straight whilst watching bikes around me snake and weave. This week they have been busy resurfacing one of the roads on my commute, Bowling Green Road. All they have done is spray the road with tar then spray it with chippings, most of the lumps, bumps and holes are still there.

 

[Globalti]

It's called top dressing and I also don't know why councils are doing it.

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

A lot of roads around here (East Suffolk) are getting this treatment: it is dreadful to ride on and a waste of money.

As someone else noted it lasts no more than a year and the loose stone gathers in great drifts between the tracks that cars make.

What I find the worst is that it does nothing to even-out earlier repairs and patches (except make them more difficult to spot): it's like riding a rollercoaster.