New (bad) chipseal on Blue Ridge Pwy
 

Talked with a friend last week who reports nasty (for two wheeled vehicles) coarse chipseal being put down on
the BRP southern section. He got the impression it was to discourage bicycles and to a lesser degree motor
cycles from discussions with personnel at the paving area he was at. This may reflect his opinion rather
than BRP's mindset. Any one else noted nasty chipseal on southern parts of the BRP?

I am aware that coarse chipseal can sometimes be a precursor to a good layer of asphalt.

i had heard a couple years ago that chip seal was coming but part of that story was about cost.

Here in the southern coastal area of Delaware, a lot of the inland rural roads get surfaced with chip seal. It is really bad for bicycling and not all that good for motorized vehicles either. The first few weeks, at least,dust, pebbles and gunk get thrown about and stick to anything that is traveling on it. Road bike tires with higher psi are subject to flats. As time goes by, ruts, dips, cracks, etc. become prevalent. It has a very short, if any, time span when it is sort of smooth to ride on. I will concede that with wider, lower psi tires it is a better surface to bike on. I guess it must be a cheaper way to pave, and repave, those types of roads. If you ever need pebble sized rocks for something, go for a ride with a shovel and buckets and you can quickly scoop a lot of them along the edges of the road, especially around driveway entrances and curves in the road.

Damn, want to trigger me? Saying chip sealing will cause my head to spin around. The one good thing about the new housing going up in my area of Idaho is that chip sealing is being discontinued. The 1% California-potatoes don't like gravel.

Chip seal? You just need to have a good attitude. (Yes, decent tires help as to lightly spoked wheels with rims that have some give and a reasonably compliant bike.) But a lot of it is accepting that it is there and that it is time to think riding light on the saddle with a gentle bur firm grip on the bars. We never talked about chip seal in my racing days but we rode a bunch of races in New England on pavement that would not be rated as smooth. I raced bike with criterium geometry, very short chainstays and very steep angles. (You could drive a small truck under the BB.) Put 100+ mile races on rural roads in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Did day rides far longer on that bike. I did lace my wheels 4X with the equivalent of DT Revolution spokes and trained on shallow 330gm rims and raced on just as shallow 290s. Sewups of course, all the time. (1970s.)

The trick is to not think "this isn't smooth" but to just settle into being comfortable on whatever the pavement is.

The modern clinchers that is closer to sewups than anything else I've ridden are the Challenge open tubulars and the Vittoria Corsa G+ tires. (I've had very poor luck with Challenge everything but love the G+ tires.)

Ben

I don't think I've had any flats from chipseal.

They do like it around here, but I think they're tending to smaller gravel sizes. The last project, I groaned about because it was one of the most popular local riding routes, but truthfully, after the dust settled, I can hardly tell the difference from any other road (except for those with freshly laid asphalt).

I got to ride a section of the officially designated Oregon Scenic Bikeway as they were laying down fresh chipseal. Ewww. But, I survived the ride. A few months later....still would be better if they paved it, but not that bad.