Originally Posted by
VegasJen
The rock they use before laying the pavement happens to be pretty much exactly like the rock that's IN the pavement, so it can be pretty difficult to distinguish at speed. And, of course, none of the rocks are flat or round. Oh no, they're perfectly tire flattening shaped, all big and jaggy sharp angles and s**t.
That's intentional, both for traction improvement and pavement durability. An asphalt concrete or chip seal pavement with all rounded rocks tends to wear poorly and can develop rutting, shoving, and stripping (and not the typical type of stripping found in your area). There is even a "
fractured faces" test that is performed on pavement aggregate to make sure it's jaggedy enough.
In my experience, I had a piece of seal coat aggregate flatten a tire on my racing bike - the sharp edge went right through the tread, cord, protective layer, and underlying SpinSkin. Wasn't all that happy, but it was OK after the tube was swapped.