gilpi

Located in west Somerset county NJ, I encounter some of the worse roads I have ridden... Oh I'm sure there are worse! What makes this area attractive to road cycling is the lack of traffic and country like roads, makes me think about getting a bike that takes wider wheels.
So how do you deal with your crappy local roads?

RL7836

Interesting. I ride in west Somerset County as well as all over Hunterdon (& others). While the annual chipsealing has started & completely screwed over a number of roads, there's been more roads re-paved (yes - real paving) in the last two years than anytime in the previous 20 that we've lived in the area. Where are you seeing bad roads??

gilpi

I'm in Hillsborough and by the time I get to Hunterdon, my bike and I have taken a beating riding through Hillsborough, Flagtown and the first part of Neshanic, after that it's pretty much a breeze, I ride the Three Bridges area often which I love riding in. I started riding in this area about 4-5 years ago.

Myosmith

The paved rural roads around here are generally in pretty good shape. A few of my favorite routes have recently been repaved. Of course there are always some bad sections of road and my most comfortable bike for that is my Trek 720 hybrid (double butted cro-mo) with 32mm Bontrager AW3 tires. My road bike has 25mm tires and you can feel considerably more road buzz and bumps.

Lazyass

I lived in Mt. Laurel for three years. The roads in Burlington county weren't bad, considering it was New Jersey.

TimothyH

Maybe all the paving is penance for closing lanes to the GWB back in 2013.

bonsai171

Lol. Its common up north to have lots of potholes. In Essex county they salt the roads which helps with ice, but destroys the roads. Every spring is pothole season, and they get filled in. Sometimes you can get a bunch closely packed together, and its like riding cobblestones.

Dave

_ForceD_

I have you beat my friend. On the list at the below link, NJ comes in at #5. I live in RI...we're #3. I've looked into this before...surprisingly RI is close to the top in the dollars spent per mile of roadway. So, like many things in RI...there is some underhanded skullduggery going on. Or, it's just not being spent wisely. The tax dollars spent aren't getting the roads fixed. There is one road I ride with a hill about .5 mile long that is so pitted that I have to slow down on when GOING UP IT.

https://www.businessinsider.com/state...or-condition-3

Dan

indyfabz

Heh. Yesterday I rode through Neshanic Station and Hillsboro on our club's annual New Hope to Brooklyn ride.

gilpi

Amazing and yes with one of the highest state taxes! Anyway, don't want to get political here just wondering how you guys deal with it as far as the bike of choice (cx, gravel bike) tire choice etc, other than throwing the bike on the rack and drive to a different location.

indyfabz

I love riding in Hunterdon County and Warren Counties.

gilpi

I'm wondering which roads you took? There are some good paved roads in the Hillsboro area but no shoulder, narrow 40 to 50 mph roads don't appeal to me. Neshanic Station I love riding in.

indyfabz

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/9379011

gilpi

Wow, congrats that's a heck of a ride! Thanks for the info. I'm good for a 30 miler on a good day.

indyfabz

The whole thing was about 95. We take the ferry from Hoboken to Midtown, ride down the Hudson path then over to the Brooklyn Bridge. Finish at the Nu Hotel in downtown Brooklyn.

BlazingPedals

I've bicycled in states all over the east and midwest, and a few in the west; and none compare with the overall crappiness of Michigan roads.

Stormsedge

The roads around here (East TN) are pretty good. The worst I've encountered (so far) were Texas chip-seal.

gilpi

Speaking of Texas, I was just in Austin and it seems like a cycling friendly city, lots of cycling going on.

atwl77

There are probably even worse roads in my country, but so far this stretch is probably the worst that I have ridden so far:
https://goo.gl/maps/rBwU4ZAczTT2

Sangetsu

I live in Tokyo, and the roads are well maintained. The other morning a dump truck managed to dump a bit of gravel and rocks along a stretch of the road I usually use. It was completely cleaned up by the next morning. Had this happened in South Florida (where I use to live) the rocks and gravel would have remained until traffic pulverized them, or otherwise knocked them out of the roadway. In Florida, I used to look at the same bottles, patches of broken glass, and left over debris from car wrecks for months. Only once in a blue moon did a street sweeper make a pass, and even then, it would miss much of what was in the roadway.

JonathanGennick 

Wider tires and lower pressures. Both my commuter bikes are running 47 mm tires on 650b rims, and generally at pressures of around 25/30 psi front/rear. I'm on gravel a lot, else I'd probably run the pressures somewhat higher.

atitagain

When I am looking for new loops on google map I can tell the road quality by looking for the white lines at the edge of the roadway . If the road has none it is probably chip seal and if it does have them they are generally higher quality (smoother) . I am in central Alabama .

55murray

Yep, Monroe County MI has the worst roads I have ever seen. Just regular bad growing up there in the 70s, but it looks like a lot of them have not been touched since.

I'm in NW Indiana now and the roads here are great.

leob1

I bet we've crossed paths on the roads of Hillsborough. I live there too. The roads are fair to poor, with an ongoing chipseal problem. I've even spoken to some town officials about how doing that makes the roads unsafe for some users. Good thing they adopted a Complete Streets policy.
The difference in road surface quality between Hillborough and Montgomery is noticeable. The Montgomery roads are much better. But that is on the opposite side of town from where I live.
See you out there.

dksix

I'm in North East Tennessee, the roads are great here. Locally (Washington County) many of the undivided 2 lanes have been repaved in last few weeks. I did a 40 mile loop Sunday in the southern part of the county and would rate every road I was on to be excellent. I live on a dead end road that's less than a 1/4 mile long that only has has 6 driveways connected to it that was repaved in the last month. I've noticed another dozen or so that was done in the time frame in my community.