One of biggest riding pet peeves almost killed me today.

[grubsie]

It has to do with road crews leveling the road shoulders with gravel after a re-pave of the road.  Why in Gods name do they level the gravel on the shoulders running along corners? When we get a strong rain it gets washed onto the pavement. I have talked to road agents in surrounding towns about it and nothing has changed.

It was getting close to dusk and as I approached a somewhat sharp right turn corner I came upon quite a bit of loose gravel rocks, mostly pebble sized, on the road through the corner with nowhere to avoid it.  My front tire kicked out and the next thing I knew, I was in the oncoming lane. Fortunately, there was a driveway in that lane right in front of me, so I rode into it.  A mere few seconds later, and I would have been head on with car in the oncoming lane.

I have talked to road crews until I am blue in the face about this. All they have to do is leave the gravel 2" lower than the tar instead of leveling it with the tar. I lowered the gravel on a corner close to my home and there has never been any more on the street.

It's obvious that the people in charge and the people doing the work don't ride motorcycles or bicycles.

[djh3]

When I lived in Oklahoma, they use to "resurface" some county and secondary roads by what they called "tar and chip". OMG no warning you run up on it and they had poured a coat of hot tar then chips of stone on top about 2" thick. Cars would drive over and eventually you had a somewhat better surface. But hit that on a bike and you were in a world of mess. Even a few days later you would have trenches where wheel ran and rock built up in center of lane. 

When we ride up in the mountains all those corners I have to keep eyes peeled from folks cutting corner and kicking up gravel and dirt.

[AGrengs]

15 hours ago, djh3 said:

When I lived in Oklahoma, they use to "resurface" some county and secondary roads by what they called "tar and chip". OMG no warning you run up on it and they had poured a coat of hot tar then chips of stone on top about 2" thick. Cars would drive over and eventually you had a somewhat better surface. But hit that on a bike and you were in a world of mess. Even a few days later you would have trenches where wheel ran and rock built up in center of lane. 

When we ride up in the mountains all those corners I have to keep eyes peeled from folks cutting corner and kicking up gravel and dirt.

Had the tar and chip thing done to the residential streets in my neighborhood this summer, including the one I live on.

[bpate4home]

I grew up with tar and gravel roads.  At the time I thought it was the fun stuff. Not bothered by it much today either.  I ride with friends that are . . . . let's just say skeptical of riding them.

[eagleeye]

I live on a small rural road that was chip sealed this summer. I hate this friggen road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully this winter the plows will plow all the loose crap off.

[N3FOL]

I had a somewhat similar experience 3 days ago 2 miles from our house.  I didn’t realize until I arrived my destination.   I was making a left turn and then all of a sudden I felt both my tires lost traction on the turn and I almost lost control.   It felt like I run over a banana peel or debris or a road kill...but I swear I didn’t see anything on the road.  I pulled over thinking I had some type of catastrophic tire failure.  It turned out to be wet line paint that had just been sprayed by road crews.  I narrowed it down to wet paint because both my tires had yellow paint after my ride.  Glad I didn’t go down.  🙏