Fresh asphalt in my area always seems to be the loose gravel looking stuff. I don't push it too hard for fear of a slide.

 

Fresh asphalt is great to ride on. Never had any problems with pushing the bike on it. On the other hand chip seal, the gravel/tar/oil mix sucks to ride on.

 

+1 to that. Here in the midwest, summer is road fixing time. A lot of my favorite roads have been repaved, some in asphalt and some in chip seal. The asphalt seems good from the start but the chip seal takes about a year for the loose gravel to get smashed in enough to stay put. Not to mention the tarry gravel gets thrown around by the wheels and gets caught in all the nooks and crannies on the bike.

Rich

 

Fresh asphalt that has cured and been painted is great to ride on. I like to give it a couple of weeks.

Unlined & unmarked asphalt may be a base coat waiting for a top coat. Not the best surface but probably better than what was on there.

Chip & tar, that loose gravel you mention, can be nasty. If nothing else, flying gravel could damage your paint and/or chrome.

 

Tar/gravel/oil

out here in the USS of Kalif. sometimes after application, they let it cure or very occaissonaly, they roll it. Then they sweep it thoroughly. After these steps, they go ahead and "stripe" it. This makes for a very good grip but, after a few miles on this surface, it looks like your tires have had a bench grinder taken to the contact patch. Constant riding on this surface prpbably would shorten tire life considerably. I only ride this surface when required to get to better surfaces.

 

With apologies in advance if this "high-jacks" the thread...

I've heard mention about "metal" roads in New Zealand. The "Burt Monroe (World's Fastest Indian) Story" mentions this a number of times as well.

What is this? A different name for asphalt? I've been to NZ a number of times, and the roads don't 'look' any different to me. What is this?

Now, back to the story...

 

I'm a new rider and they tar and chipped my road, which makes me want to get out of my neighborhood as soon as I can when I go for a ride. I guess it has a lot to do with petro prices and our economy...

 

If the new asphalt is smooth and has cured it should be OK but better safe than sorry. That tar and chip stuff is nasty too. The tires grip it but you feel uneasy on it because the tar is gripping your tires back too. In a bad way!

I also hate the grooved concrete highway crap. It seems that the people making decisions about building and/or repairing roads only consider how it affects cars and trucks. Motorcycles use these roads too people!

Another thing to watch out for is those rubberized asphalt crack repairs. Not a big deal if they are transerve repairs but if they run a long way longitudinally, they can be dangerous.

I hit a longitudal one just after sunset the other night in the middle of a curve on a city road. (Did not see it in time to avoid it.) Wasn't going that fast but my rear tire first skidded sideways a few inches and then an abrupt screech when the tire hit the asphalt again. Upset the balance of the bike violently and gave me a heart attack!

Luckily I had slowed down because of the poor light situation and traffic. I was riding below the speed limit by about 5-10 MPH. If I had been going 10MPH faster I probably would have lost control.

Another lesson learned. Caution should always be used when unsure of the effect the road surface may have on your ability to keep the bike on two wheels!

 

Another thing to watch out for is those rubberized asphalt crack repairs. Not a big deal if they are transerve repairs but if they run a long way longitudinally, they can be dangerous.

I hit a longitudal one just after sunset the other night in the middle of a curve on a city road. (Did not see it in time to avoid it.) Wasn't going that fast but my rear tire first skidded sideways a few inches and then an abrupt screech when the tire hit the asphalt again. Upset the balance of the bike violently and gave me a heart attack!

Luckily I had slowed down because of the poor light situation and traffic. I was riding below the speed limit by about 5-10 MPH. If I had been going 10MPH faster I probably would have lost control.

Another lesson learned. Caution should always be used when unsure of the effect the road surface may have on your ability to keep the bike on two wheels!

Funny you mention this.. recently they darn near coated one of the primary roads I drive every day with this stuff.. mostly in paralell with the lines.. It may not be so bad in the winter but during the summer it's terrible, 1 mile of road I have to be extremely dilligent on and the whole section is comprised of three curves.. left, right, then left. What were these idiots thinking??? I know the reason they did this... too cheap to repave the road as they should have done.. excessive cracking and gaps and they just fill it all in with tar!

 

Yeah I hate that overbanding crap! It makes my wheels "kick" a bit and always scares the willies out of me.

Of course - I try and look well ahead and plan a route through that stuff, but still - no good.

 

You wusses need to crank it up ! ride WFO all the time! It is good for the economy. We need the money in circulation!

 

I made no comment about the speed I ride at, only that my wheels kicking around scares the bajeezus out of me, which it does, and frankly I don't give a monkeys what you think about it.

 

Right! Especially the spare parts department of your local dealer!

Gob, a 'metal' road isn't what it sounds like. If I remember correctly, it's another term for chip and seal surfaces; chipped stones tarred into place.

 

Think of it another way; the traction quotion your bikes tire has with the road at any given time, is about the size of a credit card...

 

Good point and since you only have two of 'em you should hope that those credit card sized patches stay in good contact with the surface you are riding on. Especially if there is traffic behind you that can run you over if you fall!

 

I would want ot give it time to cure, especially since you do not know what kind of binders and aggregate they are using. After it cures may be then test the twisties.

 

In my not so humble opinion, asphalt of any kind sucks donkey gonads. Every road surface should be cement, period. Yeah asphalt is cheap, yeah it provide okay traction…in the dry. Throw in some rain and you may as well ride on glass, compound that at night on a black surface and you’ll have a grand time finding the standing water.

 

I'll bet that you ride somewhere where it never freezes. In in NE Ohio the water soaks into concrete and the freeze/thaw cycles cause the surface to spall and the slabs to heave. After a few years of that, the potholes and unaligned slabs give a car or bike a real beating when you drive or ride over them. I'll take asphalt (or even older chip seal) any day.

Rich

 

I don't feel confident on freshly paved roads until it has rained a few times to wash the oil residue off.

 

No it freezes here, and the concrete heaves to and fro, but it is as equal to the potholes formed by the porous asphalt.

I still hate asphalt!

 

No it freezes here, and the concrete heaves to and fro,...

Where's here?

Rich

 

There are lots of ways they surface the roads these days
Sometimes around here they have what I believe is referred to as the 'chip and seal'. It seems to be a coat of fresh asphalt oil put down with a layer of small but rough cut gravel spread on top. Immediately after it is laid down the loose gravel can be tricky as it tends to pool up thickly in some spots resulting in surprise slide outs when you're on two wheels. But after that loose gravel has either been pushed into the oil by traffic or worked its way off of the road, these road surfaces are great. I get great traction on them.
Regular asphalt surfaces that are packed with the large rollers seem to be fairly safe even when new. I'm not sure how much different the rough base coat is compared to the top coat. I don't have enough experience.
Some of the older styles of surfacing seems to leave a shiny surface of mostly pure asphalt on the top in places with little gravel there. These spots can be slick in the rain.
Asphalt, being soft, can form ruts which are not all that visible sometimes. But I can SURE feel them on the bike. They will throw me around a bit.
Concrete is definitely my favored surface until they grind grooves in the direction of travel in it. My skinny Bonneville tires tend to try to track in the grooves. I've never had trouble yet but I don't like the feeling thats like someone grabbing your handlebars and pulling them left and right.

 

Are you kidding me? I can't stand concrete roads; they never get the seams flat. Bump...bump...bump...bump...bump...:arghh:

Ever seen a concrete race track?

 

I think fresh paved, is as good and reliable as compared to, say, fresh paint would be. It's OIL after all.

 

Some contractors pour diesel or similar onto the rollers while laying tarmac to help stop the tar sticking to the rollers. I try to aviod newly laid road surfaces especialy in the wet.

 

road surfaces

Fresh tar or any other roadworks is a big wake up call to slow down till you have a chance to evaluate the conditions.Country roads here in Australia are notoriously crappy due to lack of funding ,given our small population and vast distances.Roadworks often spell loose gravel, dirt,oil drippings etc.Metal roads here usually means Blue Metal which is crushed Bluestone.

 

As much as road repair is a good thing - I found out the hard way yesterday that tar is not good for emergency stops! Lesson learned, slow down where there's a lot of tar and high traffic unless you want to slide 20 yards like I did.