Gravel On My Street!

[Qball50]

Aaaaarrrrggghhhh!! If the dang rain wasn't bad enough, now I have gravel. It's been less than a month since I took delivery of my 2014 Max. Right after I picked it up from the dealer, it started raining for two straight weeks. As soon as the rain stops, the D.O.T. comes into my neighborhood and puts down some tar and then dumps a crap load of small loose gravel on top. My neighborhood is very small, only about 20 houses and is a dead end. Only one way in and one way out. So now I can't even ride my new bike to my house. Well I could actually. But I don't like the idea of the front tire throwing these small pebbles up into the radiator. I have to keep it at my office.

The D.O.T. left a sign at the entrance warning of loose gravel. Hopefully they'll come back soon and put the top coat down.

 

[marsmax85]

Time to buy a trailer !! covered of course with ac and heat.

 

[twistedmax]

When they do that around here that is the top coat, they leave it for the cars to pack it down

 

[schudaddie]

I feel your pain..... they hit my neighborhood too. around here they call it chip and seal. oh and before they did that they cut back the sod 2 feet and left it like that for 4 weeks. grass was just starting to grow back before the chip and seal. the main road that I have to use to get to my neighborhood was done also. 1 mile either way till I get to normal pavement, feels like riding on marbles and forget about going the speed limit (55). The cars on the main road have just about got it back to normal. but I'll have to wait for winter snowplows to make my street normal again. of course that means my yard will be full of gravel. my mower just love that....
good luck , bill

 

[Bill Kratzenberg]

When they do that around here that is the top coat, they leave it for the cars to pack it down

+1 same here. guess that's a lot cheaper than new black top.
Sure does suck though!

 

[fltinstructor]

I feel for you. We have very few asphalt streets in H-Town. As a matter of fact I had a drive across town and ended up on one. I had been hearing how people had the bike breaking loose by just cracking the throttle. I thought they were exaggerating to say the least. All I every got on the concrete jungle where I live was "SQUAT and GO!" when I hit the throttle. It would get the front of the ground a little but that's it. Then this day I found out what it was like on a street it wouldn't hook up and go. It's a tire burning show for sure! :biglaugh:

Gravel would not be good for the radiator or all that torque! :damn angry:

 

[wildweasel_pt]

Time to buy a trailer !! covered of course with ac and heat.

:rofl_200:

 

[Fire-medic]

That's known as a "macadam roadway" and the closest I ever-came to dying was riding on one of those in the area near Lake Ontario NY on my bicycle as a kid. They had just paved the roadway, Route 31, w/the tar and then the thick layer of gravel, and it was thick everywhere but in the two tire-tracks of the roadway. My front wheel washed-out on my bicycle and I took a spill, ending-up on the swale at the side of the road. My head was facing the roadway, and as I came to a tumbling stop, I saw a Valiant hubcap go zipping by my nose by what seemed like < two feet. I am sure the driver probably had a 'heart-stopping' moment and a Good Samaritan stopped and took me and my bicycle home with gravel embedded in the blood and broken skin. I still recall being in the shower while my parent scrubbed-out the stone.

The gravel will tear-up your bike's finish for sure. And there is no 'top coat,' the post about the cars packing-down the stone is how it's done. Did you try calling the town engineer to complain about how-dangerous it is? Follow it up w/a registered letter, c.c. your local state and federal elected officials, and your attorney; and if it's the county instead of a township, all the better. Request a compaction to make it navigable for your motorcycle. You could also join the AMA and ask for their intervention. They have a section devoted to issues like this.

When the public works officials begin to get inundated with inquiries from the elected officials, and you have gone on-record in-writing to them, I bet you soon see a steamroller servicing your neighborhood.:clapping:

 

[Qball50]

Actually, I've entertained the idea of hiring a private asphalt company to come in and drop a three foot wide section of asphalt from the entrance to our neighborhood down to my driveway. That would really sit well with my HOA and neighbors.

Seriously though, they have done this before. They would drop the tar and gravel, then sometime later, come back and put an asphalt top coat down. It's still not like normal pavement. But I do have bad feelings about this. I'm not holding out any hope that they will come back and put a coat of asphalt down.

It's just not my luck for them to do so.

 

[[email protected]]

They do it round here every year. tar and chip is what its referred to in my area. Its hell on any vehicle between the stone chips and tar stains. During the first couple weeks loose gravel acumulates on the road edges and sometimes on the road crown. It takes a few months for things to get back to normal. Even after a month or so, there are still lesser used areas of the road surface that has a loose coating of stone.

Nothing like hitting a pile of loose gravel while hugging the outside of a long sweeper at speed! I literally cringe when I come upon a freshly coated road as you can hear the rocks flinging off your tires and onto the bike.

 

[invalidsession]

I'm not entirely sure what they do to the road surfaces here in "Podunk" Missouri but to all intents and purposes it appears to be nothing more than painting the road surface a fresh shade of black. It looks nice what with the fresh yellow stripes and all but rides like a disinterested fat cow after several shots of vodka. Pothole ? Paint it black. No one will notice.:confused2:

 

[wildweasel_pt]

Actually, I've entertained the idea of hiring a private asphalt company to come in and drop a three foot wide section of asphalt from the entrance to our neighborhood down to my driveway. That would really sit well with my HOA and neighbors.

Seriously though, they have done this before. They would drop the tar and gravel, then sometime later, come back and put an asphalt top coat down. It's still not like normal pavement. But I do have bad feelings about this. I'm not holding out any hope that they will come back and put a coat of asphalt down.

It's just not my luck for them to do so.

By the way it looks you gonna need to go get a broom...

 

[Qball50]

By the way it looks you gonna need to go get a broom...

I know. I can see it now. Mrs. Kravitz looking out her kitchen window, hollering back into her living room, "Abner!! What's Dave from down the street doing out there in the middle of the road with a broom?!!" lol!!

 

[donnelly317]

When they do that around here that is the top coat, they leave it for the cars to pack it down

Yup same here. I just got a housr they did the road about a month ago. That meens I'm good for 2 yrs... they usually do it every 2 years sometimes 3

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[gamorg02]

they did it here last year too, on a dead end cul-de-sac, not enough traffic for it to wear in yet.. assholes. road was fine too.