Proliferation of Tar Snakes

[Wintersdark]

On 1/31/2021 at 2:56 PM, nhchris said:

Here in New England US of A there is a new craze in road maintenance:   Extensive use of gooey tar to fill road cracks.

Rather than incur the cost of repaving, road crews are spreading tar into any and all cracks they can find.  The crap remains pliable at normal (not hot) temps and is a real PIA.

I can't tell you how many time I've been leaned over and my Mich Road 5 rear slips over one or more of these tar snakes and then regains traction.  I'm running out of tidy whities on longer rides!

Is this half-assed road maintenance technique used in your area?

I think it is a hazard for us motorcycle riders and should be viewed as such.

I'd never encountered these before until my last trip through the US before the pandemic.  Went up this super windy road on the edge of Lewiston, ID (some absolutely ridiculous twisty trip up the edge of the mountains south of town) and they were everywhere.  Be leaned right over on a 15mph marked corner, just to have wheels randomly skip out hitting millions of tar snakes. 

Worse, they seemed to be applied really badly, so some simply lifted right out of the pavement, becoming these slippy, weird lengths of rubbery tar loose on the road surface.  Awesome road, but man did that detract from the experience, particularly given literally dozens of switchbacks with straight up dropoffs on the outside.  It's one thing to go down due to some stupid crap on the road, another to fall off the edge of a mountain because of it.

 

Aha!  This road right here:

 

Google Maps

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★★★★★ · Historical landmark · 22716-22728 Old Spiral Hwy

 

[peteinpa]

They are not new to me, been around forever.

Worse for me is riding my favorite roads and all of the sudden you find they've tar and chipped the road. Even worse is when they do the road you live on and you can't avoid it.

I'm convinced that surface wears tires out faster also.

[Waldo Jeffers]

1 hour ago, peteinpa said:

They are not new to me, been around forever.

Worse for me is riding my favorite roads and all of the sudden you find they've tar and chipped the road. Even worse is when they do the road you live on and you can't avoid it.

I'm convinced that surface wears tires out faster also.

Yep! Definitely soiled my pants once turning a bend and discovering they just laid down a fresh layer of chipseal. Be careful out there. That was when I was young and stupid. Now I’m just old and dumb. 

[Wintersdark]

On 2/4/2021 at 7:56 AM, Waldo Jeffers said:

Yep! Definitely soiled my pants once turning a bend and discovering they just laid down a fresh layer of chipseal. Be careful out there. That was when I was young and stupid. Now I’m just old and dumb. 

Yeah, they do that every spring here (winters at -40 tend to do bad things to roads) so during chipseal season, you've got to be super careful - never know when you're going to round a corner into gravel everywhere.

[rustyshackles]

Tar snakes are common here in N. TX too. As someone said they’re not all the same, but I cannot see a difference in the materials.

Another threat to traction in my town is decorative brick at some intersections.  Looks nice I guess but slippery when wet!   I sometimes struggle to keep relaxed arms when turning on it.

[PhotoAl]

Couple of years ago was in the Tetons, parked at Jenny Lake.  Super hard to find a spot but figured out could park on the edge of a turnaround outside the cones.  Once I did it the HDs showed up.  There were 3 or 4 I truly felt sorry for, they had run into a section that had tar put down but no chips!  They had a thick layer of tar caked on their wheels and were trying to clean it off. Only thing that worked was a big knife or a putty knife.  I ran into a stretch where they had just put it down and it was loose gravel that was about 1" thick!  Really scary for me as I'd never rides in that stuff - gradually got better but I started of going slow.  Tar snakes aren't too bad around here but we do have them.

Love reading the posts about different road conditions, have done several long trips and always like to read about road conditions in other places so if I happen to be in that part of the country I'll have an idea of what to expect.

Edited February 8, 2021 by PhotoAl

[keithu]

Oregon doesn't have as many tar snakes as other places, but in the winter our best roads get covered in a slurry of wet rotting leaves and pine needles. You can ride in the tire tracks cleared by cars and trucks, but if your motorcycle gets onto the slimy morass in a curve it's AMF. 

[micah2074]

52 minutes ago, keithu said:

Oregon doesn't have as many tar snakes as other places, but in the winter our best roads get covered in a slurry of wet rotting leaves and pine needles. You can ride in the tire tracks cleared by cars and trucks, but if your motorcycle gets onto the slimy morass in a curve it's AMF. 

Tar snakes don't bother me...This does.

[Wintersdark]

2 hours ago, keithu said:

Oregon doesn't have as many tar snakes as other places, but in the winter our best roads get covered in a slurry of wet rotting leaves and pine needles. You can ride in the tire tracks cleared by cars and trucks, but if your motorcycle gets onto the slimy morass in a curve it's AMF. 

As a guy who learned to ride on Vancouver Island...  This picture is pure terror 😃