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OK, in the summer, this stuff is fast and lovely, the best maybe, smooth and dusty...(pause a second, I'm enjoying the idea of that.....)
OK,
Anyone got any ideas about how to 'alter' chalk to make a good surface for the soggy months?
What's wrong with it in the wet? Slippy? I have never ridden on chalk!
chalk + water = gluey shit that fills every gap between wheel and frame to the point that the wheels basically stop turning. a childhood living in hertfordshire taught me this. 🙁
Lay a sandstone path over it?
You've got to love Hertfordshire chalk and clay! Jetwash anyone? 😆
sticky treacle with claggy clay like sloppiness and the grippyness similar to vaseline smeared on plate glass.
yes. tarmac.
Wet chalk is like glass, as I found out to my cost yesterday - 5 times, lol.
Laying a sandstone path is possible, but seems like cheating, as well as taking possible character from the trails....there has to be a better way....?
drainage?
been doing lots of riding around the south downs this weekend and the new section at QE park is really really slidy, went up the hill with a proper MX style roost!
"Laying a sandstone path is possible, but seems like cheating"
Tell that to the FC guys!
Drainage is part of the answer, but you don't always have the advantage of a slope. Maybe there is a way of 'fixing' chalk, by adding something to it? Perhaps a membrane , with chalk ontop, mixed with limestone chippings? Seems pricey!
I'll get back to you on this....
You can get geotextile membranes, which they use on some trails near me: They will allow drainage while maintaining the integrity of the surface layer. They aren't perfect as they do get covered in slippery mud/chalk, but are better than nothing at all.
I hate wet chalk! Too much of it round this way..... pretty much impossible to ride on. Drainage isn't much help as chalk holds water and stays slippier than a teflon eel covered in grease for ages! I think a nice thick layer of gravelly hardpack should be put over all chalky trails
I have the scars from a broken elbow to vouch for wet chalk. QE park 1996.
Ok an idea is forming..
Giant.
Board rubber.
A board rubber will never get rid of all the chalk; you need a giant damp cloth for that, and therefore giant, comedy hands too.
Reduce tyre pressures, nice firm and committed cornering technique, don't look down = quite a bit less slippery, but slippery all the same!
Onza octopus tyres.
been doing lots of riding around the south downs this weekend and the new section at QE park is really really slidy!
Are you referring to the switchbacks down the side of the hill perchance?
Are you referring to the switchbacks down the side of the hill perchance?
no - they are always a bit slippy, but there is an even newer section. instead of the boring straight climb out of the carpark you now wind round the side of the hill, to the rhs of the old route, to the top of the first hill.
it is massive improvement, but needs a bit of bedding in and was really slippery.
oh and i like wet chalk - sorts the men from the boys!