Beware the RIBBON SEAL

[*caution*]

Hi All

Some people might not know the term but i'm assured by those in the know that this is the proper name for the stuff. Its applied to the road around tar-seal repairs and cracks, also sometimes where they have cut the road to put the traffic light induction wires down, its usually about 2 inches wide and a dark almost black colour (looks kind of like black paint on the road), and when dry won't really bother anyone, but when wet.......

I was riding along Oaktree Ave in Browns Bay yesterday and had a bit of a moment on this stuff, if you know oaktree you will know its a minefield of ribbon seal. Was coming around a corner and hit a line of ribbon seal the back slide out then griped and it was a mini high side throwing me out of the seat a little bit, i was then heading for the curb and managed to straighten in back up with a few cm's to spare i think...

so it wasn't a major but could have been alot worse, off course I should have been keeping a better eye on the road surface, but as an engineer I can't help but feel there must be a much safer solution to use on the road, a porus/gritty material must be available to do the same job and still offer grip in the wet (come on civil/road engineers!!!).

[Hitcher]

Them be tar snakes. They be evel (sic).

[90s]

On Scenic drive into Titirangi there are bits of this stuff, usually in squiggly 3-4m runs.
On damp and wet days my rear slides over it, and I am always ready for the slight squirm of the bike.
But I would hate to hit a bit unawares on a tight bend.

[Macktheknife]

Yep, Tar/road snakes.
Beware the sinous ones for they be wicked and nasty demons for believers of the 2-wheeled way.

[jrandom]

Hoooo yus. Go with care over the tar snakes, for there lurks the highside demon.

[*caution*]

ahhhhh tar/road snakes:rolleyes:, always good to learn some new slang cheers :niceone:

Yeah I was turning reasonabley hard but only at 50, hitting this stuff at 100+ could get pretty ugly, although I guess once you slide on it in most cases you are pretty quickly off it again, if you stay relaxed the bike will correct itself (hopefully), bit unnerving tho....

[fireball]

beware of the tar snakes over the painted lines they are the worst!

[MSTRS]

They used to be marked on old maps...Here Be Ye Dragons.
OSH and LTNZ have decreed that warnings are no longer required.
Enjoy.

[sunhuntin]

have never encountered a tar snake, but their overweight brothers, the tar blobs, are viscious. plopped on to small-ish potholes, they look pretty and work fine for about 2 weeks. then, like many overweight, they get lazy at their job and decide to quit. slowly, they do less work, uncovering the potters cm by cm, until they have up and left entirely, leaving a family of uncovered potters waiting to catch the unaware on a corner.

[McJim]

I tend to pick a line through them. 20 years of racing pushies through the rain in Scotland has made me wary of any and all 'Shiny bits of road'. This includes road markings too.

[Drum]

..........as an engineer I can't help but feel there must be a much safer solution to use on the road, a porus/gritty material must be available to do the same job and still offer grip in the wet (come on civil/road engineers!!!).

Safer, yes.
Cheaper, no.

[marty]

Best tar snakes are on the 100mph descending left hander on Cobham Drive Hamilton, west bound just before the Hamilton Gardens roundabout. The LH lane is the most fun :)

[riffer]

Oh boy. If you don't like the tar snakes now, just wait until summer.

The lovely feel you get as you tip the bike into the corner, pick the perfect line, wind the throttle on, and lurch sideways through a small pile of jelly disguised as road surface.

You'd think they'd have the decency to paint little pictures of landmines on them so we'd be able to know to slow the fuck down (TM). Cause you know, its impossible to pick a road surface and all... so we should go slow, slow, slow. It's really the only way to be safe.

[xwhatsit]

Safer, yes.
Cheaper, no.

I have no knowledge at all about roading, but would it be possible to put a grit or very, very fine gravel/stone mixture in the tar? Just on the surface, to give it some macro grip (that was the term you used, wasn't it?). Surely it wouldn't be that much more expensive, or is the expense in labour -- I mean there's clearly a reason why you don't do such a thing.

I had to put my foot down to save a front wheel during winter, I couldn't really see the tar snake in the heavy rain, and it was an unfamiliar road.

[cooneyr]

Hi All

Some people might not know the term but i'm assured by those in the know that this is the proper name for the stuff. Its applied to the road around tar-seal repairs and cracks, also sometimes where they have cut the road to put the traffic light induction wires down, its usually about 2 inches wide and a dark almost black colour (looks kind of like black paint on the road), and when dry won't really bother anyone, but when wet.....

so it wasn't a major but could have been alot worse, off course I should have been keeping a better eye on the road surface, but as an engineer I can't help but feel there must be a much safer solution to use on the road, a porus/gritty material must be available to do the same job and still offer grip in the wet (come on civil/road engineers!!!).

In engineering "tec speak" they are called crack seal cause that is exactly what they are for, sealing cracks to keep the water out of the gravel pavement. The "tar" is actually bitumen, a product of oil refinement and when use in crack sealing is usually emulsified i.e. mixed with water (oil obviously doest mix with water but with some special chemicals and mechanical grinding plant they can be mixed. The emulsification is just to make it easier to handel i.e. around 100 degrees rather than 160-180 degree for bitumen.


I have no knowledge at all about roading, but would it be possible to put a grit or very, very fine gravel/stone mixture in the tar? Just on the surface, to give it some macro grip (that was the term you used, wasn't it?). Surely it wouldn't be that much more expensive, or is the expense in labour -- I mean there's clearly a reason why you don't do such a thing.

Crack sealing bitumen is usually laid using a spay lance (think giant weed killing sprayer) and is suppose to be covered with course sand (shovel). Problem is that the sand is really a bit fine and doest provide any macro texture and therefore no micro either (micro is the bumps on the macro bumps). Would probably be better covered by a grade 6 chip (around 4mm dia) but then it becomes a bump and would be a lot messier just after being laid as the stones that don't stick become missiles and it is really hard to get just the right amount of stones.

If a road is heavily crack sealed then it should probably be chip sealed to give an even texture over the whole surface and seal the whole road. Problem is that motorbikes are the only ones really affected by it and chip sealing is around $5 per square meter i.e. around $7k for a 100m stretch of "normal" urban road. As per usual - it comes down to money or the lack thereof.

Cheers R

[Drum]

What he said.

[beyond]

Tar snakes bite badly, especially when wet and in summer, as do the shiny patches of tar.

Always best avoided like man hole covers and steel grates unless of course you like drifting with the added rush of a possible highside. Then they are best attacked with aplomb as your bike snakes up the road attempting to regrip and surfing on wet tar in summer also has it's highlights apart from the huge cleanup job afterwards.

The Napier Taupo highway in mid summer in the gorge has to have the worst tar problem ever and they use grit to try and help the problem which of course is fantastic when making rapid progress.

[bert_is_evil]

ick, tar snakes and their evil cousin tar arrows aka booby traps, where they paint over the current roadmarking with shiney slippery stuff, then repaint the line right next to where it once was, effectively doubling the slippery area.

[LilSel]

Tar Snakes... eeeeek... *Flick back out*... :pinch:

[vagrant]

Theres a nice bit of this stuff sealing the edge of the cambered round-about extension(for want of a better term) near Bar Africa.
It makes for great opposite lock "practice" when you drop in close to the roundabout, and cut across the cambered surface. :innocent:"Accidentally" applying too much throttle makes for a great powerslide out onto the next bit of road.:niceone:
well thats my excuse occifer::msn-wink::Police:

[Skyryder]

So ya'll talking about gravity vortexes only know to bikers. Took a chick to one years back hoping it would help me get her knickers down but try as I might I could not find one.

Skyryder

[discotex]

I was riding along Oaktree Ave in Browns Bay yesterday and had a bit of a moment on this stuff, if you know oaktree you will know its a minefield of ribbon seal.

Oooh yeah it's a fun bit of road in the wet. I do Oaktree Ave 5+ times a week in all weather and had some fun moments before I learnt some lines that avoid the worst of it. If you ride it apex to apex in the wet at speed you're asking for trouble. To add insult to injury there's a big fuck off pothole by the centreline now.

The worst moment I had was late at night in the wet heading into Browns Bay. As you come round the downhill left-hander before Glencoe Rd I stayed further left than usual for some reason. Clipped the tar with the front and felt it tuck. I was sure I was going down but it gripped again. Was a real "oh fuck" moment as I then had to brake before I got to the T junction!

[*caution*]

Yeah its a nasty road in the rain, pretty fun corners in the dry though, just watch out for parked cars and people exiting their driveways, oblivious to all around them as happened to me on the weekend....

is your bike black and you've got a blue helmet? i think i saw you today...

[NordieBoy]

You avoid tar snakes?

Weird.

[discotex]

Yeah its a nasty road in the rain, pretty fun corners in the dry though, just watch out for parked cars and people exiting their driveways, oblivious to all around them as happened to me on the weekend....

is your bike black and you've got a blue helmet? i think i saw you today...

Yep that sounds like me. Bikes not a black as I'd like tho. It's more charcoal with a bit of purple.