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Ok, The weather over here has been getting pretty chilly (about -4C) so not suprisingly there has been some icy patches. Thankfully nothing too bad as yet..

This also means that it's the time of year for the gritters to make an appearance. This may seem all well and good but around here they seem to go rather overboard. There are patches where there is a foot-wide, inch deep stip down the middle of the road. And, areas where it is banked up around islands about 4" deep!

This all leads to road surfaces somewhat akin to riding through a sandpit!
Although I can see the definate advantages in gritting, especially for those people on 4 wheels, is it really necessary to go to this sort of excess?

I hate it myself. It eats metal and causes me control headaches on my bike. I have a Subaru, so I'd rather the sprinkle a bit of sand on the icy spots and I can get around just fine without salt. Salt also damages the sewage system, so I've heard. I'm more affraid of the salt eating my bike, then making me fall, but I don't think they dump it where I live to the degree they do on your side of the pond. Still, I'd like them to do away with it.

I agree, salting sucks. It doesn't work half the time, the idiots around here dump a few million tons of it after one flurry hits the ground, and it rusts your vehicle straight into the junk yard. They should plow more, use sand, or just let nature take its course and educate the public on choosing a climate-appropriate vehicle or on buying snow tires.

Agreed. I never have to see salt on the roads here in AZ, but my first bike was a used KZ400 that spent one winter in Colorado. It was only ridden a few times on salted roads, but that was enough to eat very large holes in the the chrome pipes. Nasty stuff!

Sand = bad... it hangs around until they finally get around to sweeping it up at the start of the biking season meaning you have to be REALLY careful going around corners.

sadface.

Sevulturus wrote:Sand = bad... it hangs around until they finally get around to sweeping it up at the start of the biking season meaning you have to be REALLY careful going around corners.

Not with all the rain we have come spring.

Not too many problems with it lingering here either. My biggest problem is with the sand they use in the country instead of salt. It just stays there forever, and they don't sweep those roads.

Same scene in the Uk with salt, never heard of useing sand before though.

We are the only country in europe to still use salt, on the continant the use chemicals and you dont get a nice rusty bike jealous or what, my nice gold DID chain aint looking to good and that castrol chain wax just turns green?

Happy rideing

Tony

www.elitesecuritysupplies.com

Here in New York, we just park them at least 4 months.

Wyoming thankfully doesn't salt. they do throw down a fair bit of sand though. I wish they would use the chemicals that they use in europe.

Colorado unfortunately throws tons of salt on their roads.

I would love to live somewhere with a year round riding season.

We are lucky at the moment and are having a warm spell with ridable weather. but knowing my luck the instant I get plates on my bike we are going to have a blizzard