chip seal tour of TX Hill Country, which tires?

[eddief]

I am used to sort of decent pavement here in SF Bay Area. I do mean "sort of." But I have heard the chip seal in TX can really be some rough stuff. I you had to do an unloaded 50-60 mile ride on it, what tires and pressure would be the most efficient?

Currently my Rambouillet is running 700/28 Rubinos up to about 90 psi.

[97CSI]

You should be fine. Never used anything special for tires when I lived in Austin.

[dave thompson]

Chip seal roads aren't bad. Rather than having the hot macadam rolled smooth, the tar (seal) is put over the small rocks (chips) and traffic does the smoothing, to a degree. The resulting surface is somewhat 'buzzy' but nothing that would require a special tire. I use Vittoria Open Corsa EVO and Conti GP 4000 tires as my everydays.

[AngryScientist]

i was going to recommend stepping up to a 25c tire, but then i re-read and saw you're already on 28's. dont sweat it.

[texbike]

You don't need anything special. I usually use 23c PR2s/3s with 100-110 lbs.

Texbike

[Ken Robb]

On my Allrounder at the moment I'm on Performance 700x35 tires that are the same as nashbar has on sale for $12.95!!! They ride great at 65psi though I think max is 95psi. With them chip seal; feels like nice asphalt.

[steampunk]

700/28 Rubinos up to about 90 psi = you should be fine.

[sg8357]

There are different sizes of aggregate used in chip n' seal.
Ohio chip is a lot finer then southern Arizona chip.
For Arizona extra chunky chip, I like Gran Bois 30mm, faster than the
Rolly Pollys 27s I used the previous year.

Pasela wire bead without the kevlar anti speed strip are great cheap
tires for chip n' seal

[FlashUNC]

I think you should be fine with what you have. NC/SC/Georgia have some pretty nasty chip seal roads, and I've generally been fine on Conti Gatorskins, either 23's or 25's.

I try to keep the pressures around 95 to 100 psi, and the Gatorskins are pretty tough to flat.

[weisan]

I have ridden most of the roads in that area, you will be fine. The good thing about fatter tire is that you can adjust air pressure as you go. Hopefully, you are going when the wild flowers are in full bloom, then you would be so distracted that you won't care so much about what's happening beneath the road.

[Mike748]

I've ridden the worst of TX chip seal on 100-110 psi 23's and don't recommend that, even on my DKS its annoying. On my CSi its unbearable. My upcoming bike is going to 28's for just those roads. You should be fine.

[jr59]

I've ridden those roads on those tires. In fact, those are the ones I would have recomended.

Go and have fun. Relax you will be fine.

[wtex]

huh, cannot speak for Hill Country, but pretty sure the stuff they use in West Texas came from granite boulders, it's nasty here. Cost transference, county and state save on the roads, transfer the cost to your windshield :rolleyes:

[bzbvh5]

As long as you stay off of Jung Road in Fredericksburg, you're good. Worst chip seal ever.

[rwsaunders]

Perhaps some thicker bar tape or heavier padded gloves would help too. My main gripe when they tar and chip a road around here is the stone washout at the bends in the road and the shoulders, and that fact they they camouflage the potholes.

[eddief]

all my bikes have double thick tape and I will run 28's and try to keep my teeth in my head.

[RPS]

Some of the roads can be very rough right after they are newly paved and it takes a few years for highway traffic to smooth them out. However, rarely have I ridden more than 20 or 30 miles on rough roads at one time in the Hill Country. The worse I recall was riding from Rio Frio to Utopia and on to Bandera a few years ago. Mile after mile of that stuff gets old really fast for most riders. Fortunately I’ve found most roads used for cycling are relatively smooth.

Normal size tires at normal pressures work fine for me.

As long as you stay off of Jung Road in Fredericksburg, you're good. Worst chip seal ever.I’ll second that …. that short stretch is pretty bad, but it’s only a few miles long. Besides, a little roughness builds character. ;)

[gone]

I've noticed that at least in the Hill Country, txdot has been using MUCH larger aggregate in the last 2-3 years. It used to be true that one summer of heat and traffic would be sufficient to push the new chip seal down into the tar and smooth the road out. In the last few years, that doesn't appear to be true anymore. When roads are newly chip-sealed (e.g., Jung Rd) they're really terrible, after a couple of years they settle down to where they're only awful.

I'd imagine this is another "cost savings" move since larger aggregate is no doubt cheaper.

[BlackTiBob]

Our club from MN is in Marble Falls for 8 days. Just rode the wondeful (not) chip seal today. I ride 23's and they work fine. A liitle road buzz but seems better this year with my HED wheels. Wider rim so more volume/ can run less air pressure and it seems like that has helped somewhat.
Help more if they used smaller chips....
Bob

[RPS]

It used to be true that one summer of heat and traffic would be sufficient to push the new chip seal down into the tar and smooth the road out. In the last few years, that doesn't appear to be true anymore. When roads are newly chip-sealed (e.g., Jung Rd) they're really terrible, after a couple of years they settle down to where they're only awful.

In part it can also be due to Jung not having enough auto traffic to speed up the wear-in process. The same happens to higher-traffic roads with shoulders where the main lanes become smoother while the shoulder remains rough for us to ride on. Highway 16 south of Fredericksburg is a little like that – although it was never as rough as Jung IMO.

[1962Ford]

Here in Central/Southern IL, chip and seal is all we have to ride (poor shoulders on most highways make them unusable). I've run consistently larger tires in the past few years (due again to larger aggregate being used and me being more used as well;).

I try to fool myself into thinking (especially when they hide the potholes) that this is just my own special version of Paris-Roubaix. I know the cobbles over there can be rough, but those guys just have small sections. 20-30 miles of rough pave' over here is no problem to find at all!!!