Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

If you are planning a run up Reefton, just be careful, as I noticed last run up, that they had dumped a stack of blue metal at the bottom car park near the bridge in preperation for major roadworks. Also Gos n the boys ran into the start of some up there which he mentioned in another thread.

Not before time though, I reckon. The lines of hot tar dripped into the cracks are fine in summer, but are a tad skatey in the wet

Just think of how much fun it will be once they finish it!

Yes I saw the sign before wsbk. At least it's on the good bits only, not the very good ones

About bloody time too. It would be awesome if they brought it up to the standard of the black spur. But somehow i think that's just wishfull thinking. They really need to fix some of the road closer up to the Lake mountain turn off.

Yes, we ran into a *smallish* section of roadworks on the Wednesday before WSB weekend, not too far up the road from Marysville - the surface was *excellent* I wish they would do that up here.......

When we went through again on the Monday, the road crew had gone, and the new section was completed ( only about 500m if that) - those road works guys must be bikers, because the camber, finish etc was absolutely first-rate. Not *quite* as flash as the Black, but bloody close enough

There was a lot of road-base dumped at the first T-junction, where you turn off for the *good* bit........so they must have some *large* repairs planned.....

I can't wait for my next blast down there, you Vic's are lucky buggers to have both those sections on the one loop......

yeah

stay away from reefton for the next week or two
bloody Vicroads are gunna phark it all up
...gunna blue metal the WHOLE lot
so goodbye nice smooth surface



and lots of loose stuff while they do it
...bloody idiots

Yeah we are lucky. Although to do it properly ( i think) you need to put aside the whole day. It takes me about 45 min - an hour to get there and i take plenty of pit stop's during the day. I do about 2 or 3 run's through each. They're great fun. Won't be back for a while though, got to fix my baby first.

Smitty wrote:yeah

stay away from reefton for the next week or two
bloody Vicroads are gunna phark it all up
...gunna blue metal the WHOLE lot
so goodbye nice smooth surface



and lots of loose stuff while they do it
...bloody idiots

The good thing about the blue metal, is that it tends to melt less in hot weather, and in the wet it is really grippy, as the water drains from the surface quickly. I think the surface on the black spur wont take long to go all shiny.

While the roadworks are on, we will have to replace Reefton with either the Eildon Rd with the black, or for those who are keen, the Grand Ridge Rd is due for a pasting sometime soon.

The bad part of bluemetal is litre bikes get it stuck to there tyres in hot weather and spray it everywhere resulting in stone chips and theres a greener version of it thats slippery as in the wet.

Apparently before my time there was a finer version of it down the back of mt glourious then they went for courser stuff and i dont know if that was to make it faster or slower but higrip hotmix would have been nice.

If the road engineers really care but want to save a buck they could do the straight bits in bluemetal and do the reallly nice curvey bits in wider than normal hot mix, theres one of these at kennilworth in QLD think we called it motogp bend.

Its been too long for me maybe it will be finished by the time i have me and a bike on the road.

Strika wrote:The good thing about the blue metal, is that it tends to melt less in hot weather, and in the wet it is really grippy, as the water drains from the surface quickly. I think the surface on the black spur wont take long to go all shiny.

Strika
my neighbour..who is a road engineer with one of the companies
who contract to VicRoads has always told me........
Cured or seasoned hotmix (with no road marking) is the best surface
for bikes..wet or dry (he sez look at any racing circuit or PI for example)
but blue metal surfaces??
In the wet it provides LESS surface area grip for bike tyres (even if surface drainage is better) and
bike riders should take more care on open surface (coarse) blue metal roadmix when wet...coz its more slippery



will ask him about hot weather performance again
(I can't remember what he said )

cheers

I honestly can't see anything wrong with Reefton roads. They already wear the tyre nicely and my front now has slanted angle due to 2x reefton trip. Meaning grip is there...

Maybe should use the asphalt to do grand ridge rd. instead.

Strika u have too much time on ur hands to go riding

Smitty wrote:

Strika wrote:The good thing about the blue metal, is that it tends to melt less in hot weather, and in the wet it is really grippy, as the water drains from the surface quickly. I think the surface on the black spur wont take long to go all shiny.

Strika
my neighbour..who is a road engineer with one of the companies
who contract to VicRoads has always told me........
Cured or seasoned hotmix (with no road marking) is the best surface
for bikes..wet or dry (he sez look at any racing circuit or PI for example)
but blue metal surfaces??
In the wet it provides LESS surface area grip for bike tyres (even if surface drainage is better) and
bike riders should take more care on open surface (coarse) blue metal roadmix when wet...coz its more slippery



will ask him about hot weather performance again
(I can't remember what he said )

cheers

Smitty I totally agree with what he says. For sure a good hotmix is the ducks. But not many county or municipal councils have as little or light weighted traffic on it's roads as Phillip Island circuit, nor does it have the same intensive maintenance schedule! And when those shiny surfaces get wet they are skatey as fcuk! So a good Blue metal coat can be a great happy medium. Grippy enough for everyday gumbies like us on the dry days, and a whole lot better for all when it's wet!

Your mate may well be a hotmix expert, but I ride a muddaboik, and muddaboiks and their tyres like the stuff where the water has a place to go. They tend to allow the tyres to remain in contact with the road surface for longer periods before they fall over

You ridden Phillip Island in the wet???? It's feckin slippery let me tell ya. I don't think I have ever finished a wet race down there. I guess that means if its wet, don't follow me

now not being an asphalt expert like the rest of you seem to be I just need you to answer me one question. what did they use on the black spur? more of that on reefton will be fine thanks. It's grippy as hell in the wet or dry.

smek wrote:now not being an asphalt expert like the rest of you seem to be I just need you to answer me one question. what did they use on the black spur? more of that on reefton will be fine thanks. It's grippy as hell in the wet or dry.

For now!

The new spraypave surface change was great for leaving Darkies ... well so Gos reckons i was a bit busy looking for oncoming traffic to notice. I prefer Blackspur anywayhow.
Cheers Brett