Road salt?

Put this on the facebook page and a comment has been made that it could be the start of an interesting debate

I am new to this site and want to post an observation. I don't know why it is but the roads around the Melksham Area seemed to afford better grip today. I rode from Melksham, to Swindon and then to Reading. The roads in Reading seemed a lot greasier compared to local ones. I wonder why this is, I have heard of some councils now use `liquid' salt that is combined with other chemicals. These other chemicals are reported to have properties that make the stay on the roads longer. Maybe Melksham still uses good old fashioned road salt. If this is the case we need to keep an eye on this and try to discourage the local councils from changing. Just a thought, could be rubbish of course. See you at a ride out/meeting soon.

Let the fun commence

Keith C

Really interesting mate, thanks for posting. I've not really thought about different types of road salt but it doesn't surprise me that there must be cheaper options available to councils. I suspect all are probably subject to safety tests but yours is a very interesting direct comparison if this is the cause of the difference in grip

More traffic in Reading, so there's more oil, rubber and other gunk on the road to make them slippy. It hasn't rained that much in the last few days to wash it all away either.

This link may have the answer www.saltassociation.co.uk never realised there was a club!

I had noticed over the last five or more years that salted roads appeared to stay wet and shiny even on otherwise dry and sunny days. Wet and shiny also equals slippery! But recently the roads around Devizes, Westbury etc seem not to do this but return to the 'old fashioned' white and dusty state when dry, so improving grip no end! So maybe an experiment, or means of reducing cost?

It depends on the humidity in the air - if its high a salted road stays wet because it absorbs moisture, if its low it stays dry.

It's also because the salt is mixed with cellulose to make it stick better to the road surface.
This cellulose carrier has only been added in the last few years (as far as I am aware)

The problem with this adherent is that it makes it stuck to bloody everything !!!

Plus it turns into a slime once it warms up and dries out a little.

Keith C

Wouldn't you have thought that by now they would have come up with a better safer option. A lot of European countries don't use it.

They have been mixing the salt with Mollasses for years, especially in Nam. Barstewards caused me to low speed high side on the bridge centre roundabout Nov 2013 :(