Riding at roundabouts

Roundabouts are the new fashion in modern cities nowadays. They reduce the traffic lights that need to be maintained and controlled; and they offer a wide variety of possibilities as you can install statues or even grow gardens in their inner circles. For crossroads they are intended to reduce the danger of these junctions and to reduce the number of accidents. However, they represent another danger, specially to bikers.

I have investigated a bit about them, on the Costa del Sol are the solutions of all Town Halls so there's an issue about them. The tarmac on them is normally slippery and causes many drifts, specially on the rear tyre. If it's raining you have to pay a special attention to this if you don't want to fall down.

Grippin on the asphalt is a matter of the quality of the gravel used on its composition. The best tarmac is that one with stones big enough to make you stand on it safely. But roundabouts don't have this gravel and that's what make them so slippery. Instead, smaller pieces of stone are used to give it a smoother surface. The reason for this is not just that they want bikers to fall down or to see cars drifting and crashing... the key is the power of torsion on the tarmac, specially by the heaviest vehicles.

When a trailer takes a roundabout it creates a force that twists the ground. Even though the smaller gravel composition of tarmac is smoother, is also more resistant to this effort. So in order to avoid reparations in the future they make it so slippery.

So due to the heaviest, the lightiest have to suffer from this inconvenient. So take care on them, specially if the ground is wet or if it's the beginning of rain. Many cars crash into the gardens of the roundabouts and brake their engines there, so you would probably find many oil stains everywhere that will come out with the first drops of rain. As I see it, riding through a roundabout is like riding on ice, keep a long gear and cross your fingers!