Best traction material for bridges?

[John Harlow]

Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire and
shingles come to mind, what have you found to be most effective and durable (I want to do this job
only once)?

 

[Westie]

"John Harlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:7iTaa.25707$F1.864@sccrnsc04...
> Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire
> and shingles come to mind, what have you found to
be
> most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
>
>

The heavy duty chicken wire seems to be the best I've come across. But it tends to come loose if you
get horizontal movement across it ie. cornering/twisting/sliding forces. I've seen the ever-wise and
well-informed Dept. of Conservation use short strips of barbed wire stapled down and hammered flush.
Very effective but something tells me that you wouldn't want to use that...

Westie

 

[Clydesdalemtb]

John Harlow wrote:
> Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire
> and shingles come to mind, what have you found to be most effective and durable (I want to do this
> job only once)?

Skip the Chicken wire and get vinyl coated 1" grid. secure the ends well to the underside of
the tread.

 

[John Harlow]

"ClydesdaleMTB" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
>
> John Harlow wrote:
> > Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet"
wooden
> > bridges. Chicken wire and shingles come to mind, what have you found to
be
> > most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
>
> Skip the Chicken wire and get vinyl coated 1" grid. secure the ends well to the underside of
> the tread.

What is "vinyl coated 1" grid" - do you mean vinyl coated chain link fencing or something?

Wouldn't the vinyl wear off after significant traffic? Where I plan to install this there is very
heavy foot and bike traffic - perhaps a couple hundred users a day.

I'm thinking galvanized chain link fence might be nice and durable...

 

[John G]

John Harlow wrote:
> "ClydesdaleMTB" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
>>
>>John Harlow wrote:
>>
>>>Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet"
>>
> wooden
>
>>>bridges. Chicken wire and shingles come to mind, what have you found to
>>
> be
>
>>>most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
>>
>>Skip the Chicken wire and get vinyl coated 1" grid. secure the ends well to the underside of
>>the tread.
>
>
>
> What is "vinyl coated 1" grid" - do you mean vinyl coated chain link fencing or something?

Yes.

> Wouldn't the vinyl wear off after significant traffic?

Not in my experince.

>Where I plan to install this there is very heavy foot and bike traffic - perhaps a couple hundred
>users a day.

No problem, unless you also have pack stock (horses, etc.)

> I'm thinking galvanized chain link fence might be nice and durable...

And Fugly.....

 

[Jonathan Bond]

John Harlow wrote:
> Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire
> and shingles come to mind, what have you found to be most effective and durable (I want to do this
> job only once)?

For the wooden docks at my high school's boathouse, which often slope at a pretty good angle and
need a lot of grip for when its wet, we mix crushed walnut shells with paint. Makes for an extremely
grippy surface, and looks nice too. It will wear off after significant traffic, but it lasted about
5 years of heavy use at our boathouse, which includes over a hundred people walking on it at least
twice every day in the spring and fall, plus being submerged occasionally during flooding, plus
having metal motorboats being dragged down it (when the freshmen can't lift 'em up!) And it
certainly looks a heck of a lot nicer than metal or shingles stapled down!

I'm not sure what the proportions are, but it wouldn't be too hard to experiment.

Jon Bond

 

[roKeMS]

When we build Shore stuff here we use beer bottle caps and nail them in. They work realy well. Use those "U" nails so the caps can't get any play. Just knock the edges down slighty. It's all metal so wear isn't an issue. You can even skid along them and not worry about anything except your tyre.
Chicken wire is good also but you need to wrap the slats separately to get any good life out of it.


www.mountainbikepark.com

 

[Mr Chris]

shingles work well, but dont last long, perhaps because we raid them from the dump lol, the best
thing ive used was old mountain bike tires cut into what ever width you need. any bike shop has tons
of used tires if you dont have enough. but you can avoid all of this if you use split cedar for your
stunts. split cedar seems to provide the best traction wet or dry. the worst seems to be hardwood,
though pine gets pretty nasty also.

mr chris http://www.geocities.com/singlesprocket/

"John Harlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:7iTaa.25707$F1.864@sccrnsc04...
> Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire
> and shingles come to mind, what have you found to
be
> most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
>
>

 

[Clydesdalemtb]

roKeMS wrote:
> When we build Shore stuff here we use beer bottle caps and nail them in. They work realy well.
> Use those "U" nails so the caps can't get any play. Just knock the edges down slighty. It's all
> metal so wear isn't an issue. You can even skid along them and not worry about anything except
> your tyre.

What about it's abrasive properties when applied to skin/flesh?

 

[Mark Hickey]

ClydesdaleMTB <[email protected]> wrote:

>roKeMS wrote:
>> When we build Shore stuff here we use beer bottle caps and nail them in. They work realy well.
>> Use those "U" nails so the caps can't get any play. Just knock the edges down slighty. It's all
>> metal so wear isn't an issue. You can even skid along them and not worry about anything except
>> your tyre.

Yeah, I think I'd worry a bit about the ty... tires. Bottle caps are basically little knives, and
can slice up just about any tire if it catches it right.

>What about it's abrasive properties when applied to skin/flesh?

Eeeeek. When I lived in Florida, I'd ride across the steel grate bridges all the time. You'd
look down at the cheese grater surface and try NOT to think about the serious hurt you'd be in
if you fell. Picture a bunch of bear trap pedal material about 5x as big layed out in a grid on
3" / 8cm centers.

One day my wife and I were on an early morning ride on our road tandem, and it had just begun to
drizzle lightly. Just enough to liberate the film of oil that had been deposited on the surface of
the above-mentioned steel bridge surface.

Just entering the double span (a total of about 100 feet / 30 meters), I felt the back wheel break
loose. I arrested the motion of the pedals immediately (we always soft-pedal over the grating
anyway) and "got real still". That's when I felt the FRONT tire start to slide back and forth. Oops.
I yelled "DON'T MOVE" (though I'd have to type it in a 72 point bright red font to be accurate).
Carol hunkered down, closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

We continued sliding BOTH tires around all the way across the entire span, and exited the other side
swearing that we'd NEVER ride across one of those blasted things again unless it wasn't raining or
had been raining for a while. I'm sure there's NO way I would stayed up on a single - not enough
wheel base.

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame

 

[roKeMS]

Yeah, I think I'd worry a bit about the ty... tires. Bottle caps are basically little knives, and
can slice up just about any tire if it catches it right.

Nah - ya pack of girls. Shin guards save you but we've all fallen on the caps here with no flesh damage as such. If you bash them down to almost flat they offer excellent traction.

 

[Westie]

"John Harlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:eV0ba.29279$F1.1868@sccrnsc04...
>
> "ClydesdaleMTB" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >
> >
> > John Harlow wrote:
> > > Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet"
> wooden
> > > bridges. Chicken wire and shingles come to mind, what have you found
to
> be
> > > most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
> >
> > Skip the Chicken wire and get vinyl coated 1" grid. secure the ends well to the underside of the
> > tread.
>
>
> What is "vinyl coated 1" grid" - do you mean vinyl coated chain link
fencing
> or something?
>
> Wouldn't the vinyl wear off after significant traffic? Where I plan to install this there is very
> heavy foot and bike traffic - perhaps a couple hundred users a day.
>
> I'm thinking galvanized chain link fence might be nice and durable...
>

It's very slippery when wet. The galvanised wire gets polished with use and is dreadful in wet
conditions.

Westie

 

[Michael Dart]

"John Harlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:7iTaa.25707$F1.864@sccrnsc04...
> Looking for suggestions on covering some quite "slippery when wet" wooden bridges. Chicken wire
> and shingles come to mind, what have you found to
be
> most effective and durable (I want to do this job only once)?
>
>
>

If you've ridden at Pocahontas SP then you may have seen the vinyl coated chicken wire on the
bridges. It has been there since 1998 and is holding up quite well. The problem is I don't know
where to get more of it. We've looked everywhere in Richmond for it.

Mike

 

[John Harlow]

> If you've ridden at Pocahontas SP then you may have seen the vinyl coated chicken wire on the
> bridges. It has been there since 1998 and is holding
up
> quite well. The problem is I don't know where to get more of it. We've looked everywhere in
> Richmond for it.

Yes; I do remember seeing that there - I wasn't aware it was vinyl coated (didn't stop to look
actually). We're considering doing the same to the Buttermilk bridges and a new one to be built in
Powhite. Just came back not an hour ago from doing some maintenance in Powhite; cut up a looong tree
which fell across a trail and made another log pile out of the pieces.

How was the ski trip?

 

[Michael Dart]

"John Harlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > If you've ridden at Pocahontas SP then you may have seen the vinyl
coated
> > chicken wire on the bridges. It has been there since 1998 and is
holding
> up
> > quite well. The problem is I don't know where to get more of it. We've looked everywhere in
> > Richmond for it.
>
> Yes; I do remember seeing that there - I wasn't aware it was vinyl coated (didn't stop to look
> actually). We're considering doing the same to the Buttermilk bridges and a new one to be built in
> Powhite. Just came back
not
> an hour ago from doing some maintenance in Powhite; cut up a looong tree which fell across a trail
> and made another log pile out of the pieces.
>

Good work. I really like the last log pile you and Mark W. made.

> How was the ski trip?
>

Ski trip was awesome! First time out west. Survived a couple of real 'black diamond' slopes.

You up for a ride this weekend?

Mike