Asphalt and chip seal are the two most widely used road surfaces in Australia and New Zealand. Asphalt has a negative texture as the bitumen and aggregate is mixed and spread over the road base. Chip seal has a positive texture as the bitumen is sprayed onto the road base and then the aggregate is spread onto it to. How these surfaces interact with motorcycle clothing is important as some roads may pose a higher risk to riders in a crash than others. The texture of the surface influences the level of cutting and abrasion damage that can occur to motorcycle clothing during a slide.
Motorcycle clothing is made from a range of different materials including leather, textiles and high-performance fibres. Strength, thickness, structure and material type all have an influence on how a material will perform in a crash.
An abrasion tester was developed by Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials to analyse the effects road surfaces have on different motorcycle clothing materials. It replicates the Cambridge-type laboratory abrasion tester and enables a direct comparison between the laboratory and real-world abrasion of motorcycle clothing. The video shows how protective textiles, leather and para-aramid lined protective denim perform on an asphalt and chip seal surface.
The key findings were:
Chip seal was 4.5 times more abrasive than asphalt.
Single layers of 500D nylon and 600D polyester protective textiles provided minimal abrasion resistance on both surfaces.
Leather and the protective denim measured both provided good abrasion resistance on both surfaces tested.
The laboratory test machine provided similar times to hole as the chip seal used in this research.
This research was conducted by Deakin University on roads in Victoria, Australia. It was funded by the Motorcycle Safety Levy and managed by the Department of Transport and Planning and Vicroads.