Which road surface is more abrasive to clothing? Deakin research reveals the answer.

There are a range of different road surfaces out there that we ride on. 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.
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 key finding of this work was that chip seal surfaces were 4.5 times more abrasive than asphalt. A detailed summary of this work is given in Asphalt versus chip seal - Abrasion testing of motorcycle clothing on the two most common road surfaces (link to full video).
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.