i ride my fs mtb on the road at time. i have noticed a lot of pot holes, grates that are a couple of inches below road level and generally just bad road conditions. my question is when the roads are busy how do you roadies avoid these bike damaging dangers? have any of you ever bent a wheel after being given the choice getting crashed into or go down the pot hole.

just wondering how fragile road bikes stand up to uk roads?

Awareness. Good positioning.

And bunny-hops.

you get to know safe roads

you ride far enough out to have space to move

you look ahead

just wondering how fragile road bikes stand up to uk roads

Road bikes aren’t fragile, basically. Cross bikes are essentially just road bikes with thicker tyres and they cope with the 3 peaks without much issue.

See the Tour of Flanders, see Paris-Roubaix etc..

you ride far enough out to have space to move

sometimes i find my self pushed against the curb with no wear to mofve and i am forced to ride into potholes ect. not an issue i have 180mm travel but a road but is a completely different thing

Learn to ride in the correct part of the road.

Road bikes aren’t fragile, basically.

+1

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmJtYaUTa0[/video]

Hit a massive pothole yesterday and jolted both hands off the hoods, somehow I didn’t crash (nearly headbutted stem!) but certainly made my bum go funny.

Blinded by a bastard with full beams on, apparently you don’t need to switch them off for cyclists.

Learn to ride in the correct part of the road

but then cars cant get past when traffic is coming other way. its amazing how many near head-ons you see from the saddle

[img]http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/131/351/eb6.jpg?1307463786[/img]

by riding in to the left near the kerb you a facilititaing these near head ons ……

druidh – i was just about to google for that image – do you store the link on your desk top 😉

Blinded by a bastard with full beams on, apparently you don’t need to switch them off for cyclists.

I had this yesterday after considerately turning my magicshine down to low and aiming it down at the ground when I saw the light from the car. So I whacked it up to full and pointed it forwards. Once the paint started blistering off his car he got the message and dipped his lights. 😈

But for the OPs question, it’s already been answered, look ahead, anticipate, bunny hop if you have too, but something’s gone wrong if you’ve got to that point.

I hit a pothole at abuot 25-30mph once. The jolt through the bars and seat was so hard that it winded me. The bike was fine, tubes unpunctured, wheels unbuckled, carbon frame un-melted/splintered.

you ride far enough out to have space to move

This.
.
However, at night I prefer the SS MTB on the road. Not seeing pothole is much less likely to end badly.
Also, lots of hand signals and shouting when riding in a bunch.

watsontony – Member

“Learn to ride in the correct part of the road”

but then cars cant get past when traffic is coming other way. its amazing how many near head-ons you see from the saddle

If you move over into the centre a bit more it stops people squeezing past when there is traffic coming the other way and you won’t see as many near head-ons. Unless you share your commute with the same Lexus driver I do, he’s made oncoming cars stop a few times overtaking when there’s no gap.

Riding more centrally (I aim for where the inside of the car’s passenger side tyre would be) also means that when idiots do cut in you’ve got space to your left to move across.

EDIT – slow typing 😥

not trolling. i like to be as out the way as possible. why should i ride in the middle of the road? (genuine question)

to stop this

find my self pushed against the curb with no wear to move

demand the space you are entitled to.

Oi you nanny goats move along nothing to see here.

not trolling. i like to be as out the way as possible. why should i ride in the middle of the road? (genuine question)

For your own safety. If it’s obvious they can’t fit passed when there is something coming the other way they are less likely to try.
I aim for about where the L is when SLOW is written on the road, seems to work. I move out more when I really don’t want them coming passed, blind bend, traffic island etc and in again when I can see it’s clear. Also, if they do misjudge it you have room to your left to go to.

If you’re not trolling, read Craftcraft. Rough guide to how to ride safely.

Otherwise get back under your bridge, there are some billy goats need munching.

this just reminds me why i gave up road cycling…

so you dont see a correlation between your behaviour on the roads and what your seeing when you ride ?

Not this crap again. Cyclists are traffic – ride as if you are traffic. You’re not holdng up traffic – you are traffic.

DONT RIDE IN THE GUTTER

Cyclists are traffic – ride as if you are traffic. You’re not holdng up traffic – you are traffic.

will keep this in mind

Cyclists are traffic – ride as if you are traffic. You’re not holdng up traffic – you are traffic.

Unfortunately not many other road users agree / know this but thats another story…

I have teh awsum skillz.

I can even manage the braking bumps at Cannock without body armour.

Back to the original question, road bikes are a lot tougher than they look.

I’ve ridden round London, Cheshire & Walsh country lanes, countless cattle grids, cobbles and all sorts of crappy road surfaces and my wheels are as true and straight as the day I got them and you’d never know that the frame had been ridden once its cleaned up.

I rode down the south side of Loch Ness yesterday. I have a mirror and spotted a car approaching. I have to admit I don’t always keep out as far as most of you aim for but the road where the car passed me was fairly wide (enough for a bus to pass me safely) but the dottled old goat cruised past about 40-45 and nearly clipped me. Some folk don’t get it. They pass after slowing down but still do it very close.

This is why I love riding offroad without having to worry about these things.

By being awesome

If you’re not trolling, read Craftcraft. Rough guide to how to ride safely.

Or, of course, Guy Martin’s GraftCraft, the rough guide on proper ‘ard wurk.

Awareness. Good positioning.

And bunny-hops

By being awesome

Hit a huge pothole on Monday, pitch flat both tyres and forced the bars to rotate. scared the crap out of me as it’s a bit of road I cycle everyday. It would appear that some earlier road works around a drain cover had not been covered…

Also had a similar thing on a club run last week when a chap hit a big pothole and bent his wheel so bad it hit the forks when moving around 😯

how do u roadies do it? UK roads

A large portion of us are bad asses. Not sure how the others (the smaller portion) get on. But I don’t really care.